Highfield Park – limited event

Welcome to our first event after lockdown!

It will be very limited, in line with British Orienteering’s guidance. In particular:

  • We are now running 2 starts, so numbers are limited to 120, driven by the BOF guidance of 10 starters per 15 minutes per start.
  • You must pre-enter and pay in advance.
  • There will be no hire dibbers available just for this event. However, to reduce cross-contamination, you can have a dibber for a season (until our event next July) for only £10 + £10 deposit. You can use the dibber at our events or any others you go to. Just select hire dibber when you enter. Or you can just buy your own.
  • You should not come if you have symptoms of COVID-19, are living in a household with someone who has a possible or confirmed COVID-19 infection, or have been asked to isolate by NHS Test and Trace. You’ll get a full refund.
TERRAIN Parkland.  Longer courses visit the surrounding streets.
Note: singlet tops and/or shorts may be worn, but the Medium and Long courses will visit areas of woodland with some undergrowth. Metal-studded shoes are definitely not recommended.
PARKING Highfield Park Centre Car Park, off Russet Drive (AL4 0DB). If full, park responsibly on surrounding streets.

Go to the SW corner of the leisure centre (car parking is to N and W)

PUBLIC TRANSPORT 2.2km from St Albans City Station (SAC).
15 minutes from station on bus S1 to 200m away.
COURSES
Course Straight line Distance Difficulty
Short 1.9 km Yellow standard
Medium 3.7 km Light Green standard
Long 5.5 km As hard as we can make it on the area.

The Medium course uses roads in a traffic-calmed residential estate with many cul-de-sacs. Suitably experienced under 16s may run unaccompanied.
The Long course also crosses 2 busier 30mph roads. Courses have been planned so that crossing points are in areas with good visibility.
All runners are advised to use pavements throughout and take extra care at junctions.

STARTS Enter via SI entries https://www.sientries.co.uk/event.php?event_id=7432.
You can choose a 15 minute start block between 10:00 and 11:30. We are running 2 starts. You will be directed to the appropriate start. Please get to the HH banner at the SW corner of the building within your start block and maintain 2m spacing from anyone not in your household. In order to limit numbers at each start, you may be asked to hold on for a bit.The 2 starts, finish and download are all within 100m.Courses close 12:45
FEES BOF members: Adults £4, Juniors £2, HH juniors free (but note courses available and availability of hire dibbers).
PUNCHING Sportident punching will be used. SIAC will not be enabled.
MAP 1:5,000 pre-marked maps for all courses, updated for this event. There are more features in some of the woods!

On both map and control descriptions, man made features are:
X  bench, picnic table
O  post, notice board, sign

There will be no loose control descriptions.

FACILITIES There will be almost no facilities on site. We are not expecting to have access to any toilets nearby. There is a nearby small supermarket if you need a bottle of water or similar.
DOGS Keep on lead and clear up behind you.
SAFETY Orienteering is an adventure sport. You take part at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety. A full risk assessment will have been carried out.

Covid-19:

  • If you have symptoms of COVID-19, are living in a household with someone who has a possible or confirmed COVID-19 infection, or have been asked to isolate by NHS Test and Trace, you should not come. You’ll get a full refund.
  • Before, during and after your run, maintain distance from other runners and other park users. Some open areas are used for football and from 13:00, for archery. Courses have been designed to avoid the football areas and the archery area is marked OOB.
  • You should not need to touch anything except the one map you pick up and your splits printout. When punching at a control, you don’t need to touch the control. Hand sanitiser is available – please use it.

The Medium course uses roads in a traffic-calmed residential estate with many cul-de-sacs. Suitably experienced under 16s may run unaccompanied.
The Long course also crosses 2 busier 30mph roads. Courses have been planned so that crossing points are in areas with good visibility.
All runners are advised to use pavements throughout and take extra care at junctions.

From 13:00 there is archery in one of the fields. That’s after courses close, but they will start setting up while we are running. The area affected is marked as Out Of Bounds. You may run around the edge of the field.

RESULTS Interim results will be published direct to the club website https://www.herts-orienteering.club/results/2020/2020_09_05_highfield/ every few minutes during the event. There will be no printed results (apart from your own splits) or WiFi available, so there is no need to hang around.

Full results will be published to the same location and to Routegadget; we aim to do so on the day of the event.

OFFICIALS
Planner Simon Errington
Organiser Mike Bennett
Controlling Hedley Calderbank
The small print

This event is registered with British Orienteering, number 77784.

Orienteering is a great sport for youngsters. If you bring children, please help us to keep to our safeguarding policy and British Orienteering’s photography policy.

Your personal data is used for results and insurance, see our privacy policy.