Umm, I managed to cock that up nicely! Great course and Sunday morning was warm and sunny so all set for a good run. My phone, which regularly doesn’t pick up controls, was pinging nicely. BUT at no 6 my bearing wasn’t accurate enough and took no notice of how far I’d run - so when my phone beeped, I assumed I was at 7 (next time I’m going to hold my phone and not have it on my arm where it is really hard to check the screen). No, I was actually at 16, so when running off to pick up 8, I picked up 5 - I thought that it didn’t look right! So then when trying to find 9, I was way to far west. Found it eventually, then off to no 10 at the gate - no ping - this time it was my phone not liking being in the dip. Gave up after someone else ran up, pinged and ran off again! I was in the right place for 11 but after waiting for my phone to catch up, gave up on that one too (like for no 10, my track is quite a bit to the nw). Picked up 12, got 13 then picked up 12 again instead of running further to 14 (ignoring how far I’d run - again!). I then wondered why 15 wasn’t where I thought it should be! Got it after a quick re-orientation then finally did things right to get to the finish! What a mess up! Going to try to run it again holding my phone next time, checking what is pinging as I go along. Great course though!
You’re not the only one who has managed to get turned around on Badger or Fox this weekend!
One of the great things about keeping a GPS track is being able to analyse afterwards.
I think there is a case for MapRun to say out loud the control number when it punches. That would be equivalent to reading it off the control kite in a traditional event.
Not in the rain Jenny as I ran with my phone and now it’s in the airing cupboard drying out. I’m going to book another slot, as on Saturday I forgot my map and control descriptions (thankfully not my husband haha) but did surprisingly well using ones from Ashton Court and asking Alasdair for help !
Despite the awful weather and fending off a dog that liked to bite, really enjoyed and every control pinged in the right place (although a slight delay from 138 to 139) eventually gave up as the touch sensitivity on my phone became overwhelmed by the rain.
My first attempt using a phone arm holder resulted in a unplanned call to emergency services, so I usually just hold it in my hand anyway (with the added benefit if beng able to easily check numbers).
Perhaps more wider experience of MapRuns will lead to more people recording their routes to use with RouteGadget when traditional orienteering returns.
Why not run with your watch …do you have a Garmin watch ?? If so download maprun G as its suppose to be very effective and responsive when going fast, so I’m going to have a go.
Oops forgot to say you have to manually upload results but it’s really easy to do.
It may have been updated, but one thing early MapRunG users found disconcerting was not getting any indication the control had registered as that happened after the track was uploaded. So, sadly, that wouldn’t help checking whether/which control had just punched.
The upload process seems to be a bit frustrating, too - a few people doing our big GPS events have taken several days to manage to get it to work.
Indeed. I love going through them afterwards, and it is the same system.
I have sometimes found it tricky matching my GPS track to the event, usually because of a delay between starting recording and dibbing the start. At least that isn’t an issue using MapRun.
Going to try an AirPod and see if that helps to hear the ‘ping’
Any luck with the test?
Had my phone in a waterproof pouch around my neck, but I must have clicked on something and ended up with a screen full of writing. I didn’t want to fiddle with it mid run but realised later that you can get the map view back quite easily. So still ran blind, but took much more care, plus out-foxed my phone by moving to the SE of the problematic controls so that they reacted a bit more quickly. But argh! messed up no 12 by going to the wrong den - trouble is when you don’t know if it’s just your kit being a pain or if you are in the wrong place! Had to wait quite a long time for some of the later controls to react. But all in all a much better run.
Had a bit of trouble towards the end of the Longrun JOG. All was going fine, even no 5 in the woods pinged quickly. But as I got to no 8 things started to slow with my phones reactions. No 12 and 13 took quite a few seconds. Then at 17 I had real problems picking up the ping - I eventually gave up, ran off towards 18, and it pinged no 17 at the corner of the building. The same happened at 18 where after waiting for quite a while I gave up and it pinged near the corner of the sports court. 20 was also a pain and it took 9 minutes of wandering in circles to get the finish to ping! (I tried to move north by a few metres, just in case it was the same problem as at 17 and 18). Very demoralising when I had run my heart out on the course only to be penalised by 9 minutes at the end!!! We (Ben and Pete had finished Ben’s run and were stood in the cold waiting for my phone to ping!) wondered if it was something to do with the cold. The error was in the opposite direction and further than that at Crosslands.
Bad weather doesn’t help. Rain in particular blocks much of the GS signal. Cold may also affect the device.
The controls as Crosslands should all have had a clothes peg with the control number on them. I’ve got to collect them back in at some point soon. But, an extra den was built in the northern part of the woods during the course of the event, and thus didn’t appear on the map so could have caused confusion! The ‘culprits’ were all young JOG members, too.