Planning my first Maprun event on an area at sea level, what could possibly go wrong !?!
After many hours of playing around with PurplePen and MapRun trying to get them to communicate with each other, I finally realised that they both work independently of each other, and that you in affect create two identical events, one on each platform. DOH!!!
Poor Ollie must have been sick of my constant stream of questions…
Anyways, with that finally sorted, it was off out to physically recce the area. To our horror on arrival we discovered that all the low lying areas ( 1/3rd of the competition area) were three foot under water!! Maybe we could make it the first ever aqua-O event!!
A few weeks later the waters had subsided and the course was finalised.
After the glorious summer sun we had for Spunch Day 1 the week before, Spunch Day 2 was greeted with the forecast of torrential rain and gale force winds. Luckily as event time approached the weather cleared, and we were left with a few showers and a gentle breeze.
Registration time was very hectic with a few people not having downloaded the event, a struggle to connect to the wifi, and no idea how to work the card machine. But with minutes to spare before the Auto mass start at 1800 we were able to move out to the Start and deliver the pre race speech.
1800 was greeted with multiple beeps as everyone’s phones registered the Start and they were off.
It seemed like no time at all before the first of the 1-hour competitors started to return, followed soon by the 90 minute competitors.
Most people seemed to have enjoyed themselves and had lots of positive things to say.
The pizza van in the car park increased some people’s enjoyment of the event!!
With everyone checked back in, it was down to the pub for post run drinks and analysis. Hazel was convinced CP 3 was in the wrong place, even though her GPS track showed she was one field short of the CP!! The other three Fieldhouses were interrogating winning Adam’s dubious routes, while tucking into cold mushy peas!!!
All in all, the event was a great success, and it was good to see quite a few non-orienteers giving it a go. Hopefully they will return for future events.
The next Spunch is at Blagdon Hill on 27th June. If you haven’t tried one yet, why not!! Come and give it a go…
