Brighton City Race 2019Sat 21 December, 2019

Near: Brighton
Level of event: Regional
Type of event: Race, Night, Urban, Social, Juniors

Results

Report

Final results loaded.

Organiser's report: Thanks to everyone who supported yesterday’s event. It’s great to have a social opportunity and to be able catch up with people at this time of year. I’m glad the train arrangements worked out OK; it was a bit of a shame though about the heavy rain that started just ahead of the off.

Thanks to Neil Crickmore for the mapping as well as for the planning. Over the last decade the map has grown to cover a large part of Brighton and Hove and this must have involved hundreds of hours of work alongside planning the dozens of courses. Congratulations to Neil for this achievement.

Thanks also to Karen Ashworth who has been our safety officer for the majority of the 11 events and this year took a particular interest in the risk of a fire at the school. Kieran Devine was our Controller for the first time this year. Hopefully the first of many!

It’s a large team that makes the Brighton City Race happen. Thanks then to: Sue Crickmore for help with control hanging; the SI team of Les Coles, Ralph Philips, Penny Parker and Bridget Hooper; refreshments from Clare Lines; and on the day help from Kenny Leitch (clothing dump), Angela Darley and Tim Bartlett (junior marshals), and Kerria Rowan, Edward and Alexander Lines.

Next years’ event is on Saturday 19 December 2020. We are sure to be back in the Lanes which incidentally have changed significantly since their last use in 2018. Hope to see you back in Brighton then if not before.

Happy Christmas

Rob.

Planner's report. Let's start with the apologies, I managed to forget to turn the finish controls to beacon mode so the order of some sprint finishes may not have ended up as expected. In a particularly heavy shower around noon I managed to place control 77 on the wrong lamppost which gave a slight advantage to those that chose the more eastern routes on this runner's choice leg. Listening to comments at the finish the runner's choice added an extra element to the race - I don't know if anyone risked a different route just to try and get ahead of someone just ahead of them. For those that are interested, for the two control 87s the northern route is shorter by about 40m. For the 100s the western route via the fenced enclosure is 50m shorter than the one in the park, the middle control was the worst option. For 101 the northern route is 30m shorter but does involve a bit more climb. Almost no difference for the two 96 routes. When we knew that the event would clash with the Burning of the Clocks parade we decided to move the event to Hove and give regulars some new terrain to run around. Unfortunately we couldn't secure a decent venue there, and given that our usual venue was keen to have us back, Rob came up with the train plan. From a planning perspective this provided some challenges - mainly how to get competitors back to the centre but still with an interesting course. There is not much technical orienteering in the streets of Hove so I wanted to get competitors bouncing around the various parks, I also tried hard to get access to the county cricket ground but failed. Courses 1 and 2 had reasonable variety but 3&4 were probably a little short changed. Unfortunately the unusually heavy rain that we have had recently meant that the parks were just so muddy, by the time I collected the controls in around 8pm, there was standing water on many of the straight line routes. There has been quite a bit of development on the front in the last year which the juniors and hypervets got to enjoy - perhaps I'll let everyone else see this next year.

RouteGadget

Is a web app for sharing and comparing orienteering routes. You can draw your own route or upload a GPS track from your watch. It also allows you to watch an animated replay with a simulated mass start.

Read more about RouteGadget…

Pre event info

Final details are now available.

Maps available as of 23:00 on Friday 20 December 2019:

  • Course1 - 4 maps
  • Course2 - 6 maps
  • Course3 - 5 maps
  • Course4 - 4 maps
  • Course5 - 9 maps

Entries remain open on Fabian4 until the maps run out.

The Brighton City Race is Southdown Orienteer's annual Christmas Urban Event. Featuring a mass start, participants visit checkpoints around the city and compete to complete the course in the shortest time.

This year's City Race takes place on the same evening as Brighton's annual parade Burning the Clocks. The parade attracts upwards of 10,000 spectators and the city becomes busy in the early evening. For this reason, the start time of the city race has been brought forward by two hours and the race will start in the west of the city. Prizegiving for the city race will take place at 18.15 and participants will be able to watch the parade which passes close to Assembly 25 minutes later. More information about Burning the Clocks can be found by following the link.

Location Info

Nearest town: Brighton

* Postcodes are not very precise in some areas, so don't rely on them for an exact location.

Directions / Parking

Final Details

Assembly for the Brighton City Race will be at Middle Street School and will open at 15.00. All participants should aim to arrive at the school by 15.30 to attend a briefing and to pick up their numbered bibs. Toilets and refreshments will be available. There are separate starts for juniors and adult competitors. Adults will take the 16.32 train from Brighton station to a start location in Hove. The junior start will be at 17.00, close to Assembly.

There will be a limited clothing dump at Hove station, with transport provided to take light apparel back to Brighton. The finish for all courses will be near to Assembly. For adult competitors, the run will take around 40 minutes to complete with course lengths from 10km-4km depending on age class. Each course will feature 15-25 checkpoints that will need to be visited somewhere en route between Hove and Brighton. More information to follow, with final details available one week ahead of the competition. Fees are £10 (£5 U25s) until 7 December 2019. Late entry fees are £11 (£5) until 14 December 2019. After that entries will be £12 (£6) whilst maps remain available.

Entries are now open at Fabian4 and the 2019 running of the Brighton City Race promises to be a memorable night out for all.

Course Information

Competitors on the senior courses (except Hypervets) will assemble at Middle Street School before making their way to Brighton Station to take the train to the start. The Junior and Hypervet classes will start closer to the event centre.

Entry Details

Entries are via Fabian4. Fees are £11 (U25 £5) until 14 December 2019. After that, entries will be £12 (£6) whilst maps remain available. SO Juniors can use helper code SOJuniorFreeRun until 14 December 2019.

Registration

Via Fabian4 from 1 November 2019

Start Times

Assembly at Middle Street School from 15.00. Train from Brighton at 16.32.

Map Details

1:5,000 with 5m contours

Terrain Description

Urban mix of shopping streets, residential neighbourhoods and city parks.

Dog restrictions

Sorry, no dogs.

Facilities

Assembly is at Middle Street School which features music, refreshments, toilets and prize-giving.

Miscellaneous

The earlier start time this year will allow participants to experience the Burning the Clocks event https://samesky.co.uk/events/b...which starts at 6:30pm

Contacts / Officials

Planner: Neil Crickmore

Organiser: Robert Lines

Controller: Kieran Devine