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Race Across EdinburghSat 21 Jun

Last updated: Tue 24 June, 2025

Local event

Terrain type: Parkland

Results

Results are here

Winsplits (Parks summary only) are here

Officials' Reports

For anyone who would like analyse the results, this guide (written for non-orienteers) explains how you can look at the results on SI timing (link in the Results section) and see which splits refer to travel times between parks and which are the individual O courses, and compare these to other teams.

Organiser's/Planner's report

When the committee were looking for a memorable event to celebrate ESOCs 60th Anniversary, my husband Ronnie came up with the concept of Race Across Edinburgh, inspired by the TV series Race Across The World. Originally we thought of using the MapRun app but it was felt more fun could be had if we kept competitors in suspense until the end of each individual course and using 'O' kites made it more like a traditional orienteering event. Like, Race Across The World, we would ban the use of mobile phones, this was later altered to allow them, in flight mode, to enable teams to take photographs.

We wanted to use 60 controls to represent each year of ESOC and felt that a time limit of 6 hours was about right, especially given that we had a celebratory ceilidh to attend afterwards. Hence 6 courses, 60 controls in 6 hours. In order for the event to be inclusive, it was thought that the optimum route on each course should be approximately 1mile and that controls should be no more than TD3.

Herriot Watt University campus was selected as the start venue, there was an up to date map, from the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) the previous year and had plenty of parking with good transport links. We wanted to take visitors into the city, hence using Princes Street Gardens, another WOC map. Unfortunately Edinburgh Council said that the bandstand was to be used that day so we could not use the park but Janet Clark sweet talked them into giving us permission as long as we avoided the bandstand. Hailes Quarry, Saughton Park, The Hermitage of Braid and Spylaw Park were all ESOC maps and formed a nice loop. Start locations were chosen to allow, in some cases, to be near toilets and cafe for the helpers and competitors alike, as we new that it would be a long day for both. Bus routes from previous and next locations were also considered, ideally we wanted a one bus option to be possible.

Different options were researched for creating a map of Edinburgh and although it was easy to produce one in digital format, it proved more difficult to fit all the information needed onto an A1 sheet. Plan B was instigated which was to provide each team with an A-Z, as soon as entries closed these were ordered. Unknown to us and to the customer services agent's dismay, because Harper Collins were moving warehouses these only arrived Thursday lunchtime before the event! Therefore it was not discovered until 5 minutes before the start that some of them were missing the front overview and last index pages! Luckily my son, Craig suggested that teams with the missing pages take a photograph of them, hopefully this did not spoil anyone's enjoyment of the event.

The bus route was tested, it took 3 1/4 hours to go by bus, slowly walking from the bus stop to the starts and back to a bus stop, without going round the courses. It was imagined that the courses could be ran in around10 minutes by a fast orienteer and Winsplits show that this was more or less achieved. If a young elite male had ran the course, they probably could have achieved nearer 2 1/2 hours. However it confirmed that the 6 hour time limit would be manageable by most people. The event was won in 3 hours 7 seconds, only one team didn't finish and they were travelling with a young child in a buggy! Two teams missed the cut off of 6 hours but this was because of delays in the 45 bus and since it was due at Riccarton at 4pm, it had been decided that anyone on this bus would not be disqualified. Only one team chose to run the whole route and they finished in 3 hours 23 minutes and 52 seconds, 5th place overall!

We knew that the club did not have 60 SI units and did not want to leave them out for several hours, hence the use of control cards. We did not want to have 78 teams all going to the same first control so decided to make Riccarton a scatter course, this also spread the teams out so that we didn't have 180+ people trying to catch the same bus or in one teams case, the train from Curriehill station. The train had been considered as an option, but since the train station was 1km away and the trains to Hailes Quarry were only every hour, it was though unlikely to be useful. However our club president Walter and his daughter Zoe, chose that method of travel and were 2nd to arrive at Hailes Quarry so it obviously paid off. For safety and in order to give splits for each element of the event, we chose to use SI units at the start and finish of each course. Gordon Neilson had the job of making the software do what we wanted, adding in the 15 minute penalty for missing a single control and 90 minutes for missing a park. This meant that even if you couldn't finish all courses in 6 hours you wouldn't be disqualified and get a finishing position.

Next was to get volunteers, it was thought that each park could be run with 1 or 2 marshals but am glad that we had 3, as at some points, when a bus arrived, it was manic! From the video diaries made and stories told after the event, the busses seemed to be fun and buzzing with excitement, which we hope was worth the busy starts. We can not thank enough all the volunteers who gladly offered to give up their day to help. They put out, collected and manned the starts at their respective parks, so were there much longer than the time between the first teams arriving and last teams leaving. We had set up a WhatsApp group for the volunteers to communicate any teams that had not started, when the first and last teams had left their park, so the next park knew when to expect runners. An estimate of first arrivals had been made for each park and I think that the predicted timings were quite close.

Early on Decathlon Edinburgh was approached for sponsorship and they agreed to provide goodie bags for each team and prizes, we are grateful for their support. A memento was researched and The Workshop Aberfeldy was commissioned to create the wooden coasters. They are a social enterprise, supporting young disadvantaged people into employment, by offering free training and work experience and we were delighted with the quality of product. These items were handed out at registration which was encouraged the night before, it does take a long time to check information from 78 teams and hand out goodie bags to them all. Thankfully half of the teams managed to do this which meant we just managed to get all teams into the start pen before the race briefing commenced on Saturday. We were fortunate to be provided with speakers, music and microphone from Alan Ramsay who entered a family team into the event. This greatly added to the atmosphere of the event.

Because we had never had an event like this before there was a lot of information on the website and in the final details, Jayne MacGregor put a huge amount of time into getting all the entries and information correct, this was very much appreciated. Jayne and Gordon were also great at pre-empting any issues that may have occurred during the event.

A couple of ideas to improve the format were, making all the courses a scatter format like Riccarton, to reduce the amount of following and having a some final controls back at Riccarton, so that the last element was orienteering rather than being a sprint from the bus stop!

It was definitely a memorable event and rounded off with an excellent ceilidh in the evening, we thanks everyone for making it a success.

Helena Nolan

Overview

A unique event, for pairs or families, based on the TV series Race Across the World, one of a series of activities to celebrate ESOC's 60th Anniversary in 2025.  Subject to final permissions.

See How It Will Work in the Course information section.

There will be prizes for the top 3 places in each category, Veterans prizes in both Local and Visitor categories and a goodie bag for all, sponsored by Decathlon.

Final Details document is here RAE Final Details

Location Info

Near: Edinburgh
Lat,Lng: 55.9166,-3.3144
Postcode: EH14 4AQ
What3Words: ///zones.live.cult%

Open an interactive map in:
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Dog restrictions

We recommend that dogs are not included in the competition. Although dogs are allowed on Lothian buses it is at the driver's discretion and at busy times eg a Saturday in summer, they may be refused access. If you do bring your dog it must be on a lead at all times.

Contacts / Officials

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Nearest A&E Hospital

See details in Important Event Information panel