There have been some fine performances. Liam Corner set the standard by coming first in the Stockport and Edgely Long running at a pace of 4:32 mins/km. David Gray came 4th. Simon Gebbit won the Medium, and John Britton came first in the Short. Rhiannon Burke and Danny Jones ran as a pair (lets’s call them R&D) ran 3rd in the Short, also 5th in the Medium and finally took on the Long (twice) coming 12th and last in 1 hour 44m.

The second event was at Glossop. David Gray beat Liam Corner by a whisker in the Long, but Liam beat the rest by a distance in the Medium. John Britton won the Short whilst R&D came last - well they retired - after two hours and a half hours. Rhiannon later admitted to working to her own definition of the Scatter rules so that instead of visiting any 8 controls they visited theirs in numerical order. Unfortunately the controls were numbered and placed in such a way that they traversed Glossop many times….

Wythenshawe had a hybrid map: the urban area was Night Street League style and the Park conventional. The MapRun courses were used to create a Covid-safe event. It was a miserable wet evening. The standout competitor was Chris Rostron who wisely began his Long Light Green course wearing a head torch. He eventually finished after an hour 43minutes in the dark having displayed four separate orienteering types of skill: conventional day, urban day, NSL and conventional night. The Summer Series did promise variety.

Liam came first in the hybrid Long Light Green, with David Gray second, and R&D 7th in two and a half hours. Sam Drinkwater won the Light Green, Gary Daniels the Orange, Don Taylor the Yellow with R&D second. Simon Harding won the hybrid Red.

And so to Dove Stone. Liam is winning the Daunting course but his pace has slowed to 7:42 mins/km. Sam is just behind but Sam has also run the other two courses and is leading them both. Maya the Border Collie put up a good show in the Dash, but Maya is no newcomer to MapRun, as this was her sixth event.

The Dove Stone courses are still open. I’m hoping it will attract some more runners including a few of the big names mentioned above. In particular R&D. I think it might.

Many thanks to the Planners who made all this possible. One pace forward Marie and Trevor Roberts, Grahame Crawshawe and River Edis-Smith to take your deserved applause. Let's not forget Ian Watson who provided us with the navvies website and so the means to distribute the Summer Season message and the maps.

What next?

It would nice to create a number of courses that will circumnavigate Manchester, to be run by individuals or teams over one day or many days. The total route will be about 60 kms but it will be split into 12 courses of 5km. I have the maps but the project requires three more planners. One of them could be you.You can find a MapRun Planning exercise here.

It is likely to take you less than 20 minutes and having completed it you will have all the skills necessary to become a MapRun planner. You will also have your very own MapRun course to keep. And maybe it will make you think that you could play a part in the Manchester M60 O-Ringen. I hope so.

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