Longniddry Sprintelope
Wednesday 29th May
This is our third event in the summer 2019 Sprintelope series taking place on Wednesday evenings. These are lightweight informal events featuring Urban style races around the streets of towns in East Lothian and other areas in and around Edinburgh.
Today’s courses cover the village of Longniddry.
Results
- Simple results
- Routegadget
- League tables (thanks to Ben Brown)
Details…
- Registration from 18:00 to 19:00
- Starts from 18:30 to 19:30
- Urban Sprint for over-16s or shadowed juniors with SI for Start / Finish only
- Courses – 5 km with two shorter options both of approximately 3.5 km (see below)
- £1 for juniors
- £2 for full-time students
- £3 for adults
- Postcode – EH32 0LX
- Grid Ref – NT444765
- Directions – See Google map at the end of this post. On the eastern side of the village, 300m north of the rail station roundabout, turn off the A198 into Lyars Road.
- Parking – Wemyss Rd, Forthview Road, and nearby streets; please park considerately.
- By train – Longniddry station is a 5-min walk from the event and is served by trains from Edinburgh.
- By bus – Longniddry is served by East Coast services 124/X24 and X5. The “Gosford House” stop is 100m from the event.
- Toilets – TBC
Because urban courses involve road crossings, under-16s can only take part if accompanied by a responsible adult at all times.
Please note that this year there will be no junior courses at our Sprintelopes – these now have a separate programme of activities so that more groups such as scouts and guides can attend. For safeguarding reasons this programme won’t be publicly advertised but please contact us if you are interested in taking part.
The courses
For this week’s Sprintelope, we’ve decided to do something a little different, by including in the Long course the southern end of the Gosford Estate map. The undergrowth in Gosford has grown recently – chiefly nettles – therefore those legs have been planned so that forest tracks and paths will be good route choices, with little (but possibly non-zero!) gain from cutting across.
We’re offering two short variants: Urban Short and Mixed Short:
| Course | Length | Controls | Terrain | Safety Notes |
| Long | 5.2 km | 18 | 60% urban, 40% forest paths | Crosses the A198 ONCE – PLEASE TAKE CARE |
| Mixed Short | 3.8 km | 13 (the Long course omitting controls 4-8) | 50% urban, 50% forest paths | Crosses the A198 ONCE – PLEASE TAKE CARE |
| Urban Short | 3.2 km | 10 (first part of the Long course, with separate Finish) | 100% urban | Does not cross the A198 |
Please note that there are alternative Finishes for different courses. This is so that whichever course you choose, THE RUN-IN TO FINISH DOES NOT CROSS THE MAIN ROAD (A198). Hopefully this is clear on the map; someone will be there to guide you in.
Map: A4 double-sided, with both sides at 1:5000 scale (and 2.5m contours, although there is negligible climb).
At this time of year, the Gosford map is optimistic about runnability in the woods, and it is probably best to use your eyes as well as the map! The Longniddry village map does not include all contour features, although the larger ones are shown. (We also think the map is aligned to grid north rather than magnetic north…)
Controls: White plastic tubes.
Footwear: The forest paths are mostly hardcore or sandy, but may be muddy on the day, especially after rain. The narrowness of some paths makes it difficult to avoid nettles and brambles completely. The urban areas include several parks and the grass may be slippery. Shorts and flat shoes would be adequate with care, but grippy soles are recommended, and in the forest area leg cover is also advised.
For the league, we will interleave the points for the short courses: 50 points for 1st on Mixed Short, 49 points for 1st on Urban Short, 48 points for 2nd on Mixed Short, etc. (and in usual consecutive order when we run out of runners on one of the courses). We have not tested it scientifically, but we think the Urban Short is likely to be slightly more technical than the Mixed Short on average, and in terms of ground covered, be closer in length than it seems.
Footnote: Apologies for the ugly mismatch of ISOM and ISSOM mapping on the second side of the map – it will all make sense on the night 🙂
Wednesday evening events continue in the Edinburgh area – please see the Facebook page and the websites of the other clubs for more details Interlopers, ESOC and Roxburgh Reivers).
A thorough risk assessment has been carried out. By entering the event you accept that your name may appear in published results.