What a lovely change in the weather for this event. First time I’ve needed sunglasses in ages!
I really enjoyed linking up bits of Wivey that I knew - that sudden “oh, I’m here” realisation - and exploring bits I never knew existed.
I think that was the first outing for me in a short sleeved T shirt! It was a great evening. The map was quite dark and I struggled a bit to interpret all the detail. This was especially true In the town areas where I wimped out on what looked like risky routes because I couldn’t be sure whether there was a path at the end of a road or not. I also missed the fact that we could run across the fields and not just keep to the footpaths marked.
I carried the phone I used in a special waist pouch (OK it was a bum bag) and wondered if that was the cause of some of my issues regarding the GPS picking up the control position which was very slow at most controls. My track is also not very accurate in a lot of places especially when compared to other people’s tracks. Richard’s for example seems to follow paths and roads far more accurately than mine does. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has experienced similar issues and has perhaps changed application or general settings or how they carry their telephone.
Human bodies are very good at blocking the signal from satellites. An ideal place for the phone would be on a stick attached to the top of your head, but that would not only look silly but lead to balance and hitting things issues.
The best compromise is an upper arm holder.
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Thanks Alasdair, I’ll try to get one before the next event at Wilton.
I use a cheap armholder from Amazon, and it seems to work well. Certainly easier than running with my phone balanced in my hand (or indeed on a stick on my head I imagine…).
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I struggle with my upper arm holder - a combination of location, bad fingers and thicker plastic means I cannot use the screen that well (I even called emergency services once and could not hang up). For Taunton West SEGOL 2021 I am going to try my control description holder - I will report back if it works better or is a disaster!
It actually worked surprisingly well!
Many thanks to Sarah and daylightgambler for their experiences. I will be changing my method before my next run at either Wilton or SEGOL. Cheers
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Let us know how it goes!
So the armband method seemed to work well on it’s first outing I’m pleased to say. It’s the first time I have got the tech to work really successfully since starting Maprun events. The only time I struggled to get a ping was actually my fault as I was doing my GPS dance around the wrong tree!
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