BDR February Challenge Final

[Download the map here][Download this page]

• Here are details of the February challenge. This time, it’s a 1 hour score event – starting from Wood Lane on the edge of Pirton and finishing close by. The challenge is to visit as many controls as possible in an hour.
  Here is a brief description of the technology works:
• You will enter the event on www.fabian4.co.uk and you will be sent a passcode before the start of the race.
• Entry is £1 for each “household”, with an optional donation if you wish.
• Runners will register and run individually via their own smart phone.
• The race will be managed by “MapRunF” technology – which was originally developed to enable virtual orienteering events, but it suits us pretty well.
• Runners will need to download the MapRunF app to their smart phones and then download the virtual BDR event.
• The smart phone’s GPS tracking is used to confirm that the runner started and completed the course. (Obviously, you have to run round with your phone to compete.

There is an option to download the event to some Garmin GPS watches, so you don’t have to run with your phone, but most people won’t have access to that).

• Results will be automatically uploaded to MapRunF when the runner has completed the course.
• You can run the race at any time (morning, noon, night) until 31st January. You can run as many times as you like.

You can see further detail and download the app from the http://maprunners.weebly.com website. Once you have downloaded the app, you can find and download the vBDR event – see instructions below.

Downloading the Course to your smart phone There are brief notes here. The web has lots of support. The text here assumes you’ve successfully loaded the MapRunF app to your phone …. You’ll find MapRunF in the app store – the icon looks like this.

Once you have the app installed and open you have to …

• Select Event. Hit this button and you will be taken into a folder structure. You have to drill down through all the different global folders: UK >> Hertfordshire >> BDR to find our event which is “BDR February Score Final V”. Select this event and it will download to your phone.
• When you are ready to run (or you just want to see what it’s like) select “Go to Start”. You will be asked to put in your PIN code which has been sent to you on your Fabian4 entry details email. This makes the phone ready for you to run.
• You will see there is a course “map” overlaid on a satellite image. If you zoom out, you will see your current position highlighted (red dot and red tail marks show where you are and where you’ve been). You can use this to find the start.
• If you move within range of the Start checkpoint the phone will automatically assume you have started your run. Depending on your settings, the phone will buzz or bleep to let you know this.
• If you want to complete the run, visit as many checkpoints as you can, in any order.

Your phone should alert you when you visit any control.

• If you visit the Finish control (even if you haven’t completed the course yet) the phone will assume you have finished the race. So, don’t visit the finish until you have completed the full course.
• After finishing the phone will ask you if you want to upload your time.
• You can then see your race time and everyone else’s results too via “Show Results”.
• You can run the event as many times as you like. Once the event is loaded to your phone, you just press “Go to Start”, enter the pin and run past the Start control – then you can record another time.

If you are using MapRunG on a Garmin watch, the instructions are slightly different. You need MapRunF on your phone, MapRunG on your watch and Garmin Connect on your phone. All of these need to be running simultaneously. See instructions on the web on how to do all this. Once set up …. in “Options and Settings” select “GPS Watch Mode” and then you will see that “Go to Start” is replaced by “Send Event to my Garmin Watch”.

From the watch you can select the event and when you pass the start the watch will recognise this. If you have a Garmin watch check it is sufficiently advanced to do this – not all of them can.

The Course

The start is at bottom of Wood Lane (a bridle path on the South Western Edge of Pirton) to the top of Deacon Hill.

The course includes road crossings of the B655 – this is a fast and dangerous road. There are defined points you are allowed to cross the B655 and defined points where you can run along the paths and pavements to the side of the road. If you run along the road other than these places you will be disqualified. Even so, we don’t recommend that U16’s do this run
unaccompanied.

The course includes a number of controls around Deacon Hill here (and anywhere on the course) you are expected to only cross fences at defined gates and stiles. You will be disqualified if your track shows that you did not do this. Additionally, please make sure all gates you use are closed after you, including replacing the “string” that holds the gate shut where
this is available.

There are 11 “controls” or “checkpoints” which you can visit to collect points. MapRunF will confirm that you visited the control and add up your points. All a runner needs to do is select the event, run past the start, visit the checkpoints in any order and then visit the finish. You have 60 minutes to return to the finish. If you are late, you will lose 10 points for every part of a minute you are late. Results will be published via MapRunF – which will automatically work out your overall points score and time.

A course map is available for download here. If printed at A3, the scale is 1:12,500. The map is developed from Open Orienteering Map – a resource sponsored by the British Orienteering Federation.

The February challenge is as much about route choice and navigation as it is about running.

Carefully plan your route, judging how far you can run and how many metres of climb you can manage in 60 minutes. But don’t be late as the penalty for arriving back after the 60 minutes is very expensive on points. It doesn’t take long for you to lose all your points or even have a negative score.

And it is very easy to make a mistake in the navigation that means you don’t get back on time, so careful with that too.

You can run the course as many times as you like – so you can try and beat your previous score all through February.

And finally …

We hope you enjoy the February challenge. We hope to put on another challenge in March.