Planner's Notes on the Terrain and
Advice on Course Selection

Overview

The competition area includes quiet residential areas, woodland and rough open areas.

Course selection

The Orange and Yellow courses are traffic-free, as they remain in the woods and the pedestrian paths on the edge of the urban area.  The woods are well used by local residents of all ages, which parents should take into account when deciding whether to shadow their children.

Children under the age of 12 on the day of the event must be shadowed by an adult, because the courses involve going along a path that runs close to the deep water of the River Tees.  Any child who has been shadowed will still be competitive as long as the adult has not given them any assistance during their run.  The path generally stays several metres from the river, but there is one short section where it runs right next to the water's edge.  Black-and-yellow hazard tape will be strung along the edge of the path at that point to remind runners to watch where they're going and mind their footing.

The Brown, Blue, Green, Short Green and Light Green courses visit both the woods and the urban area.  There is no through traffic – the only way into and out of this area is via the spitfire roundabout and Bader Avenue – so traffic is light.  However, please take care when crossing roads.

In accordance with British Orienteering guidelines, anyone under the age of 16 on the day of the event who is running the Brown, Blue, Green or Short Green course must be accompanied by an adult.

The Light Green course offers the same level of navigational challenge (aka technical difficulty) as the Short Green course, but uses a timed-out crossing to cross the main access road into the area and then sticks to streets with very light traffic.  Under-16s can run the Light Green course without being accompanied.  Please note that the time taken for the timed-out crossing will be excluded from the competitor's running time, up to a maximum of 2 minutes.

Competitors on the Brown and Blue courses will have to cross a stream that presents a significant obstacle to progress.  Although the stream is very shallow and not particularly wide, it has very steep banks.  An athletic M21 might be able to jump across ....... but I'd like to be there to see him try.  Where the Blue course crosses the stream, there are some possible options for getting across with dry feet.  Brown course competitors will almost certainly get their feet wet.

Note: The Green, Short Green and Light Green courses also cross the stream, but these courses have been planned to enable – and encourage –: competitors to cross via bridges.

Out of Bounds

There are two sections of street that are marked as out of bounds.  These out-of-bounds sections, which you can preview on the maps in the start lanes, have been specified to allow the courses to provide more interesting route choices, and they include the pavements.  Basically, you should treat these sections of street the same way that you would treat private gardens – they're there, but you must not go through them even if it would be physically possible to do so.  If you are seen going through one of these out-of-bounds areas – or if we can tell from your split times that you've gone through an out-of-bounds area – then you will be disqualified.

Terrain

The competition area is about 60% urban and 40% woodland.  The urban part includes a surprisingly complex little housing estate – which the locals apparently call 'Colditz' – as well as more conventional residential streets.  The non-urban area includes some pleasant woodland, some rather rough semi-open areas, a steep wooded slope down to the River Tees and a peninsula (in a loop of the river) that's mainly open but has patches of trees of various runnability.

For the avoidance of any doubt, full leg and body cover is required for this event.

Footwear

The Orange and Yellow courses go along woodland paths, so normal orienteering shoes will be appropriate.

It's rather tricky to give advice on footwear for the longer courses.  You'll be on pavements or other hard surfaces for more than half of the distance, so spikes are definitely not suitable.  If the weather has been dry during the days leading up to the event then flat running shoes will be fine on the off-road parts of the courses.  However, if there has been rain during the lead-up to the event then the woodland paths will be slippery and you'll be glad to have shoes with some grip.

Safety notices

Please take care when crossing roads.

At the east end of the peninsula (i.e. the end nearest the urban area), there is a wooden walkway running along the edge of a pond.  This walkway will be slippery if it is wet.  Please take care.

Interactions with non-orienteers

You are likely to encounter pedestrians in the urban area, and the woods are popular will joggers and dog walkers.  As always, please be courteous to the members of the public who are sharing this area with us.

Runners on the Brown and Light Green courses are likely to find it advantageous to run across the Harold Wilson recreation ground in the south-east corner of the competition area near the 'Colditz' estate.  It is very likely that there will be junior football matches in progress on the morning of the event.  Please do not run across any football pitch that is in use.  There's space to run round or between the pitches, and you won't lose much time.