WIM/WSX MapRun League 2020-21

Summer MapRun League - concluded 31/08         Autumn MapRun League - Concluded Week 6 Oct 17-25  

The Winter (& now Spring!) MapRun League 2020-21 restarted on April 15th . The listed courses are rescheduled during April, May & early June.
 

Final League Table after  Week 15 (June06)

Fixture List          

Week 1: 31-8 October/November Upton Country Park (Upton Winter League 2020) Parking in dog walker's car park, opposite Pony Drive
Week 2: 7-15 November – Boscombe (Boscombe MapRun Winter League)   On street parking near Shelley Park
Week 3: 14-22 November – St Ives, nr Ringwood (St Ives)  Note OOB area at top of map. Parking as for the Avon Heath event.
Week 4: 21-29 November – West Moors Map  Control Descriptions    
Parking is at the West Moors Memorial Hall and Bowls Club.  
Week 5: 28-6 November/December Child Okeford (Child Okeford Winter League)  Parking in Recreation Ground by Start/Finish or nearby roads if full. Keep to marked footpaths crossing fields. The road through the village is supposed to be 20 mph but mind the traffic.
Week 6: 5-13 December - Ringwood   Parking is at Blynkbonnie  car park  BH24 1DN  charges apply. Also note the extensive notes on the download page.

Week 7: 12 December-03 January, 15-18 AprilChristmas/New Year Special – Moors Valley  Parking charges apply at Moors Valley. 
Week 8: 17-25 April – Poole   Parking at Baiter Car Park, Catalina Drive. Use underpasses to cross railway. Please make sure you use the latest version(16/04) of the map
Week 9:  24 April- 02 May – Blandford St Marys – Sprint format  Course 1     Course 2  
Parking is at Stour Meadows car park (behind Tesco and free)
Week 10: 01-09 May – Hyde & Gorley (NB the map is 1:7 500 not the usual 1:5 000). The carparking is at Abbotswell and is free. Grid reference SZ178129, closest postcode SP6 2JD. The nearest pub is the Foresters at Frogham cross.
Week 11: 08-16 May – Canford Heath May 2021 Map     Descriptions    Please note the following: the recommended car parking is at Asda where the finish is located. Please ensure for your own safety that you fully comply with the out of bounds marked on the map that means the southern area of the map can only be accessed via the underpass close to Control 6.
Week 12: 15-23 May – Christchurch Friars Cliff  May 2021  (Map as used for Dec 7 Night League). Descriptions  There is plenty of street parking nearby or else there is parking at Mudeford Wood Community Centre near Control 4 at the top of the map.  The start is down a small path opposite the Sandpiper Pub. Finish is in the pub car park. (Google the location of the pub). NB The original map was 1:4000 A3 sized, but a map printed out on an A4 sheet is quite useable.
Week 13: 22-30 May – Canford/Merley Estate   Map    Descriptions    Parking and start/finish is the car park at Oakley Shopping Centre and Oakley Medical Centre, Oakley Lane, Merley Estate,  Wimborne, BH21 1SF
Week 14: 29 May - 06 June – Tisbury      Map      Instructions      Please read the instructions for parking details etc
Week 15: 05-13 June – Broadstone & Hillbourne   
CAR PARK (indicated on map).  Leave Broadstone shops SE down the hill on B3074. At bottom, narrow left turn before Barn Road, easily overshot. Signed but not very clearly. In football season avoid car park on Sat & Sun mornings. Instead use the far end of Barn Road and the SE foot entrance to the Rec. MAP SCALE  1:5200. Slightly different from standard but you shoudn't notice the difference! Nearest toilets: Tesco's 5 mins drive away. Continue further SE on B3074 to join A349 at roundabout. SE on A349 through two sets of lights & take the right filter.

After the success of the 2020 Summer and Autumn MapRun Leagues, we thought we would give you a new MapRun challenge for the winter months and then continue the announced fixtures after lockdown ends into early Summer.  We hope to get traditional orienteering fully back up and running in due course.  The League will now run from November through to June using 15 areas, including some new areas we have not previously used, having been suspended for Jan, Feb and March. We also recommend that you move to the new, improved MapRun6 app from now onwards.

To keep things simple, the rules will mirror the previous MapRun leagues.  Every week  we will nominate a MapRun course for the competition.  The courses and pertinent dates are detailed above.  All the courses selected are a 60 min score format unless overwise stated.  Please ensure you load the correct course detailed below as some areas potentially have a number of different MapRun courses.  Please also read any pertinent courses notes re car parking, missing control features etc that can be found on the WIM MapRun page where you download and print out your maps.  Please see WIM website for guidance on MapRun if you have not yet used it.  Also, on the WIM MapRun page are links to helpful advice and guidance on all things MapRun including recommended phone settings etc.  We have also added guidance based on experience from the previous league at the end of this note.

Apart from the Christmas/New Year special, you will have 9 days from Saturday morning until the following week Sunday night to run the course.  The duration and introducing an overlap between weeks are to help full-time workers have two full weekends to complete any course and enable competitors to run two different courses on the same weekend.

