Blog: johnloguk

GLASGOW CITY RACE - 8.7.07

Last weekend was a classic for any sports fans. The British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with a genuine chance for a British victory through Lewis Hamilton. Wimbledon finals on both days, including another chance for a rare British victory. The Tour de France starting in London for the frst time, with the Prologue Time Trial in the City itself, then the first full stage racing through the Kent countyside to Canterbury. There was also talk of British victories on Le Tour, but sadly neither Bradley Wiggins nor David Millar could quite manage it. At Silverstone Lewis gave it his best shot, but Raikkonen was just too quick and an attack of nerves in the pits didn't help his cause. Over at Wimbledon Venus Williams was still screeching on most points, but I thought I detected a far more modest and gracious attitude than maybe she has shown in the past? The Federer/Nadal final was everything we had hoped for, and more. Then Jamie Murray and Yelena Jankovic held their nerves to get that elusive British/Serbian win in the mixed doubles. Am I the only person to be a bit embarrassed by the attitude of our media, who made everything of the British element of this win, but completely ignored the fact that Serbians must be equally proud?

Anyway, I digress. With all of this fantastic sport going on I suspect most people who couldn't get to any of the big events would have been glued to their TVs, gorging on the feast infront of them. I on the other hand drove 300 miles to Glasgow for a race that lasted less than an hour, then drove back again! Why?

Well I am an orienteering nut, and Glasgow was hosting the second race in the UK Cities Cup, a series of 6 urban based orienteering races. The setting for the race was the west end of Glasgow, with the start and finish in Kelvingrove Park. Forget all your pre-conceived ideas about Glasgow, Kelvingrove Park is truly beautiful and this corner of the city is riddled with history and secluded little corners.

Urban orienteering has the same principles as any orienteering race, navigating around a course as fast as you can using a special map. The map is incredibly detailed, at a scale of 1:5000, where 1cm on the map equals 50 metres on the ground. Every nook and cranny, every alleyway, street, path, building and even every large tree and bush is mapped. The course was "only" 5.2km long, but that is the straight line distance and the reality would be considerably more once you've run round the buildings and found the river crossings.

Competitors started at 1 minute intervals, and by the time I got to the start line it was obvious that the first control, a boulder, was off to the left and down a small path into an area of trees and bushes. I set off, trying to read the map on the run as I headed into the bushes. The path split after a few metres, and there to the right was the control by the boulder. I touched the electronic "brick" in the palm of my hand to the control, and set off for the second one. These "bricks" are like thick credit cards, they record your time and prove that you visited the right controls in the correct order. At the end you download the information into a computer.

The second control wasn't far away, on the side of a fountain, then it was diagonally uphill across the park to the third at the end of a thicket. At this point I saw the person who had started a minute ahead of me, and knew I was catching her up. The 4th control was up a very steep grassy bank. There was no way I could run up it, so I put my hands on my knees and dug in deep. I noticed the woman ahead of me had drifted way off to the right to avoid the steepest bit of the climb, and that meant that I overtook her before the next control. I knew that there were some very fast orienteers competing, so I expected to be caught myself pretty soon, so it was nice to overtake someone else first.

There was one more control in the park, then it was up some huge "Rocky-like" steps and into the old town. It always seems odd running through a city on an event like this, but members of the public generally totally ignore us, as though nothing is unusual anymore! Much of the navigation in a city race is quite simple, just keep your map round the right way and make sure you are running down the right street. But a good planner will also throw in some very nasty legs, where the obvious route might lead you to a dead end if you're not careful, or maybe there will be 2 or 3 possible routes that all look similar in length. The trick is to pick the fastest route without spending too much time standing still working it out. It is often best to pick a route and go for it, rather than stand still thinking about the choices. But that can lead to disaster!

I was going fine until the leg between 14 and 15. No one had caught me yet and I was navigating cleanly. The obvious route to 15 came to an impassable wall, so that was a no-no then. I thought I had spotted a narrow alley that looked like it led round the back and into the courtyard with the control, but 2 minutes later I realised that I was still the wrong side of the big wall. Screaming "damn" out loud I turned tail and set off on the roundabout correct route! Two people overtook me while I was making that mistake, and I had to be very careful not to let myself get distracted by it. The next few legs took us up and over a hill, hard work on the legs and I slowed considerably. Then we had to work our way back over it, nasty planner!

As we approached the last few controls back in the park I thought I had spotted a good short cut. The obvious route along the river didn't have any steps to get back up to the road that led to our control. I'd spotted a gate at the top of a steep bank that did get onto the road. It was hard work on the slippery bank, but I thought it was worth it at the time, and the last few controls came easily. It was only at the finish, when everyone was comparing routes and mistakes, that I noticed there was another route along the river that led straight to the control and avoided the horrible steep bank. It was a bit further but almost certainly quicker. Ho hum, never mind, compliments to the planner for that one.

Anyway, I enjoyed my run in a brilliant area that was totally new to me. I was disappointed with my time of just over 50 minutes, and knew that I had made at least 5 minutes worth of mistakes. Murray Strain had the fastest time of just over 30 minutes, no surprise then that he is in the British squad for the World Champs in Kiev next month. Similarly, Helen Palmer, the winner of the women's race is also Kiev bound with the GB squad. I wonder if there is another sport where the average "club competitor" competes on the same course at the same time as the best in their sport? There were certainly no ordinary drivers racing round Silverstone after the Ferraris, and no club tennis players followed Federer and Nadal onto Centre Court.

More details on the full UK Cities Cup can be found at

http://www.citiescup.nopesport.com/index.html

it is the ideal start for someone thinking about trying orienteering, and it is fun for spectators too, give it a go. Coming to a City near you soon!

by johnloguk on 11:48 on 12th July 2007