MapLink

MapLink Keeps Orienteering Alive During Melbourne’s Long Lockdown

WORDS DEBBIE DODD

The new Winter fixture was fresh from the printers, and we were putting the finishing touches on our annual summer Awards Night, when the first Victorian lockdown was announced. It was hard to believe we’d just hosted hundreds of orienteers from all over Australia for the Melbourne Sprint Weekend – soon to become a fond memory of better times.

Knowing we’d need to get maps online quickly for people to exercise with, a small group sprang into action faster than you can say “vaccine”; and within 24 hours, MapLink was born. “Oh, that’s just another collection of old maps” you say. In fact, MapLink is so much more than a DIY Library (we rapidly built one of those, too – it now has over 700 maps from previous bush, park-street, sprint and MTBO events). Maps of previous events are all well and good, but, well, we’ve done them already. We have short attention spans! We want something new!!

The call went out, and within no time, course setters were creating brand new courses; our MapRun team were setting up kml/kmz files at warp speed; we had a MapLink facebook page, an online virtual scoring system, and a Google docs library, which rapidly started filling up with maps. We were quickly spoilt for choice. People could use the MapRun smartphone app with their MapLink course, then share and discuss the best (or worst) routes, and sledge each other from a social distance, in fine Melbourne StreetO tradition.

People took to MapLink with great enthusiasm, and it was good fun and very convenient. Without the need for large parking areas, we could start from previously unused locations in unfamiliar sections of some maps, giving a completely new feel to places we’d been many times. MapRun stats tell us that 2000 people used the app in Melbourne between April and September, and we estimate the same number again used MapLink without MapRun – that’s 20 people a day that otherwise would not have been orienteering.

Of course we were all desperate to get back together for real events as soon as possible. Our wish was granted in late May, when “training” was allowed for groups of 20. Online preentry and staggered starts quickly became our norm, replacing StreetO’s famously casual “rock up and chuck $5 in the bucket, and mass start at 7pm” approach. MapRun allowed us to have contactless punching. We wondered if anyone would want to come; after the first week we had to offer overflow daytime sessions to accommodate the numbers, and events were regularly over-subscribed (a first for orienteering!). Competition was not permitted for community sport, so these were free practice sessions with no results produced.

Melbourne crawled agonizingly slowly along its first Roadmap out of restrictions. We had 6 wonderful weeks of some sort of freedom, when the news came through in early July; we were all going back into another “6 week” lockdown. MapLink came out of hibernation the next day as we dusted ourselves off for Iso 2.0.

It’s history now that 6 weeks turned into nearly 4 months. Our world grew increasingly smaller with curfews, border closures, rings of steel, and 5 km radii. Some people were lucky – I had 12 different maps within the red circle that contained my universe; others had only a couple, or worse, none at all. We all knew exactly where our boundaries were; how many kilometres we could eke out by running every single street in our neighbourhood; how far we could drive our cars or ride our bikes if we followed the perimeter whilst gazing wistfully across an invisible barrier; and who we could meet up with when 2 people from different households were allowed to spend time together as long as their bubbles overlapped. We wanted to scream, sob, or curl up in a corner with a blanket over our heads. It seemed as if it would never end. Just writing these words is like revisiting a dystopian alternate world.

But new MapLink courses kept coming through. Mappers used them to learn new skills; novice course setters had time to learn at their own pace, and some turned into regular contributors – three of those have since set bush courses as well, which we used for some free Sunday Training Sessions. In all, we received over 130 contributions, covering most of metropolitan Melbourne. “Maps Near Me” became our slogan, as we tried to make sure everyone in metro Melbourne had at least one MapLink within reach. We kept a master map, colour coded, and challenged course setters to fill in the gaps.

We also put MapRun’s “Start Anywhere” function to great use so that people had as much flexibility as possible. People mapped and set courses in their own neighbourhoods, and on any maps they could get to in under an hour (often on their bikes). All courses had a time limit of 45 minutes, to ensure compliance with the strict exercise rules of 1 hour once per day.

We were amazed at how many people continued using MapLink for all those long, tough weeks and months. Without it, our return to events would undoubtedly have been nowhere near as successful as it’s been. We worked hard at making sure orienteering didn’t drop off everyone’s radar, by constantly pushing out new MapLinks on an almost daily basis. This was invaluable as an engagement tool; it gave us a welcome distraction, something different to talk about, and a reason to get outside for a regular run or walk.

We hung on every word of every government announcement, waiting for the magic day when community sport could resume, the groups could be bigger than 5, and the distance we could travel was increased to 25 km. We suddenly had a whole world to reconnect with! It was exciting and overwhelming all at once.

Finally on November 2nd, after weeks of planning and hoping, we held the first Summer Series Park Street event; and the first event of any kind in Melbourne since July 6. Armed with a new QR code check-in system, a gratifyingly long preentry list, our covid kits of sanitizer and paper towel, our new credit card reader, and our new Covid safe plan, we swung into action. QR codes were unfamiliar to most; many were using MapRunF or MapRunG for the first time; and others had simply forgotten what to do, it had been so long! We had to readjust to being social, albeit in groups of no more than 10 at once. We didn’t recognize old friends behind masks and with Lockdown Hair (queues at hairdressers were still insanely long those first couple of weeks). We were scared to touch anything that wasn’t ours, or to spend time talking to anyone for more than a few minutes. But we had maps in our hands, they were glorious summer evenings, and it was wonderful.

We completed our Summer program with only 3 events lost to a snap lockdown in February. We’ve held Park Street Championships, and enjoyed the return of our Schools competitors. We had 8 different series up and running successfully. Despite all the limits and constraints, our participation numbers were close to normal. It’s not the same as it was … but when you look at the rest of the world, we are so incredibly lucky.

As you read this, the first rounds of vaccinations are happening, many Victorians were able to compete at the Australian Easter 3 Day (deferred from 2020), and New Zealand has just opened its border to us. But if things go backwards, it’s reassuring to know that there’s a bunch of MapLink courses that I didn’t get around to doing last time.

MapLink has been selected one of four Finalists in the VicSport 2020 Awards, in the Sport Initiative of the Year category. This award recognises the work of individuals, clubs, teams, groups or organisations who have succeeded in enabling more people to participate in sport activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This new award for 2020 highlights the innovative work that sport has promoted to keep people active and connect with members. The winner will be announced on June 3, 2021 at a ceremony at Marvel Stadium.