Well done to everyone who had a run out this weekend past on the New Fancy training courses. It was particularly good to see some newer names, and also some maprunners giving forest orienteering a try. As many will have found, it can be a lot harder finding a control when there is no flag on it. However, the 25m punch tolerance should have meant that by and large you got the phone beep when within the control circle, or when you’d likely have spotted the flag if there had been one. Certainly when I went round I was consistently getting the beep some way before the control, and most tracks I have looked at suggest the same.
We’d be interested in any comments or ideas anyone has for improving these sessions. In particular, what would help to get people out and training? It surprises me that so many are prepared to drive for miles to a paid up event, yet by comparison relatively few go out and run a local training event. Maybe it’s the technology, maybe the lack of a comforting control to find, maybe a concern that the courses will not be up to spec. Whatever, let us know; drop us a line to maprun@ngoc.org.uk, or add a comment on the Facebook Maprun Gloucestershire page.
The New Fancy courses will be dropped from the maprun system shortly, and will be replaced in due course by the next series, based on the permanent course in Highmeadow Wood, and starting from close to Christchurch campsite. These will be available from Friday to Sunday the 6th to the 8th of November, slightly later than initially intended, but to avoid clashing with our Western Night league and Sunday score event at Chalford over the Halloween weekend.