SELOC are putting on a slightly unusual event in June, offering the possibility of a sprint orienteering race with the option of also participating in a nationally recognised 5K road race. This could be either individually or as part of a team.
The event is part of the Festival of Racing staged annually in Horwich, Bolton. Main roads around the town are closed for the day to create a race circuit which is used to put on two 5K road races, a fun run, a race walk and a number of cycling races. The organisers have asked us to help them add orienteering to this mix, and Peel Land Surveys have produced a 1:4000 map to ISSOM standards so we can do that.
The orienteering will take place on the streets and alleyways inside the triangle created by the race circuit and in an adjacent park. It will include a large labyrinth built for the day. Since some of the streets will contain moving traffic, we are restricting participation in the main Town Sprint orienteering race (just one course with some butterfly loops to break things up) to over 16’s only. There will, however, be a simpler Park Race course wholly within the park to about Orange standard, open to all and aimed at novices though it will make extensive use of the labyrinth.
So far, interesting but not all that unusual.
We recognise that many orienteers will not wish to travel too far simply to run in a sprint race with a 15 minute winning time. We also recognise that there are many orienteers who can put in a very respectable time over 5K – probably to the surprise of many road runners who think we are a bit pedestrian even when not stopping for our sandwiches halfway round the course!
We have therefore added a Team Challenge for teams of three, primarily from orienteering and running clubs. Simply based on the total time of all three team members over both the main Town Sprint orienteering course and 5K road race, we hope it will help road runners see orienteers, and orienteering, in a new light. To add more spice, there will be decent prizes for the first three teams.
Entries should be made individually, with team declarations at registration on the day. You can enter just the orienteering race via www.fabian4.co.uk, but to take advantage of the discounted entry fee for both orienteering and 5K race then please go via www.race-results.co.uk or by post. For more information please see
www.seloc.org.uk/horwich, www.horwichfestivalofracing.co.uk or www.lostockac.co.uk.