Park Series Race 2 – Queen Mary University

Tuesday 8 July 2008

Organiser's comments

I hope you enjoyed this race, in a part of London not noted for its classic orienteering venues. The survey for the map only started two 
weeks ago, and was completed in a week, after working through several nights. Mile End Park was added to lengthen the long course 
and allow the runners to get up some speed, before hopefully confusing them again at the end.

The race served a dual purpose – to experience the QM campus which I have always thought would make an exciting “mini-sprint”, and to test out the cartography and printing, neither of which used OCAD, ahead of the City of London Race in October, which will use the same technique. If you have any observations about the cartography of the map, please let me know (email address below) so that I can make the City of London map better.

More people than expected came and braved the East End, perhaps due to the nice weather – we virtually ran out of long course maps.

The only real problem was Control 13 ending up in the water and affecting a few people – thanks to those who fished it out of the lake and returned it to its correct place. The control wasn’t properly secured to the tree because the tree girth was larger than I had realised, hence why the local youth took the opportunity to send it for a swim.

Also, the marquee around Control 2 suddenly appeared a few hours before the event – hopefully not putting too many people off.

A few people took the “direct” route from 8-9 on the long course, which crosses an uncrossable fence. Because the details didn’t make it clear that this was ISSOM, where uncrossable = do not cross!, I have not disqualified these people. It’s quite obvious who did it if you look at the WinSplits for the event, though!

Despite the problems with Control 13, it looks like using metal cable and cable bolts is a good, cheap, unobtrusive and lightweight way of securing controls in urban areas, I may look into investing in these for the City Race.

Thanks to: George for starting everyone off, and everyone who collected in controls, especially Iain and George who braved Mile End Park at dusk to dismantle the secured controls.

Found: Pair of sunglasses in soft black pouch. Contact mail @ oliverobrien.co.uk to claim.

Oliver O’Brien