Claro Maprun for Newcomers
Claro organise informal evening events using the Maprun6 phone app to score your run. Most events are in towns with a simplified ‘stick’ map of the streets with purple circles around the control points that you must visit. The control points are all on roads and paths and the navigation is not difficult but quick thinking can help a lot. You are given a waterproof paper map with the control points marked but you also need to have the Maprun6 app on your phone and this will bleep when you reach the control point. There is nothing on the ground to mark the control point. Most control points are lampposts (see No smart phone? below for why).
The usual format is that you visit as many as possible of the 30 control points in 45 minutes – you can take them in any order. When you get back to the finish your score (20 points for every control visited minus 10 points for every minute or part minute over 45minutes) is shown on the app (to everybody).
Before the event..
- Enter online at Google Forms (cost £3 up to 5pm of the evening before the event).
- Download Maprun6 onto your phone (there is unlikely to be very good signal on the evening) and sign in to the app.
- its a good idea to also download the files for your event in advance so you are not dependent on the signal at the start of the event. Select the event by clicking on ‘Select event’ then ‘Uk’, then ‘North Yorkshire’ then either ‘Harrogate’ or ‘Pateley Bridge’, then the event. The name of the event will be on the Claro website.
- Read the event notes on the website for any event-specific instructions.
Bring to the event..
- A fully charged phone with Maprun6 installed.
- A bumbag or whatever to carry the phone (you don’t need to look at it while you are running – just listen for the beep)
- A fully charged headlight or torch.
- A wristwatch or whatever to check the time you have left (quicker than checking on your phone)
- Hi-viz top (we insist on this!)
Getting started..
- Please arrive in good time to check in before briefing at 6.15.
- Checkin with the organiser, pay £3 if due and perhaps order your dinner (see ‘Afterwards’ below)
- Safety briefing 6.15 – starts from 6.30.
- The organiser will give you a paper map.
- Open Maprun6 and click ‘Events Near Me’ and select the event you are doing and click ‘Go to Start’
- Go to the start point (the triangle on the map). When you are close you will get a beep from the app and it has started timing your run.
- Plan a route and run!
- Your run finished when you get back to the start point.
Hints..
- It’s worth pausing to look at the map and plan a route.
- Better to go to more distant controls first and leave yourself some close controls to pick off if you have time at the end.
- Check your time regularly and revise route accordingly.
- On the map the control circles have a dot in the centre which should be placed to show you which side of the street the lamppost in on.
- Controls usually beep from 10-20m awa if one does not then just continue with your run. We can see your route on the app and if you have been past the control you will be credited with the points.
- Beware that if you go too close to the start point during your run the app may decide that you have finished.
Afterwards..
- Make sure that the organiser has ticked you off as finishing.
- Some runners go to the pub for a drink or meal afterwards – we sometimes put the meal order in before running.
No Smart Phone?
Before we had Maprun6 we did these events by using lampposts as control points. Competitors have a card on which to note down the number on the lamppost to prove that that they have been there. If you do not have a Smartphone or do not have Maprun6 installed you can still use this option. Note that in some areas such as Pateley with controls on paths without lampposts other features are used and you usually have to note down a number e.g. bars on gate or distance on finger post.