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Thursday 04/09/2025 – Evening MapRun – Mitcheldean 2025

Thursday 04/09/2025 – Evening MapRun – Mitcheldean 2025
Updated:
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Thursday 4th September 2025 - Mitcheldean

After two largely forest races we revert back to an urban/rural mix for this race, our first in the small town of Mitcheldean. The town is characterised by a large industrial estate, and little in the way of modern suburban development, so it presents some new challenges for planners and competitors alike! There is only one way into and out of the industrial estate in the evening, so careful planning needed to make best use of the controls within, without wasting too much time, and the path and street network is such that you will find rather more dogleg dead ends than we'd like. On the other hand, the map scale is 1:7,500, and full house should be possible for those with strong legs and an appetite for hills! Plenty of controls to go for, though, if hills are not your thing.... .

NOTE to all MAPRUNNERS. You must be using MapRun v7 to run this course. It is just called MapRun. If you have MapRun6 or MapRunF please remove them and install just plain Maprun.

Entries are now open and will close at midnight on Wednessday 3rd September . Enter Online

 

Officials

Planners: Abi Jones and Nikki Pettiford
Organiser: Pat Macleod Queries? email Pat

Directions and Parking

Parking is in the Mitcheldean Playing Fields and Community Centre car park. The entrance to this car park is narrow and indistinct, so look out for the blue and white sign pointing to the entrance, which is opposite the grassy bank as you drive North on B4224 Townsend, or just after you pass the industrial estate if approaching from the North.

What Three Words: ///composes.bombshell.mash

Grid Ref: SO663188

Click on the parking icon on the map below, and then the Direction icon icon to get directions to the course.

The Area

An interesting mix of industrial estate, older residential housing with lots of cul de sacs, but little in the way of interlinking paths, plus some outlying woodland and fields on the southern and western edges of the town. The Forest of Dean climbs steeply up from the edge of town, and a few controls can be found on footpaths running along the hillside.

The going is generally very good, with little in the way of undergrowth on any of the footpaths, though you may encounter nettles and brambles in one or two places in the outskirts of the town.

There is one section of fairly dense woodland, so if starting towards the end of the start window, and tackling this later on your course, a head torch may come in handy, as the evenings are drawing in.

As mentioned above there is a single entry/exit point to/from the large industrial estate (or business village as it prefers to call itself). This is clearly marked on your event map, and there is a heavy purple line showing the extent of the industrial estate. [Update 03/09/25] On reflection, looking at the printed event map, we have decided to remove the thick line bounding the estate, and the marking for the sole entry/exit point; the latter is fairly evident, and the thick line obscured some of the key no entry crosses at the other possible(Daytime) entry points!

The Security staff at the gate have been advised of the race are are happy for runners to come and go. There is no pedestrian barrier.

Timing and Fees

Starts from 18:00 to 18:30. As evenings are starting to draw in a little, we have reverted to our more typical 18;00-18:30 start window. You may be able to start a bit earlier if the organiser is there and the maps have arrived (normally well in time for the start window!), and if you are likely to be late arriving please let us know in advance.

To guarantee a map, you will need to pre-enter via Fabian4: entries are open, and will stay open until midnight on Wednesday 3rd September. 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.


Enter Online

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!

The course

This is a 60 minute score event using the MapRun app.

The Start and Finish are adjacent to parking.

  • 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 in 60 minutes. 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 1:7,500, before you start. Note that the map is tilted slightly West, so that North-South lines do not run parallel with the edgess of te paper map!

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.

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) 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.

Safety

Under 16s must be accompanied by adults as the routes will use and cross both the main roads through the town, as well as other minor roads. Great caution must be taken when crossing roads and when passing road junctions and drives where vehicles may be joining the carriageway.

A first aid kit will be available at registration.

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