About
The purpose of this web site
This web site contains details of running races
that are near Oxfordshire.
By
near Oxfordshire,
I mean
Oxfordshire,
Berkshire and Buckinghamshire;
some parts of
Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Northamptonshire and Wiltshire;
and a few places that are further afield.
Some of the races are road races, whereas others are multi-terrain.
Ultra races, fell races,
duathlons, triathlons, adventure/colour/mud/obstacle races,
virtual runs,
time-based events,
events in the dark
and Race For Life events
are not normally included.
Races involving navigation and races with a mandatory kit requirement are also not normally included.
Most of the races that are listed are open to runners not attached
to a running club,
i.e., club-only and invitation-only events are not usually included.
More details
The main web page on this web site is the
future races page,
as this
has a table listing races that are near to Oxford.
However, several things appear on this page before the table.
- First, there are zero or more items of news. These items are normally removed after a week.
- There is then a list of the entry forms that have most recently been added to the site. Often only the ten most recent are listed. However, more will appear if a lot of forms got added during the last week.
- Then there is a list of links to the results of recent races. Often only the ten most recently added are listed. However, more will appear if a lot of links to results got added during the last week.
- Then there is a list of races that took part in the last month for which I haven't seen any results. If you know where any of these are, please email me.
- Finally, there is a table containing the list of races. For each race, there are lots of information, including details of the date and time of the race, its location, the postcode of the venue, the closing date for postal entries, details of whether entries on the day are permitted, a link to a web page that has further information and a link to a web page that has the entry form for the race.
Usually this web site does not provide the actual entry forms but instead it links to the web pages that a race organiser provides or to web pages that others provide that give the information.
Some races in the table of races are identified as "CANCELLED" or as "POSTPONED" or as "VIRTUAL". Although some race organisers say they are "postponing their race to 2022", in the list of races on this website that race is identified as "CANCELLED" and "POSTPONED" is only used for those races that have a new date in 2021 and for those races where the organiser is looking for a new date in 2021. Races that have been converted into virtual runs are marked as "VIRTUAL".
The future races page has a search for race button
with a box alongside.
If you type the name, the location or the date of a race
(or a part of the name/location/date) into the box,
and then click the button,
only races that match what you've typed will be listed.
A date has the format
2014-11-23.
So into the box you could type
radnage
or
rad
or
rugged
or
2014-11.
If you are a geek, you may be interested to know
that the box may contain a regular expression.
The button only appears if your browser has JavaScript enabled.
Choosing preferences
The table on the future races page includes a lot of races. You may wish to hide some of the races, e.g., long races and/or races that are too far away. If your browser has JavaScript enabled, you can do this by clicking the button labelled show preferences area. If you do this, the preferences area will be displayed. You can also use the preferences area to arrange for the distance/route to each race from a chosen Home to be shown.
The preferences area provides two ways in which you can control what appears in the table.
-
The preferences area has a set of checkboxes that enables you to restrict the races to distances that you choose.
-
The preferences area also has two drop-down menus labelled select a home and select a distance. If you wish, choose a home, say Oxford, and choose a distance, e.g., 80 miles. If you do this, a new button labelled show races up to 80M from Oxford will appear. If you click this button, the table of races will only include those races that are up to 80M by road from Oxford. The details about these races will now also include how far the race is from Oxford and have links labelled OS (Ordnance Survey), OpenStreetMap and Google. If you click one of these links, you will be taken to a web page that has a map showing a route to the race and a table giving a description of this route. The route is provided using software from Routino and data from OpenStreetMap. This is being provided on an as is basis: I'm unable to handle queries about the route that has been chosen!
Once you have chosen your preferences, you can hide the preferences area by clicking the button labelled hide preferences area.
If you use any of the above ways to control what appears in the table, this web site will attempt to use cookies to store your preferences. In this way, the settings of the checkboxes and the settings of the two drop-down menus will be used when you next visit the page with the same browser. Although cookies have been used by web sites for many years, a change to the UK law in May 2011 means that a web site now has to ensure that you agree to cookies being created. If you have chosen some preferences, the preferences area will have a button labelled remove current preferences. So, if you wish to change your mind and instead see all the races, you can remove your preferences and get rid of these two cookies by clicking this button.
More details about the two cookies
A cookie called distances is used to record the settings of
the checkboxes for the lengths of races if any of them is unset.
For example,
it would be set to "00100000" if you only wish to see 10K races.
A cookie called home is used to record where you regard as
home and how far you are willing to drive to a race.
For example, it would be set to
"Oxford,80M" if you only wish to see races that are up to 80 miles
from Oxford.
If you do not use a feature, its cookie will not be created.
Both cookies are stored as a persistent cookie. There is more about cookies at the www.allaboutcookies.org web site.
More techie stuff
Each race listed on the
future races page
has an
ICAL
link.
This can be used to import the race into
a calendaring program such as
Apple iCal,
Google Calendar,
Lotus Notes,
Microsoft Outlook/Exchange/Entourage,
Oracle Calendar
or WebCalendar.
Important changes are made available through twitter at
@oxonraces.
Commitment
This web site is regularly maintained,
and I try to provide information
on the
future races page
as soon as it becomes available.
Although this web site was only created recently (February 2014),
a parallel web site
(www.northeastraces.com)
has been in existence since 2001.
Errors
Everyone makes mistakes. So occasionally there are errors on this site. I fix them as soon as I become aware of them. My biggest nightmare is getting the start time wrong and people saying that because of me they arrived too late for a race. I don't think this has ever happened. The other worry I have is getting a closing date wrong. However, if you use this site, it is up to you to find out whether the information provided here is accurate.
Feedback
If you find information on these pages that is wrong
or you find details about a race that is missing from these pages,
please email me.
Thank you to those people that have already done this.
Also use that email address
if you want to send me praise!
Thanks.