With the announcement of COVID restrictions easing we can start to look forwards to a summer of events. Our first race back will be on Saturday 15th May at Cwm Lickey near Pontypool. This will be a one hour ‘score’ event to blow away the cobwebs, great for beginners and experienced competitors.

Our popular Wednesday evening Park Series will also return fortnightly from mid-July until September with some new parks added to the schedule for 2021.

All our events will comply with British Orienteering COVID guidance, further dates and entry details will be posted here when available.

Assuming Covid restrictions allow.

NEW PERMANENT MapRun Courses.
5 new courses in Pontcanna Fields and Bute Park. 1 Long which uses both sides of the river, 2 medium and 2 short courses, each using only one side of the river as Blackweir Bridge is still closed. These are free do anytime events. Just download the app and give it a go.
Details on the Permanent courses page. 

‘Get Out & Go‘ is a series of short films to take beginners through all the basics to confidently try orienteering. All the skills and techniques shown in the films are easy to practice using our Anytime MapRun Courses.

The four films are titled Getting Started, Getting Going, Getting Confident and Getting Faster.

1. Getting Started gives information on orienteering maps, useful symbols to note, how courses are drawn, and what to look for at checkpoints or controls.  It also shows how to line up the map with features nearby, a key skill to help the novice orienteer set off in the right direction.
2. Getting Going covers more detail on the map, shows how to use a compass, simple route choices, how to use features other than paths as handrails, and when to cut corners.
3. Getting Confident gives tips on techniques that help build more confidence in navigational decisions. These include learning to take a sure route into a checkpoint, finding a safety net if you overshoot and using control descriptions to visualise the checkpoint.
4. Getting Faster demonstrates where to plan ahead, where to speed up and slow down and gives some tips on reading the map on the run.

Thank-you to Manchester and District Orienteering Club and GMOA for creating this fantastic resource

to longstanding SWOC members Rhys Manning and Debbie Lamb on their marriage in Holy Trinity Church, Aberystwyth this afternoon.

You can now listen to over 30 episodes of our podcast, The Run In.
It’s made with club orienteers in mind, and gives you a fun and chatty insight into the experiences of orienteers from the UK and beyond.

As a member of the GB team, Will brings his international experience, and as a journalist and commentator, Katherine gets to the heart of the guest’s story.

Recent highlights include:
– Georgia Jones (OROX) on pitching orienteering to newcomers whilst setting up the University of Exeter club
– Young star of international orienteering Simona Aebersold on getting really nervous before major races and how she distracts herself
– Kirstin Maxwell (RR) on trying to train with vitamin deficiencies, and finding new trails in lockdown
– Ben Mitchell (SBOC) tells us why he started mapping, and making maps for the JK 2021

New full-length episodes are released every fornight, and we have recently added some quick-fire “Sprint” episodes, meaning there’s something new to listen to every week.

You can listen on desktop via Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-run-in-2), or on your phone. We’re on most of the major podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podcast Addict etc. Just search “The Run In”.

We’re also on social media: Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/theruninpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/TheRunInPod), and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/therunin/).

We hope you enjoy listening!

Katherine Bett (SN) and Will Gardner (OD)

Following the successful event at the Blorenge we are restarting regular orienteering events with monthly proper orienteering events and evening street events using MapRun. Unless Welsh Government advice changes all events are restricted to 30 people with pre-entry only.

• Wed 16th Sept, SWOC AGM via Zoom
• Sat 19th Sept, Storey Arms local event
• Wed 23rd Sept, Maprun Event 1, St Mellons
• Sat 17th Oct, Draethen local event.
• Wed 21st Oct Maprun Event 2, Newport.
• Wed 19th Nov, Maprun Event 3, Cardiff.
• Sun 29th Nov, Kingswood Local.
• Wed 16th Dec, Maprun Event 4, Cardiff.
• Sun 27th Dec, Xmas Score, Cosmeston Country park.

A linear course of around 9k around the streets of Penarth created by Frank Ince. Map here.

This time a street score created by Richard Cronin in West Newport. A pdf of the map is on the MapRun page.

I have created 3 MapRun courses in Gwaelod-y-Garth woods. These are conventional linear orienteering courses. There are long and a short courses suitable for experienced orienteers and an easy short course suitable for beginners. As all of the control sites are under tree cover GPS reception will be variable. Going round the controls using 2 different phones all of the controls responded using a 15m sensitivity radius. The pdf maps and control descriptions can be downloaded on the MapRun page.