St Albans City Race
Welcome
For the second half of the Hertfordshire Urban Weekend, Hertfordshire Orienteering Club are pleased to offer an Urban Event in the historic city of St Albans on Sunday October 26th 2025, incorporating the city centre and surrounding areas. The event is a Regional (level ‘C) event and is part of the UK Urban League and Southern England Urban Orienteering League (SEOUL).
Situated a mere 18 miles North of London, with a population of 92,000, St Albans is an ancient city going back to Iron Age times. Following the Roman invasion of Britain, Verulamium was established and became the second largest city in Roman Britain. Today there are several Roman remains that can be visited and an excellent museum. St Alban lived in the Roman city in the third century and became the first British Christian martyr. A Saxon abbey was founded in his memory and in the eleventh century the present day Norman cathedral was built on the site. St Albans has thrived ever since as a market town and, since 1877, a city.
This event is part of a weekend of urban orienteering in Hertfordshire. The first part of the Hertfordshire Urban Weekend will be in the historic county town of Hertford. Details on the WAOC website.
Don’t forget the clocks go back this morning!
Beginners
First timers are very welcome. Ask at the Event Centre for help.
Location
St. Albans School, Fishpool St, St Albans AL3 4RF
Access for pedestrians and cyclists ONLY will be via the Aquis Court gate in Fishpool St. The gate will be marshalled and you may be asked to provide evidence that you are an orienteer in order to enter
Grid Ref.: 51.751568, -0.346834
Google Maps: https://rb.gy/6x57di
Open Street Map: https://tinyurl.com/yc4u3s6z
What3Words: ///vows.sing.lies
Parking
If you are travelling by road, use city centre car parks or on-street parking. See https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/car-parks-and-street-pay-and-display
We would prefer you to use the Verulamium, Westminster Lodge or Gombards car parks. All of these are within a 1 km walk of the school and they will minimise your walk through the competition area.
Public Transport
St. Albans has 2 railway stations, both of which accept contactless (not Oyster) payment for journeys from London travel zones:
St. Albans Abbey station (15 minutes’ walk from the Event Centre) has a shuttle service to Watford Junction, with connections to / from: London Euston, Rugby (for Birmingham) Manchester and Liverpool, also an express bus link to / from Heathrow Airport.
St. Albans City station (20 minutes’ walk from the Event Centre or regular bus to city centre) is served by Thameslink trains between Brighton, Gatwick Airport, London St. Pancras, Luton Airport & Bedford (for connections to / from the East Midlands and South Yorkshire)
Limited stop bus 724 runs to / from Hertford (for Saturday’s WAOC event) and Harlow (for Stansted Airport); and in the other direction to / from Heathrow Airport via Uxbridge, Rickmansworth and Watford. The closest stop is St. Albans Town Hall (8 mins walk from the Event Centre).
Local buses serve the city and neighbouring towns including Potters Bar, Hatfield, Watford and Luton all stop in the city centre. Details at https://www.intalink.org.uk/plan-your-journey
Event Centre
The Event Centre will be inside Aquis Court with toilets, enquiries, download and an area to meet, prepare for your race and relax afterwards. It will be signed from the gate (80m).
You may leave bags and clothing in the Event Centre at your own risk.
Facilities
Toilets, clothing dump, tables and chairs in Event Centre.
St. Albans has a wide variety of cafes, pubs and restaurants within a short distance of the Event Centre (see https://www.enjoystalbans.com/eat-drink/) and so there will be no separate catering provided at the Event Centre
Clothing
Shorts and vests are allowed, weather conditions permitting,
Flat running shoes or light trail shoes are advised – no spikes under any circumstances.
Dogs
Please keep dogs under control and clear up behind you. Dogs on courses would be a nuisance unless you are walking with them on a short lead. They are not allowed in the Event Centre.
Safety
Orienteering is an adventure sport. You take part at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety. A full risk assessment has been carried out.
All competitors should be aware of traffic and use pavements except when crossing roads. The city centre may be quite busy with pedestrians: please take care.
