Wednesday 2/04/2025 – Evening MapRun – Prestbury 2025

The village of Prestbury is on the very edge of Cheltenham. It has a lovely old village centre that still feels rural with its many thatched houses and surrounding fields, but there are also various housing estates of differing ages that link the village to the town. There are also large open spaces and plenty of connecting paths. It is largely a flat area, although there are some contours lines in the SE part.

Hopefully, the muddy areas will have dried up by the time of the event, but be warned that there were some wet and muddy sections in the open parts when checked in early March.

Unusually, the course will include 4 controls in the grounds of Cheltenham's crematorium. You MUST stick to the extensive network of roads and paths here and be very respectful to anybody you meet. No ceremonies take place in the evenings when it tends to be very quiet, but some people may nevertheless feel uncomfortable about running in such a place, in which case just avoid it. Note that the gates are locked at 7.30pm, so late starters should not visit at the end of their run to avoid getting locked in! No dogs are allowed.

Starts from 18:00 to 18:30. If you think you'll struggle to make that start window, email the organiser to let him know, and we can extend starts a bit.

To guarantee a map, you will need to pre-enter via Fabian4: entries will open soon, and will stay open until midnight on Tuesday 1st April. A few extra maps will be available for entry on the day, but don't rely on this, and ideally bring cash, although we do now have an available card reader.

Entry fees: £5 seniors, plus £1 for unaffiliated (to British Orienteering) runners, £2 juniors (no added fee for unaffiliated juniors). Competitors aged under-16 must be accompanied. The fee covers third party liability insurance, a map printed on waterproof paper, and post-run cake!

It’s a one hour score event using the MapRun app.

The Start and Finish are located in Sainsburys car aprk on the footway through the parking area.

• Checkpoints 1-10 are worth 10 points.

• Checkpoints 11-20 are worth 20 points.

• Checkpoints 21-30 are worth 30 points.

Score as many points as you can within an hour. If you’re late getting back, there’s a 10 point penalty per minute over.

You'll be issued with a waterproof map, A4, scale 1:10,000, before you start.

Please make sure you’ve installed MapRun before the event. If installing MapRun for the first time, select the MapRun app from your app store, and not MapRunF or MapRun6. MapRun, which is in practise Maprun v7, is now the standard app. If you haven’t used MapRun before, don’t worry – it’s easy to use, and we have full details on getting started.

You should download the course to your phone ideally before coming to the event, as sometimes there is little or no phone signal once there.

Links to enable download will appear here when the course is published, at least two weeks before race day.

MapRunG (Garmin) and MapRunA (Apple) users: you do not need the event PIN number to download the course to your watch. This means you can download the course before your arrive at the event, in case there is no phone signal there.

Under 16s must be accompanied at all times.

Most of the course is on paths and relatively quiet suburban roads but there are one or two busier roads through the area, where greater care will be needed when crossing. You can also expect to meet pedestrians and should take care in particular when turning corners or emerging from alleyways etc.

A head torch shopuld not be necessary, but bright coloured clothing is recommended.

A first aid kit will be available at registration.

Orienteering is an adventure sport, and you are responsible for your own safety.