For a MapRun event, runners will often be printing the maps themselves as the courses are usually designed to be run at any time. Clubs can also use MapRun for more formal events where pre-printed maps are supplied to competitors, but these are usually not professionally printed. Because of these printing restrictions, your final map should be:

• A4
• Single-sided

What type of base map to use is your first major decision. The style (score/line) and length of course may have an impact on this because of the area your runners will cover. Because runners on a score course will pick the shortest distance, your map will tend to need to cover a larger area than it would for a line course. Some rules of thumb:

• An urban A4 map at 1:10000 should accommodate an hour's score course
• An urban A4 map at 1:7500 will be on the edge of a 45-minute score course

Proper IOF Map (1:4000)

IOF-standard map

Your club may be able to provide you with a IOF-standard map in OCAD (.ocd) or OpenOrienteeringMapper (.omap or .xmap) format. For orienteers, this is the most familar format, but because of the large amount of detail, the scale will be 1:5000 or 1:4000 for urban maps. For a real orienteering event, the map may be printed on A3 (or larger) and double-sided, but because you need to produce a single-sided A4 map, you may find that this scale does not permit you to make the courses as long as you require. You should be able to comfortably plan a 5km line course on a 1:4000 map.

Benefits:

• Clear contours and earth features
• Different levels of runability of wooded areas displayed
• Fences and uncrossable features quite clear
• Wall, fences, roads and paths clearly distinguishable
• Most familiar to orienteers, so may attract participants from further afield

You will probably want a KMZ file to use as the background for tracks as part of the results. Both OCAD and OpenOrienteeringMapper can generate a KMZ file directly (exact procedure not covered here but, if asked, the tiles in your KMZ file should be no larger than 512x512. More details here). If your IOF-standard map is not geo-referenced, you will not be able to generate a usable KMZ and so it will probably be easier to generate a KMZ from OpenOrienteeringMap for the tracks (or if the course is viewed on a phone).

OpenOrienteeringMap StreetO layout

OpenOrienteeringMap StreetO

OpenOrienteeringMap (OOMap) pulls in mapping data from OpenStreetMap (OSM) which is a community-edited map. In the same way that Wikipedia allows anyone to edit articles that interest them and of which they have some expertise, OpenStreetMap allows anyone to edit the map and add/remove/edit features such as roads, fences, buildings and zones areas such as residential. OpenOrienteeringMap uses appropriate data to generate an orienteering-style map, but by necessity it must be simplified. Specifically, some tyes of items are converted to features on the final map, but many others are ignored. OpenOrienteeringMap can render the map data in different ways. It will only use the map data necessary for the type of map it is asked to produce.

StreetO is the original output style from OpenOrienteeringMap. Points to note:

• Only shows roads, paths, grass, water and wooded areas
• Because of the limited features displayed, it is extremely clear and uncluttered and works well even at 1:12500 scale
• Very few mapped features to use as control locations. Best for controls on path and road junctions
• Has no buildings, so these cannot be used as a navigation aid
• May contain many areas which can be crossed, but because they are not mapped as such (e.g. grass), they are missing on the map thus causing confusion
• Uses very little ink/toner to print!
• Looks very different to a usual orienteering map
• Underlying map data may be substantially wrong. For example, note missing courtyard in example

OpenOrienteeringMap PseudO layout

OpenOrienteeringMap PseudO

OpenOrienteeringMap can also generate a map which, superficially at least, looks like a standard orienteering map. In contrast to the StreetO style, many more map items are used (such as buildings and hedges) and these can provide useful navigational information.

Points to note:

• Can add hedges and individual trees
• Roads are generally represented as fixed width lines and so are generally inaccurate, especially with turning areas
• Walls, minor roads and edges of major roads are of similar width, so hard to distinguish
• Quality of mapping varies widely. Sometimes paths are just a straight line or a guess, but sometimes every single fence between houses is mapped making the map unreadable. With latest OOM, you can choose to omit fences, hedges, walls and driveways
• May need to add out-of-bounds to the course as things like school fields are often mapped in a way that they look accessible (the example clearly show this in the fenced area to the south-west)
• Is readable at 1:7500. At 1:10000 may need to be careful about clarity of paths as they may merge with outlines of buildings
• Underlying map data may be substantially wrong, note missing courtyard in example. Errors probably more significant than with StreetO