Courses 1 to 5 have a minimum age limit of 16 owing to there being unsupervised road crossings on these courses.
Courses 6 and 7 meet the British Orienteering Federation guidance for courses suitable for those aged under 16. They are mainly within the grounds of St Albans School and St Albans Cathedral. There is a minor road with very little traffic to get between the two areas. This crossing will be marshalled. Course 6 includes a timed out road crossing into and out of the city centre.
Keep out of all bodies of water, they may be deep.
Terrain
The Event Centre, Start and Finish will be in the grounds of St. Albans School.
The school campus and adjacent cathedral grounds comprise a mixture of grass with scattered trees, buildings and a dense path network.
Beyond that, St Albans is a medieval city with more modern districts around it including some areas of modern 20th century buildings. All this provides complex path and road layouts, many of which are pedestrianised, along with more traditional suburban estates and open spaces – making great urban orienteering terrain.
Many thanks to St. Albans School for permission to use their campus and to SADC for permission to use the city.
Courses
| Course | Classes | Optimum Route | Controls | Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Men Open | 10.6 km | 33 | 1:4,000 SRA3, double sided |
| 2 | Women Open, Men Veteran (M40+)td> | 8.9 km | 30 | 1:4,000 SRA3 |
| 3 | Women Veteran (W40+), Men Super-Veteran (M55+) | 8.2 km | 27 | 1:4,000 SRA3 |
| 4 | Women Super-Veteran (W55+), Men Ultra-Veteran (M65+) | 6.4 km | 29 | 1:4,000 SRA3 |
| 5 | Women Ultra-Veteran (W65+), Hyper-Veteran (M/W75+) | 4.6 km | 25 | 1:3,000 A3 |
| 6 | Junior (M/W16-) | 4.0 km | 30 | 1:3,000 A3, double sided |
| 7 | Young Junior (M/W12-) | 2.1 km | 20 | 1:3,000, A3 |
Current lengths for the optimum running distance on each course are shown above, but are still subject to final minor change. The area is relatively hilly and you will notice the climb on all courses, especially if you end up at the bottom of Holywell Hill.
Starts
Starts from 10.30 to 12.30 GMT. Start and finish are within 100m of the Event Centre. Call-up at -3 minutes.
Entry & Fees
Enter both the Hertford and St Albans events at SI Entries
Enter both and get a £2 discount. For each event:
Entries up to midnight on Sunday 19th October:
|
Entries from Monday 20th October:
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| We are using the British Orienteering definition of Young Adults as 21-25. | |
If you are running as a pair or group you only need to enter once. You’ll get one timing card. Please give all names in the free text “additional runners” box. If you want extra map(s) so that you don’t have to share they are £1 each.
You can enter up to 12:00 on the day but only online.
Map
1:4,000 or 3,000 pre-marked maps to ISSprOM 2019-2 Rev 6. Contour interval 5m. Fully revised in Summer 2025 by Simon Errington.
Main roads which are expected to have the most traffic are marked using a darker shade of brown than other roads and paved areas. Pavement edges are only shown for main roads and significant paved areas, where they serve a navigational purpose – for clarity the small pavements on most roads are not shown.
Walls and fences mapped using the Uncrossable symbol (thick black line) must not be crossed.
Areas mapped with the green/yellow (olive green) “settlement” colour must not be entered. This includes several areas of lawn within the school. There will be red and white tapes around some of these areas. Do not cross these tapes.
The event will use an updated version of the previous map https://www.happyherts.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#205
Control Descriptions
Control descriptions will be printed on the map and loose copies will be available in the start lanes. All courses have pictorial descriptions. Course 7 will also have text descriptions.
Course Timing
Sportident punching will be used. Everybody must punch at the start. SIAC will be enabled for all controls and the finish for those with ‘contactless’ dibbers.
Results
Interim results will be published direct to the club website every few minutes during the event. There will be no printed results (apart from your own splits) or WiFi available.
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 | Adam Leaf |
| Controller | David Saunders |
The small print
This event is registered with British Orienteering, number 85644.
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.
