NORTHERN NAVIGATORS
Invite you to a Virtual Orienteering Course at
Gilesgate, Durham
2021
This is to be a 'virtual' MapRunF event - see details below, available till further notice
| Travel : | The venue is located on the east side of the City of Durham and can be accessed from the A181 or the Sunderland Road. As this is a vitual event there will be no 'O' signs. |
| Parking : | The start and finish are at the large Tesco Extra store on the east side of Durham - Tesco, Dragonville Industrial Estate, Dragon Lane, Durham, grid ref NZ296427, nearest post code DH1 2RN. There is ample parking in Tesco - 3 hours parking for free, although the terms and conditions suggest you should be buying something in Tesco. Or use neighbouring car parks. |
| Format : | Owing to the unprecedented times we are living through at the moment this will be a virtual event! There will be no physical controls and the event has been organised to utilise the mobile phone application - MapRunF, which can be freely dowloaded to both IOS and android devices. You can also optionally use the MapRunG app on compatible Garmin watches. If you have never participated in one now is your chance to shine. The advantage of this activity is that it follows the rules with regard to social distancing and you can do it at your convenience at any time. You simply need to download the MapRunF app onto your smart phone, find the event, print the map (you can use the map on your phone but may find this limiting) and go to the start. As you run around the area, your phone will ping when you arrive at a control. Follow this link for a more comprehensive explanation of the procedure from British Orienteering. |
| Course : | This is to be a 60 minute score event with 30 controls - it will now be available until further notice. The course can be found in the UK/County Durham/Durham folder of the MapRunF app on your mobile device. Visit as many controls as you can, in any order, in the given time limit. All controls are worth 20 points with a 10 point penalty per minute or part of overtime. The winner will be the person to get the most controls in the shortest time. The shortest route to get all the controls is just under 12km, but you can do as much or as little as you like! |
| Fees : | There are no fees for this event. |
| Start / finish : | The start and finish are at the large Tesco Extra on the east side of Durham. The start is at the footpath entrance on the east side of the main car park, off Dragon Lane (password for event - what3words: rats.spark.skins). As you approach the start your phone should 'ping', which indicates that you have started. The finish is at the SE corner of the main Tesco building. |
| Terrain : | Mostly on quiet residential streets and footpaths, but there are some short sections of grass to get to some controls. There are some roads to be crossed that carry heavier traffic – so please take care. Do not set foot on the A1(M) in the east of the map! Instead it should be crossed via the pedestrian tunnel east of Tescos, or the road bridge further north, by Bannatynes Hotel (both marked as crossing points on the PDF map). Some paths are unlit, so you would need a torch if it is dark. |
| Map : | Gilesgate - Scale 1:10,000, 10m contours, produced from Open Orienteering Map in StreetO style (urban background is white, e.g. roads appear as black lines, paths as dashed lines). The map with course can be downloaded and printed from here. |
| Control desc : | Control descriptions will be in text format and will be on the front of the map. |
| Facilities : | Toilets are available in Tesco (turn right as you enter the store) |
| Dogs : | Dogs will be allowed but under close control - please clean up after your dog especially in the parking area. |
| Results : | After you've finished the course your phone uploads your time and trail to the MapRunner web site, so you can see how you've done relative to other people. You can also see which routes other people have taken between checkpoints, so you can learn which sorts of routes work best and improve your performance on your next attempt. |
| Officials : | Organiser/Planner - Duncan Archer (CLOK), email |