Click here to download these details in PDF format.
| Date | Event | Parking | Organiser |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 1st January 2021 10:30-12:30, suggested start times |
Maprun Start Anywhere Score Event Rodborough Common |
GL5 5BP | Caroline Craig |
NGOC is very pleased to invite you to a New Year’s Day event with a difference.
We are mindful of current constraints, but wanted to stage an event where some distanced socialising might perchance happen, while you enjoy a run around Rodborough Common. The plan is for a start anywhere, anytime, 60 minute maprun course around Rodborough, and to a smaller extent Minchinhampton Commons. We hope that, protected by your 2m buffer, you will run into a few other club members and orienteers as you hustle round the course, or get warmed up or warmed down in one of many car parks.
Hopefully we will have a day like this… 
….but it could be like this….
Either way, it’ll be a fun way to see in the new year, whilst maintaining our long tradition of NYD score events.
As is customary with our NYD events, all profits we make from the event will be donated to a charity chosen by Planner Caroline Craig.
Please read these instructions carefully as there are things you need to do and to understand if you are to have a successful and enjoyable trip out.
Travel and Parking
There are 10 car parks marked on the event map, which you will be able to access here before travelling. Each car park has one or more controls nearby, which can act as your start and finish control. The idea is that you choose a car park from which you will run, go to it, run your course, hopefully meet up with a few others of like minds when planning a route, and then go home again. Rodborough Common can be pretty popular with the public, so it’s possible that your chosen car park is full when you get there, in which case you’ll need to think again, and try and find another slot somewhere else. Please park responsibly, and do not block access to anywhere, or park where it is clearly inappropriate, irrespective of what other people might do.
The event map, now available below to download and print, shows the location of additional parking which is just off the bottom of the event area. You can use this as a last resort – there is quite a lot of parking along the reservoir road – but you will have a walk of 200m+ to get to your start/Finish control.
We ask you all to download and print the map before travelling to Rodborough. However, if really unable to do that, see details below of how you can register for a map to be printed for you, and can pick it up on arrival.
The Area
The course covers all of Rodborough Common, and the more Northerly parts of Minchinhampton Common, thus avoiding most of the golf course. Nevertheless you will need to keep an eye out for golfers towards the more Southerly end of our course. Both Commons are very largely fast, open terrain, with many small contour and vegetation features, ideal for GPS orienteering.
The Map
The map has been selectively updated for GPS orienteering, and all control sites have been checked at least once using the maprun Check Sites facility. It is 1:10,000 scale, with 5m contours.
The event map is now published, below…
…. and you are asked to download it and bring it with you. If you are truly unable to print a colour map, then you need to email mapping@ngoc.org.uk to ask for a map to be printed for you. You are then required to visit the map issue point on arrival at Rodborough, to be given your map. The map issue point is on the road from Stroud up to Rodborough Common, at the entrance to Rodborough Common Car park, the location of which is given in the link at the top of this post. The map issue post will be open between 10:15 and 12:15 on 1 January. After that you are on your own. Remember that you will of course have a map on your phone, if desperate!
Event Details
This is a 60 minute Start Anywhere maprun Score event. All controls are worth 20 points, and there is a 10 point penalty for each minute and part minute over 60. Start Anywhere means exactly that. The first control you visit becomes your start control, and must also be your finish control. The Start Anywhere feature requires a common designated start and finish control, but that will simply become just another control for you to visit during your run. You do not have to visit it. There are controls close to all of the marked car parks, but you can start at any control on the course if you wish. You are not limited just to those near the car parks.
Due to the number of roads criss-crossing the Common, children under 16 are not allowed to run unless accompanied by an adult.
Times and Costs
As with all events at present, this is a pre-entry only event. Entries will open on or about 16 December, and will close at midnight on Wednesday 30th December. Click the link below to go to Fabian and enter.
Suggested Starts: 10:30 – 12:30. When you enter you will not be asked by Fabian to choose a start time. Our intention is that people will ideally run within this time frame, and thereby might come across a few fellow runners, but the overall strategy for social distancing is to have many parking and start points, and a reasonably long suggested start window, but with no limits on either start location or start time.
Entry: £6 Seniors, £3 Juniors, no non-BOF supplement. All profits will be donated to a charity of the planner’s choosing.
FACILITIES
Other than map pickup for those unable to print their own, none.
MAPRUNF/G CONSIDERATIONS
Start anywhere performs like any other maprun course, apart from flexibility over the start/finish control. It should operate successfully on maprunG, but I am not aware if anyone has actually tested that.
One word of warning; I am not sure how well HITMO performs with start anywhere courses. If you are sure you are at a control, but can get no beep, you should carry on, and try to review your course using HITMO when you finish. If you are unable to review and add any controls that you went to but that did not register, you need to email maprun@ngoc.org.uk with details, and we will try and sort out your result.
You need to have maprunF installed on your phone. If you have the older version, just called maprun, it wont work with start anywhere, and you need to uninstall it and replace it with maprunF.
If you do not have a smartphone, we have 2 loan phones, which you can reserve by emailing maprun@ngoc.org.uk. Note that these are sim-less phones, so you wont see a result until we get those back to a wifi service where we can upload your course for you.
BAD WEATHER
In the event of bad weather threatening the event, we will post a notice on the website here no later than 8 pm on New Year’s Eve, 31st December, stating whether the event is going ahead or not. Our aim should this happen is to postpone for 1 week, to Friday 8th January, but we will confirm that at the time.
SAFETY
A risk assessment has been completed.
A first aid kit will be available at the map pickup point during the start window – 10:30-12:30.
The Commons are very popular with the public, and there will be golfers on the golf course on Minchinhampton Common. Please be aware of all other users of the area, be courteous towards them, and allow them plenty of space, particularly if running past people from behind, which can be disconcerting for some people.
The golf course is marked on the map, using an arrow shape to show the direction of golfers and flying balls! Try to pick a route around the course where possible, but if you need to cross a fairway, you should treat it like crossing a road and take great care. Look in the direction where golfers travel from and check that nobody is about to hit a ball, even if it is 200 metres away!
If you are travelling alone, please try to let someone know that you are going on this run, and make sure you notify them when you get back.