Exceprts from emails to Laura Kearney, about adventure racing practice

From Michael Wood, Orienteering Hutt Valley, Early 2019

What I recommend is that you go to Wainui Trail Park and do the attached course, either on bikes or on foot. Read the off-track rules for MTBO, you can shortcut thru white forest (think of it as VERY pale green) but not the rest of the green. You will need to use a white-forest shortcut to get to #14 as I think the bottom end of that track loop is within a road construction zone. 
 
The course is 5km measured round the route, so its not very long, but it will be way more relevant for you. It’s a beginner MTBO course which was rained out and we will run it again sometime. So it has value to us, and I hope to you – a donation would be appreciated. (030502 0316515-01 Ref Maps) You may have the right to copy and use for 2 months from now. (As an example the course took an experienced orienteer, who is NOT very experienced on a MTB, 48min on a wet day. Some of the tracks were a bit slippery – ones off the main Wetland Loop.)
 
Now there will be no markers out there but the event is on the mobile phone app Maprun (see below). It will beep when you are close to the control, although accuracy in the bush may mean that some controls don’t work. Not sure if you have been to any of our previous trials of this app, sing out if you need to know where to find it to download and what the course is called.

Just a word about the mobile app, there are two courses whose name starts wainuibm and for some reason I can’t get the list on my mobile at the moment. 

The one you DON’T want is called (on the web) wainuibm2019 Course A PXAC. The naming might be a bit different in the app. Anyway this course was a 1km taster course and half of it is in the kids motorcycle area which is normally out of bounds. And I haven’t given you that map. 

The one you DO need is called (on the web) wainuibm2019 PXAS ScoreQ150. I set it up as a score event with ALL the controls, which means that no matter which order you do the controls in you will get a score and a time. Even though it was designed as a specified order event, and score is irrelevant. What this means for you is that you will probably get extra beeps around the open area at the start. You may also fail to get beeps at some controls depending on the accuracy of the gps in your phone, whatever it is in the open it is worse in the bush.

Bear in mind that we are still testing this app, finding out whether it works in the bush etc. One thing I found was that the app went to sleep on me, and I would arrive at a control and no beep. Instead a message saying do you want to resume? I tracked that down to a short setting for turning my display off – making that the max (10min) seemed to fix that. I’m on Android.

So treat the app as icing on the cake, and concentrate on the navigation and riding. Still, would be pleased to have any feedback about the app. 

MapRun cellphone app:

Navigate to the feature and your phone will beep; at the end your time and track will be uploaded onto the internet. Before you come, download the app onto your phone. The play store may want to send you to "Mapmyrun" and this is not it. Try adding "orienteering" to the search. The app we use is by "FNE Enterprises" and it has a green "M" as the icon. We've tested the course with two cellphones and reception seems to be good enough, even under the trees. To take care of your cellphone on the move, an armband or a bumbag is a good idea.

The MapRun app has a website: www.maprun.org.au  There's a mixture of info for course planners and app users there. But most people have managed to make it work. In some older mobiles, the GPS may not be good enough - accuracy, and holding on to a satelite signal.