The highest score for the week will be awarded 50 points, the second highest score 49 points etc with equal scores being ranked on time taken.  Your result will be as recorded by the MapRun App.  We will publish results on a weekly basis including a cumulative league table.  Your highest 5 scores out of the 15 events will count towards your final league position.  The 5 from 15 format recognises that many people might struggle to run each week with the short days and inclement weather but equally we wanted to ensure that there is a fresh offering each week for our keenest participants!

There will be a Christmas/New Year special that will count towards the league but with modified rules for that particular event.

At all times, please respect social distancing and any other pertinent regulations/guidance for your safety and the safety of others.  You may run the course more than once in the week but only your first run will count for the competition.  Given that some of the maps and courses we will be using are already available on MapRun and some people will have run the courses already, please feel free to study the map and routes used previously via MapRun but to make it fair, please do not look at any routes used by other competitors during the competition week before you have undertaken your run.  Please also refrain from running the courses ahead of the competition week if you have not done so already.

Map files will usually be loaded onto the website on the Wednesday or Thursday before the the course is due to open. Some of the new courses are PIN protected prior to the competition week but no PIN will be required once the competition week commences.

Hope this makes sense.  All questions, queries or suggestions re the competition and league to myself at robmills372@gmail.com

Finally, a very big thank you to all the people behind the scenes at both WIM & WSX that have made these leagues possible through their dedication and hard work.  This includes all our mappers and planners, Dick Keighley for maintaining and updating the WIM website and last but not least Chris Branford, who has pioneered and championed MapRun in the club and who continues to bear the brunt of the IT & admin load.

Good luck, stay safe and have fun!

 

MapRun Guidance based on recent experience

Before you run:

  1. It is recommended that once you have downloaded the course that you turn off both WiFi and Cellular Data before you start.  Although counter-intuitive (or at least to me), this apparently improves the accuracy of your GPS tracking on your device.  You will need to switch your data etc back on after your run to download your result.
  2. It is believed that how and where you carry your device impacts the accuracy of GPS tracking on your device.  It is preferable to carry your device using a running arm band vs in a bum bag if possible.
  3. It is likely that the age of your device (and hence the vintage of the GPS chip in it) may be a significant factor – newer devices are likely be more accurate than older models.  Bit extreme to buy a new phone based on this but perhaps the excuse you have just been looking for!

When you are running:

  1. Whilst we all like to hear the reassuring ping of a control being recorded, we strongly recommend that on reaching a control site and if your device does not ping, after ensuring you are in the correct location, you move on immediately as you can manual amend your result after your run (see “After you have run” section below)
  2. Unfortunately, the above guidance does not work if the Finish does not record – sorry!  The best advice in such circumstances is to run 20m or so through the Finish and then run back.  If still no luck, only hope is the headless chicken routine, heading out in different directions from the Finish and back until the Finish registers.  You need to get the Finish to record to save your run.
  3. If you have a Garmin device, it is possible to download your run from Garmin into MapRun and from past experience, the GPS tracking is much more accurate using your Garmin – see instructions in “After you have run” section below.

After you have run:

  1. If your MapRun initial result has not recorded all the controls you have visited you need to do the following: Press on the 3 horizontal bars on the top right of the screen which shows you your completed route.  On the menu that appears select "Review Results (HITMO)".  If you do this, you will see a tolerance on the left that you can alter (essentially how far from the control you have to be to get it to register).  Start with this on 30 and scroll down the controls listed on the right.  Any control that has registered is in green.  Any control that has not registered is in red with a box beside it.  If this is the control that you are missing, click on the box and a tick will appear in the box.  Continue down to get all the controls you are missing then press "Submit a Revised Result".  You only need to click on the controls you are missing as otherwise you end up with a lot of duplicate controls.  If you are not offered a control you visited, increase the tolerance and repeat.  The system obviously works on trust so please ensure you only “claim” controls that you are confident you actually visited
     
  2. To download your run from a Garmin device onto MapRun you need to do the following:
    First of all, you have to have the ability to download your Garmin device onto a laptop/computer.  Plug your Garmin device into your computer using the charger lead and log on to Garmin Connect.  Find your MapRun activity and open the activity.  Now click on the little cog symbol on the right and you will access a menu will offer an option to “Export to GPX”

Select this option and it will generate a GPX file – this is likely to appear in your Downloads folder on your computer.

Now you need go to the MapRun website – the link is http://www.p.fne.com.au/#/fne

Click on the “GPS Track Upload” option on left hand side and then fill in the requested details.  You will need to choose the GPX file you have just created and select the event i.e. MapRun course you ran using the search function.  Select “Start and Finish times determined automatically from the GPS Track (Appropriate Timings)”.

Then click “Analyse Track” and it will upload controls – you then need to check sequence and if necessary, tick or untick any as necessary

Now click “Confirm Results Table”.  Calculate and enter your net score i.e. after any time penalties.  

Then click “Submit Results” and it should then appear in MapRun results for that event/course.

3) If you are still struggling on any of the above or have a different issue, please do not hesitate to contact Rob Mills at the e-mail above and we will endeavour to help you get your individual result properly reflected in the overall results