‘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

Saturday morning local event for all ages and abilities – Entry in advance only

Venue: Hailey Park, Start/finish will be in the carpark at end of Radyr Road, CF14 2FU

Start times: 10 – 10.30 am

Entry: In advance at Fabian4. Limited to 29 in line with Welsh Government Guidelines. Unfortunately at present (6/10/20) this event will only be open to competitors living in the Cardiff area.

Entry Fees: £6 Senior, £3 Junior, Non-members + £2/£1 (you can join swoc here)

Courses: 3 courses to choose from; Short ~2.5km easy for beginners/juniors, Medium ~ 3.5km, Long ~ 5.5km. Short and medium will be entirely traffic free within the park, the long course will venture outside of the park and so is only open to over16’s.

New to Orienteering? This event is run (or walked) as a time trial format. At the start you will be given a detailed map of the park with a series of checkpoints marked on it. You will need to find the quickest route between each of the controls e.g. start-1-2-3-etc, at each checkpoint there will be a small marker and timing unit to ‘dib’. On finishing you will receive a printout of your time and results will be posted on the SWOC website so you can compare your result with others.

Safety: A detailed risk assessment has been carried out. Orienteering, an outdoor individual sport, run as a time trial is intrinsically a low risk sport. This event will be run in accordance with British Orienteering COVID guidelines. Please do not attend if you are feeling unwell or have been advised to isolate. Hailey Park is popular with dog walkers, cyclists and is also used by other groups on a Saturday morning – please be courteous and adhere to social distancing. There will be several areas of out of bounds (rugby pitches) marked on the map in purple hatching you must not cut across.

Thank-you to Cardiff Council who have given permission for this event to take place.

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.

New 1hr score MapRun. Map available on the MapRun page. Start is at Taffs Well Railway Station. The area covers Taffs Well, Gwaelod y Garth and Ty Rhiw.

This time its a sprint event around Llanishen Park in north Cardiff. Detailed instructions are on the map page