Maximum Event Duration

[paddison]

I've recently used MapRun very successfully for two hour score events and was wondering whether anyone has experience of using the app for longer periods.

Has anyone tried courses of three hours duration, or longer?

I realise that the state of a competitor's phone battery will be a critical factor here, but I'm interested in hearing whether anyone has has put on longer events and how they went.

Any thoughts about the safe upper limit for using MapRun for an event - assuming people turn up with an average phone fully charged?

Thanks

Paul Addison

[Peter Effeney]

Paul,

There have been quite a few 6hour events. See a couple of examples:

http://www.p.fne.com.au/rg/cgi-bin/SelectResultFileForSplitsBrowserFiltered.cgi?act=fileToSplitsBrowser&eventName=ScoreResults_Mt%2520Lofty%2520Isolation%2520PXAS%2520ScoreQ360.csv

http://www.p.fne.com.au/rg/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=4985&kieli=&cID=1&pID=50010

http://www.p.fne.com.au/rg/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=4242&kieli=&cID=1&pID=50009

There has been at least one 8 hour event:

http://www.p.fne.com.au/rg/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=4980&kieli=&cID=1&pID=50006

I can't be sure that runners weren't using a small external battery (which is a practical option for Rogaine type events).

A couple of other things to consider:
- there is a "battery save" mode in MapRunF that defaults to OFF. Testing would be required to see how much it extended battery life in a real event. (This tries to power down the GPS when the phone is stationary)
- MapRunG on a Garmin has not been tested in long events (not to my knowledge). I imagine that different watch models may have different battery capacity.

Regards
Peter

[paddison]

Peter

Thanks, very interesting and helpful.

Paul

[Simon Oxley]

Paul

I set up a trail event (rather than score) that took runners 5-6 hours. I was the only participant who managed to keep the phone going for the whole run and everyone else had to upload their gpx tracks from their watches. This made it quite a labour intensive process but luckily there weren't that many competitors.

I think for events of this length people need advice on battery optimisation and/or use of power packs. I'd have thought 3-4 hours should be OK for most people but you will always get folk who have old phones or start with insufficient charge!

Simon

[Mark]

Having tried "battery optimisation " at a local event on a Samsung I can safely say it is a load of 💩. That isn't MapRuns fault its simply the way it saves power means your GPS goes all over the place and takes up to 5 mins to lock on to a control, whilst standing and waiting  next to it.

The Garmin GPS should on a full charge do about 5 hours use - however that is my experience from cycling, but would expect MapRun to be the same.

[paddison]

Simon, Mark

Thanks for your input, all really helpful.

Paul

[MichaelRaz]

Just a caution on this about the 5 hrs - Every Garmin model is different in overall battery run time with GPS (not to mention the older the battery gets the the worse it gets) and any times noted by Garmin will be under perfect conditions and nothing extra running  (bluetooth etc).  I haven't bothered testing the impact of the MapRunG app running during the activity but this will have an impact.  My wife is an utlra runner and her 945 can get "up to 36 hours" in GPS mode according to specs - never happens.  She always packs a battery to recharge "on the run" (often multiple times).

I'm helping out with an upcoming 8 hr Adventure race that will be using MapRunF - the rules require everyone to have the ability to recharge their phones (or watches).  Not sure how it will work but should be interesting!

[paddison]

Michael

Good luck with the 8 hour event! Do report back on how it went.

It's interesting to hear how others are using MapRun and requiring competitors to carry additional battery charging is a simple but sensible solution.

Thanks

Paul

[michael]

I would exercise caution with any settings in a cellphone relating to battery optimisation.  I've got a strong feeling (and repeatable evidence on one particular phone) that this causes the "go to sleep" problem. This advice does not apply to MapRun's battery optimisation which would work on the app specifically rather than the phone in general, and I look forward to comments on that.

We do a lot of 3-hour afterwork rogaines and I have been using my Samsung Galaxy A10 running Android 10 without problems. The event as a whole isn't published, just testing various things. After last night's event, and without recharging, its on 38%. This phone doesn't have the biggest battery in its class.

[paddison]

Michael - thanks for comments. Paul

[glyders]

Our Quantock Challenge (https://www.quantockorienteers.co.uk/archive/review-of-the-first-quantock-challenge) was a 5hr score. No real problems with batteries running out.
In testing, I used my Samsung Galaxy S7 and closed all apps bar MapRun, switched off wifi, bluetooth and data. I started the test on 97% and after 5h36 was down to 76%.

[nick732]

Hi Paul,

We ran an 8 hour training rogaine a little while ago. No reports of battery issues (on mobiles) from what I heard, though I wasn't there to check with everyone.

I've also used myself for a 3hr MTBO with no battery problems (iPhone 11).

Regards,
Nick