Training Log Archive: Ollie

Event: Race the Castles
 

Race the Castles: Edinburgh. GPS says I ran 9.5km. Big home advantage - I was familiar with most of the map. The map also tended to avoid some of the most technical sections. The planning was good though with a good tour of several sections of the Old Town, a section through the steep part of Princes Street Gardens below the tunnel, which was fun and new, and a couple of classic long legs with lots of route choice - most failed to spot the best route on the first which was flatter but longer. Finished 11th out of a big group, six minutes behind the winner - very happy.

Special note/grumble: The quality of printing of the map was extremely poor - e.g. in some places, steps had blurred to the point they were not visible, and uncrossable walls on either sides of some passages had bled across each other. There was also an overabundance of form lines - essentially these formed a 2.5m contour in much of the map rather than just "showing form" as they should. The map has been overly rasterised and individual pixels can be clearly seen on the map, the DPI looks very low. The 1:4000 map used by the sprint courses was less affected (though still blurry) so something has gone wrong with the switch to 1:5000 for the main courses.

C • Map 6

Edinburgh Waverley thru Loanhead.