LuxSUL 5 - the heat is on!
Camel trains sighted on the rue d’Itzig? Shimmering mirages of date-palmed oases glimpsed from the top of vir Herel? Maybe not quite - Sandweiler hasn’t yet become the Sahara. But it felt pretty hot for the fifth run of LuxOC’s Summer Urban League series on Wednesday night. Many runners arrived back at download with sweat in their eyes, and perspiring more than gently.
Turnout on the evening was again excellent – 40 runners (or perhaps 41, but Cedric G did both courses, so that would be double-counting!), including some who had travelled from Belgium or Germany. The evening urban event format does seem to be most popular in the summer.
Sandweiler is a pretty good area for urban orienteering – not only are there lots of gardens with lovely roses wafting their fragrances as one runs past, but the layout of the village also gives plenty of scope for setting legs with interesting route choice. The planner felt that he had done his job well as soon as he had listened in to a few post-run conversations debating the best routes. In fact, in many places, the only “wrong” route was to hesitate – the choices were mainly designed to be fairly equal.
One bullet that was only just dodged were the two temporary fences that appeared on the day of the run at the back of the community centre near the church. Fortunately, the planner spotted these as he was putting out the controls – and still had time to mark them on all the maps before the earliest runners started. Also, apologies to a couple of runners whose up-market SIAC “contact-free” Sportident timers registered a second start, because they ran back within less than a metre from the start point on their way to the finish. David R and Michael H did some forensic analysis of the timing data to assess what their real times were - the timing system read-outs had recorded “7 seconds” for the 5.2km. In future, we’ll be more careful about how we place the start and finish timing points.
Cedric G again took the honours on the long “Deer” course – he has 3 wins out of 3 so far, having also won both LuxSUL 1 at Helmsange and LuxSUL 4 at Steinsel a fortnight ago. It’s thought that the heat suited him, as he’s rumoured to have been training in the desert earlier this year! And there were very impressive results from Olena P and Paul M, who came second and third respectively.
Cedric then went on to run the shorter “Rabbit” course as a “warm-down” – and was five minutes clear! But prior knowledge of the terrain gathered on his “Deer” run means that he has to be treated as non-competitive. So, the real “Rabbit” winner on the night was Jacques Mely – a fine result, as Jacques really wasn’t too far behind Cedric.
Full results for LuxSUL 5 are, as usual, on the Helga “Webres” website, at https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=4709
The current cumulative LuxSUL positioning is shown on the spreadsheet link from this page. It gets interesting!
To remind you, scores for each run are decided simply by how far behind the winner everyone ends up. The aggregate positioning is then set nearly as simply, by aggregating the scores for the runs done. But only the best four runs out of the seven LuxSULs in the series get counted – each counting run is highlighted in green on the spreadsheet. And the ranking also depends on how many counting scores there are – so anyone with only three runs that count will always be ranked behind anyone with four or more counting runs.
As things stand after five LuxSUL evenings, the overall leader on the “Deer” is Atte A, followed by Vivien T, André P., and with young Jan Panuska in fourth place. But Cedric G, Ondra, and Julien G are all in strong contention, and could come through to take leading positions once they record a fourth result. And dark horse Sasha could also be close to the front if he runs well in both the remaining two LuxSULs.
On the “Rabbit”, Inga didn’t run this time, and so has relinquished her overall lead to young Linda Kuželová, who is the only competitor so far to have the full four counting scores for this course. But, as well as Inga, Elisabeth S and Jacques M are also well placed to move in front, provided they can get good results at either of the last two LuxSULs in the series.
Much thanks to Valérie A, Jonas, Cedric and a few others for collecting all the controls in once we had all finished running. The planner is very grateful!
Conversely, no thanks at all to the hooligan who at some point during the evening removed the code from the timing box at control 145. And also – and why? – our sponsor’s logo on the box! Sandweiler is supposed to be a respectable neighbourhood – but over the years, LuxOC has only ever suffered from vandalism at runs that have been organised there. Strange, isn’t it?
It was great that so many members and guests were able to stay for the summer social, re-hydrating with “Czech sports drinks” on the lawn at the Club’s headquarters. A big thanks to all those who bought food, drink, or both – and particularly to Judith L for the wonderful quiche! And also to Inga, for co-hosting with Maggie – it was very much appreciated!
LuxSUL is now taking a summer break – the last two runs will be in September. LuxSUL 6 should be in Limpertsberg, on either 7th or 13th September. Watch this website nearer the date for the final details.
Schéi Summervakanz!