This is the coolest orienteering race I have taken part in. Ever.
When I first competed, two years ago, I loved the idea of urban orienteering so much that I started competing in the national league, travelling over the country to compete in urban races. But nothing has bested the Norwich City Race.
For those unfamiliar with urban orienteering (aka sprint orienteering), it is similar to normal orienteering but over a shorter distance with far more controls, meaning the legs are typically very short. But don’t let that fool you; the urban environment the courses are planned in makes the whole run extremely technical. Ultimately, urban orienteering is snappy but technical, leading to an incredibly fast paced run with split second decisions. I love it.
But the Norwich city race is always so dynamic; so many different levels, alleys, paths through the shopping centre, and more. Today I had several underground controls, ran through several buildings, had to navigate through various levels of buildings and jumped up walls.
Starting off in a park, I dibbed the start control and dashed off across the park to Control 1, swinging around a corner and along a path to control 2. 3 took me through an underpass and cutting through same alleys, through a doorway and dashing across a courtyard. To get to 4, I sprinted out of the courtyard, along a pavement and around a corner. 5 and 6 were just a walk (or a run!) in the park, whereas 7 took me nipping through thin alleys, then swinging round a corner to 8. Sprinting across a patch of open land, leaping down a stair set and round the corner of a building took me to 9. To 10, I ran up a quite lane and then navigated through some more to a roundabout, where no.11 should’ve been. But the roundabout, surrounded by an Out Of Bounds busy road. And there was nothing there…
Flicking out of my moment of confusion, I realized it was underneath the roundabout! I dived down another stair set and through a series of underpasses to the control. I then sprinted up, back to the surface of the earth, and along another road to 12. 13, 14 and 15 were fun, cutting through heavily pedestrianized zones – then there was 16. 16 took me through an inside shopping area, out back to the roads, up some stairs and across a drawbridge – I was by the castle! Running round the edge, I punched my control, dashed back across the drawbridge and entered the busiest area I have ever seen on a map. I don’t mean people busy (it was fairly quiet) but the map was covered with impassable walls, hedges, steps, tiny paths, trees, statues and loads of different levels. After some difficulty, I stuck to my compass (which turned out to be completely wrong). I eventually found 17 and charged quickly onto 18. Bouncing around steps and walls, I brought myself to 19 and dashed over to 20.
21 went fairly smoothly – more fun in the shopping area – and the same with 22. I ran into the courtyard where I thought 23 would be, but it wasn’t there. After consulting the map in more detail, I found there was a wall halfway though the courtyard – wow. I punched 23 and paced down to 24, my final control. The final sprint and BOOM!
Finished.
It was a great run, honestly one of my favourite orienteering races ever. Try it next year!
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