MapRun

Ever get the urge to go Orienteering but there just isn’t an event on that week? Want to get a bit of practice on your own? Just want to liven up a routine training run?
Then you’ve come to the right place!

Sarah Dunn of Maroc/Scottish Orienteering is championing MapRun – an app that displays maps, orienteering and otherwise, on your phone screen and uses its GPS capability to track and time you.
It automatically uploads your results and splits to RouteGadget too so you can play it back and see what went right or what went a bit wrong and compare yourself with others who have completed the same course.

It’s strongly recommended that you download the pdf version of the map to carry with you and just use your phone for timing – there’s a list of the Gramp courses at the end of this page. Although this seems to defeat the spirit of doing it all electronically this is because Sprint scale maps are sometimes a little subjective to try and cram all the detail in, so features on the map are sometimes offset a bit compared to the real life GPS coordinates used by the app. Take a look at Rachel’s trace from Duthie Park without a paper map and you’ll see she had to run round in very small circles in a couple of places second guessing what the feature should be in order to hit the spot.

• Download MapRun or MapRunF from Google Play or Apple App Store.
  You can find quick links on the MapRunners website along with fuller instructions.
• Start the App
• Enter your Name – to be used with your results
• Tap Select Event/Event List and browse UK > Scotland>Westhill or UK>Scotland>Gramp> for the others
• Tap  Goto Start to see the map and course
• ​If using MapRun now tap Start GPS. MapRunF will automatically start your GPS. For either it may take your GPS a moment or two to locate enough satellites, in which case you’ll get a ‘Waiting for GPS signal’ message.
• Once the GPS is live, you need to run or walk through the Start to trigger the course timer and your phone will beep at you.
• Every time you get close enough to a control position on the ground – usually within about 5m – your phone will beep/ding/cheep/honk or whatever you’ve got set up for notifications.
• Remember that you need to pass through the Finish to stop the timer with yet another beep.
• At the finish, MapRun will automatically upload your results, or you can do it yourself. You can also send your results to Strava.

Most courses are TD3 (medium difficulty) urban style and some do involve road crossings or blind corners so please take care and be courteous to members of the public and other runners.

Remember olive green is Out of Bounds, don’t jump any thick black lined (on the map) walls or fences and if it looks like private property like a garden then don’t go there.

Any distances shown are as-the-crow-flies so for really built up areas bank on running about 1.5 times as far as you zig-zag round.