Recommendation: OS Getamap

[Tomas]

We're going away camping for the bank holiday weekend, so I've been on getamap (recommended!) to plan a suitable running route for my long run Saturday morning. Printed the map, laminated it, folded it (it helps by folding the paper before laminating), punched a hole through it, found a super soft lanyard so I can have it dangling around my neck. In other words: I am ready to run in a brand new place with all the certainty of being on my home turf.

I actually quite look forward. My normal route tends to be a few km out one road, turn, a few km straight, turn, etc. But the route for tomorrow have turns and sideroads and bridges and footpaths (I hope they're actually real paths rather than just a sight-line across muddy fields). Something new every km to break up the monotony. So it will be a fun run, I'm sure.

The camp ground is on the edge of some hills, so I had the choice of adding some hill training, but since it'll be my long run, I thought it better to head in the opposite direction where the landscape appears as flat as a pre-Ptolemyan map.

So.... if you need to map new running routes and want more detail than Google can give, I can warmly recommend OS Getamap: getamap.ordnancesurveyleisu... For a modest annual subscription (I think it was £25 per year when I signed up), you get online access to 1:25,000 OS Explorer mapping covering all of the UK, with functionality to add routes (with distance calculation) and printing. Crucially, for lazy runners like me, "real maps" have height curves so it's easy to get a good feel for what the landscape actually looks like. There is also a free version with reduced printing capabilities.

[misswobble Graduate]

Have a good holiday and enjoy your change of running scenery.

Our county council has access to online OS mapping but it lets you get into it and print off a copy. I only found out about it when I did some footpath audits for them. Useful tool indeed!

[swanscot Graduate]

Enjoy exploring new countryside on your holidays.

I like OS maps and use them at least once a week. We are very lucky to have such a good, detailed mapping system in our country.

I usually print off an A4 size map of my routes for my long, slow, distance runs using Memory Map which I have installed on my computer. MM is expensive, but we've had it for years (long before OS GetaMap) was available and it's shared between several family members who each have it installed on our own computers. I don't bother laminating mine. My preference is to fold it to pocket size and put it in a wee clear, plastic bag with the relevant part showing, then refold it as I go along. If going into hilly or remote country I take my small Silva compass too.