It was great to have CHIG back hosting an event in the ever-popular
London Park Race series and I hope everyone had an enjoyable run. It was
definitely pleasing to hear a good amount of positive feedback in the
aftermath, despite the admitted shortcomings in the map (apologies again
for having not managed to get the map updated, and also for having been
previously unaware of and unable to plan for the funfair set-up!).
Valentines Park is certainly a faster and arguably less complex and
physically challenging area than other recent venues in this year’s
series. However, as many of us will know from painful / frustrating
experiences at sprint races, being able to run faster in an area also
means you can make mistakes faster, and these can be more costly. While
I sought to engender some route choice options for the legs in the
northern part of the map, I tried to go for more of a pinball series of
controls in the final third of the course north of the lake, with short
legs and repeated changes in direction. This seems to have caught a few
people out, with three people missing control 23 on the Long course,
perhaps proving a good test of how people’s concentration and focus held
up in the latter stages.

I am very grateful to Redbridge Council for granting us permission to
hold the event, and I would also like to offer my thanks to the
volunteers from CHIG without whom this event could not have taken place:
Ray Weekes, Iain Ambler, Adam Dent, Paul Corney, Kostya Lutsenko, Tim
Wright and Thomas Elgood. Many thanks too to Keith and Luke Bennett of
DFOK, who very kindly helped with setting controls out.

Harold Wyber