Thursday 13/02/2025 – Evening MapRun – Coleford 2025

Although Coleford is a substantial town by Forest of Dean standards, we thought it would be fun to limit the course to the heart of the town, and nearest suburbs, and use the Odds and Evens format, for a change.

There are very few grass paths, although there is one significant and fairly steep one separating the Suntory Ribena factory from some of the newer suburbs. It's matching path, on the other side of the valley into which this path falls, is very rutted and rocky, and deemed to be too dangerous to descend at night, and so the course is planned such that there is no point in using it. It will be marked as out of bounds.

Otherwise, the course is a mix of older and newer housing areas, with a reasonably good network of paths and residential roads joining them all up. The town centre is in a natural bowl in the landscape, so from the start it's up in most directions, but down to come back to base after your run!

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 are open now, and will stay open until midnight on Wednesday 12th February. 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: £6 seniors, or £5 for British Orienteering registered runners, £2 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 Odds and Evens score event using the MapRun app, with a 1:7,500 scale map.

The Start and Finish are very close to the car park.

Note that the control numbering listed below is not the standard scheme.

• Checkpoints 10-19 are worth 10 points.

• Checkpoints 20-29 are worth 20 points.

• Checkpoints 30-39 are worth 30 points.

In other words, the score for each control is the first digit of the control number multiplied by 10.

This is an Odds and Evens event. Bearing in mind that you cannot prevent MapRun registering a punch at any control you pass, unlike normal orienteering Odds and Evens courses, You need to make sure you understand how this scheme works with satellite punching, so pay careful attention to the following rules:

• There are two sets of controls - odd numbers and even numbers
• You can start with either set, visit as many as you choose, and then, once only, you can switch to the other set; so start with odd numbers ones, and when ready to change, you switch to the evens, or the other way around - evens first, then odds.
• To choose your first set, you must visit 2 controls in that set; you will not start scoring points until you have visited 2 odds or 2 evens, though those controls will count towards your score when you do start one set or the other. The pair of controls can be consecutive, or can be separated by a single control of the other set. So you could start 11, 13, or 11, 12, 13, and in each case you would be started on Odds. If you started 11, 12, 14 you'd be on Evens.
• When ready to change, you must visit 2 consecutive controls in the 'other' set. It's important to note that to switch the 2 controls MUST be in the same set, unlike when setting out from the start.
• While running one set, you can pass a single control in the other set without penalty. It will not count as a score; you will have to revisit it on your next circuit. If you pass 2 consecutive other set controls, however, you will be deemed to have changed sets, and you can only do that once.
• Once you have changed sets, you can pass multiple consecutive previous set controls without penalty; they just wont score you any points.

We have tried to design the course such that it is possible to visit all controls whilst remaining within these rules; you just have to go round the town more than once!

If you’re late getting back, there’s a 30 point penalty per minute or part minute over. We will, however, adjust these penalties down to the standard 10 points per minute after the race. This is down to the rules specified by MapRun for the Odds and Evens scoring scheme.

You'll be issued with a waterproof map, A4, scale 1:7,500, 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, a week or two before the day.

You can download the course by scanning this QR code

 or by tapping this link on your MapRun phone, or by using the Select Event button in MapRun and navigating to the UK/Gloucestershire/Current Series folder.

MapRunG (Garmin watch) users: if you have MapRun6 or later, 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.

Due to the fact the area includes roads juniors under 16s must be accompanied for insurance reasons. There are various fairly busy roads crossing the event area, so you should take particular care when crossing these. There are pavements available throughout most of the built up area.

A headtorch is essential, and some form of reflective clothing strongly advised.

Please be mindful of users in the area, in particular when running in, entering or emerging from narrow lanes and alleyways.

Orienteering is an adventure sport. All runners take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety.