Discussion: Sprint Course

It wasn't too long?

It was too long! But it was fun!

To 8 - how did you realize there was a break through the uncrossable cliff/wall leading to a tunnel that was vaguely mapped. I couldn't tell and went L.

We were discussing the issue the night before and I had mentioned the existence of the tunnel to here. Local Knowledge.

I thought the tunnel was mapped properly, how would you prefer it to be shown?

As it is a real route choice, the spec suggests to use the purple parentheses to show a crossing. It is not an obvious acceptable passage. The wall appears to be mapped uncrossable per ISSOM.

Yup, Ed speaks the truth! I also don't think it was obvious enough on the map, but not sure how best to show it.

I just don't think it was clear enough either. There are dashed lines indicating something but if it's a passage it might also want gray to show same. And the purple parens.

But many just climbed the wall on the day with no penalty, such as dsq. So issom rules a not well known here abouts.

There was quite a debate later in the day as to what to do about the people who climbed the wall. I won't get into all the details, but the decision was made (and no one filed an official protest) to just ignore it, since there seemed to be no fair way to fix the issue.
Going forward, people need to be more aware of ISSOM rules, and the only way that is going to happen is by having more maps and exposing more people to them.

The grey would not be appropriate here, as it is not a building above the tunnel. I would agree that the purple lines would have been a good addition.

The leg to #8 was on the green course at the A-meet. I certainly didn't know about the tunnel, but did know about uncrossable walls. I went around to the left, which doesn't look any worse than the route through the tunnel. There were quite a few wall climbers.

Feel I should make a brief comment as the mapper. Tunnels are often tricky to pick out, especially if you can run above them as well. Generally, the shorter they are, and the more that's going on above them, the less obvious they are to spot. In this case, the change in colour with path and open above the tunnel probably helps to hide it. I've seen mappers use the 'bridge' symbol at either end to emphasise that there's a passage underneath, but I'm not sure how much difference it makes, and will add to the confusion for some.

Also, a tunnel is probably not the sort of feature you'd expect to find in a park like this. Which probably means adding the purple overprint is the best way of emphasising a one-off crossing that people could use as a route choice.