Click here to download these details in PDF format.
| Date | Event | Parking | Organiser |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Nov – 23 Dec Run any time |
SEGOL Urban GPS Race Gloucester |
GL6 8PP | maprun@ngoc.org.uk |
NGOC is pleased to welcome GPS orienteers to the Gloucester 2020 SEGOL race, based in the Docks and covering the city centre and immediate surrounds. SEGOL is the Southern England GPS Orienteering League, started in October 2020 in response to COVID-19 restrictions and the cancellation of SEOUL 2020. See the SEGOL website for more details.
Courses will be available to download and run from Saturday 21 November through to Wednesday 23rd December inclusive, or later if necessary to allow 3 weeks to compete outside of lockdown times.
We are using maprunF, so maprunG is also enabled for suitable GPS watches.
We had hoped to add a bit of extra competition by having a map pick up point and PIN protected courses, but current circumstances have prevented us from finding one with long 7 day opening hours, and so the courses are publicly available, with maps and control descriptions which can be downloaded from here. We nevertheless hope that competitors will enter into the spirit of SEGOL and will look at neither map nor others’ results before starting their runs.
Please visit the SEGOL website for rules pertaining to this competition, and note that you need to register on that website to be included in the SEGOL competition. If you haven’t done that, do it now by visiting the site using the link above.
Travel and Parking
Start and Finish are in Gloucester Docks, so there are plenty of car parks around the area from which to base your run. The most suitable ones are probably those marked on the map linked to in the table above.
Southgate Moorings car park, GL1 2DB, is the most convenient, but can be busy. It is a pay and display car park costing £1.30 for 1 hour, £2 for 3 hours, or £3 for 4 hours, Monday to Saturday, or £1 for 1 hour, £2.20 all day on Sundays.
Ladybellegate Street car park, GL1 2HN, is £1.40 for 1 hour, £2.30 for 2 hours, £3.50 for 3 hours, or £1.20 for 1 hour, £2.20 all day on Sundays.
Gloucester Quays shopping centre also has a large covered car park.
The Start and Finish are co-located 60m directly in front of the Soldiers of Gloucester Museum, GL1 2HE, on the side of the canal boat moorings and in front of an S-shaped bench under a canopy.
The Area
Typical city centre mix of pedestrian and vehicle routes, with an extensive almost exclusively pedestrian area around the docks. We have planned a yellow course in the area, though please read the course and safety notes below carefully before deciding whether to allow under 16s to run this unaccompanied.
The Map
The yellow course map is at 1:4,000, with all others at 1:5,000. Contours are at 5m, but there are almost none on the map!
With the exception of the Black(MO) course, all maps are A4, but there is no room on the map for control descriptions, so these are provided separately in PDF form. For the Black course runners have the option of an A3 map, including control descriptions, or 2 A4 parts, without CDs. Only one switch is needed from part 1 to part 2, and that can be made at any convenient time from mid course onwards.
The map is broadly ISSOM based, but has additional mapping using ISSPROM 2019 for multi-level paved area orienteering in two small areas. Click here for supplementary notes explaining how this has been applied for this event.
Pleae pay careful heed to uncrossable features, which on ISSOM maps also means DO NOT CROSS. Details of these are printed on the maps.
Event Details
This is a Maprun event, requiring use of either MaprunF on smartphone, or MaprunG on Garmin GPS watch. If you are not familiar with Maprun, you can find plenty of information on how to use it on the Maprun Gloucestershire website here.
Be aware that high buildings, in particular, can adversely affect GPS signals, so you should make allowances for this. When checking the controls we found that GPS trace accuracy was somewhat worse than in suburbia or the forest, though all controls registered correctly, in some cases after a short delay. You should aim to push hard between controls but slow down approaching them, and let your GPS catch up with you. On balance we feel that delays in getting a beep in some places will be offset by early beeps in others.
If you believe you are at a control, but cannot get a beep in a reasonable time – typically perhaps 10-20 seconds – you should carry on, and at the end of your run, use the Review Results(HITMO) facility to check your route and see which controls the app thinks you went near, but which did not record. Any revised results thus uploaded to maprun will be checked by us and accepted or rejected, and the change will be reported to SEGOL. We suggest that if you have any queries about your result, or you have used HITMO, you email us at maprun@ngoc.org.uk as soon as you can after your run.
There is one bridge on the Yellow course which may close to pedestrian traffic from time to time, to allow boats to pass. There are controls close to either side of the bridge, and juniors should be advised to wait if the bridge alarm rings, or the bridge is closed to them when they get there, and report the delay by email to the organiser soon after finishing, so that their split for that leg can be adjusted. The Black course crosses a high level bridge which rarely needs to open to docks water traffic, but if it does, Black runners should record how long they are delayed, report the delay to us, and we will adjust splits accordingly.
There are 5 Courses available, broadly in line with BO rules for urban long distance events:
| Course | Typical Run length | Climb | Controls | Age Classes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 11.3Km | 10 | 41 | MO |
| Brown | 9.5Km | 10 | 29 | MV, WO |
| Blue | 8.4Km | 10 | 25 | MSV, WV |
| Green | 7.4Km | 10 | 26 | MUV, WSV, WUV, MHV, WHV, MJ, WJ |
| Yellow | 3.1Km | 0 | 17 | MYJ, WYJ |
You can download the maps and control descriptions from the links below.
Black A3 Black A4 Part 1 Black A4 Part 2 Brown Blue Green Yellow Control Descriptions
You download the course from the UK/Gloucestershire/SEGOL folder on the maprun system. If using MaprunG be aware that whilst there will be a signal at parking, it’s often best to download to watch whilst you have a wifi signal.
Safety and Risk Assessment
Competitors are responsible for their own personal safety and for assessing their own ability to complete the course. We have assessed the risks of which you might not be aware in the competition area, and have planned to mitigate them where possible. Clearly, however, you will be running at all times in a populous city centre and its immediate environs. Please be particularly careful to avoid collisions with pedestrians, obey prevailing social distancing rules, and be aware of vehicle traffic where necessary.
There are two specific risks to which we draw your attention.
- The Gloucester Docks area, within which the Yellow course is contained, is pedestrianised throughout, but some car traffic is permitted in places to allow business access to buildings, and to allow buses and taxis to cross a bridge. Juniors should be specifically warned to look out for any such traffic, which should be very low speed, but may not be, and all runners should be aware of this.
- There are extensive areas of deep water – it is a working dock area – in most places with no barrier between the paved areas and the docks themselves. There is no need to run close to the water, and juniors must be advised not to do so
The Yellow course is contained within the Gloucester Docks area, but by the nature of the area is of higher than yellow standard, requiring navigation across pedestrian areas and around buildings where there is route choice. This and the potential hazards described above should be taken into account when deciding whether to allow juniors to run unaccompanied:
Queries or Further Information
If you have any queries about the event, courses or technology, please email maprun@ngoc.org.uk.