Frequently asked questions
Skamper has been formed to share the joy of running and the physical and mental health benefits it brings. Many runners find personal challenge and friendly competition both motivating and rewarding.
There are some great running apps for recording a complete range of sporting activities and building a valuable store of information. Some even have short segments where runners can see how they compare with others. But each runner has their own favourite app and some use no app at all. Skamper allows all of these runners to compete on a neutral platform whilst recording the activity on their preferred app if they wish.
Skamper is available now in the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Courses are generally around 5-15k in length and in areas of high population as these are the most demanding to plan, closest to a high volume of runners to test them. As we develop we aim to cover the whole of the UK with courses that will include a wide range of trail, fell and mountain courses, as well as long distance challenges.
All Skamper courses use public rights of way, although a few may be situated in parks with restricted opening times that you should check before visiting. Traffic-free trails where possible (cycle paths, canal paths, bridleways, and footpaths) but many routes have sections of road, sometimes with no pavement, or road crossings. Where a road crossing is likely to be particularly busy, and require the runner to wait a considerable amount of time to cross safely, this section has been taken out of the timings and this is marked with a dashed section on the map.
You are 100% responsible for your own safety and must also exercise responsibility towards other people who may be affected by your activities.
No! Skamper is for every runner, or walker, who wants to find a suitable route near them. You don’t have to race and you don’t have to show your time on the leaderboard.You can just use the app to find and follow a course.
No! We love racing ourselves and nothing can replace the camaraderie and adrenaline that flows when chasing other runner and trying to avoid being overtaken.But races are expensive and not everyone can afford them, or can find one locally at the time they want to travel, or has the confidence or can meet the entry requirements. Skamper is just one way of enjoying racing and there are many others.
All the routes will be displayed in order of how far they are from your current, or chosen location.
You will be able to see run length, total ascent, a simple measure of how hilly the course is, the % of the course that is on paved surfaces, the rough shape of the course and a target time for the course.
We calculate an age and gender adjusted base time for each course based on its length, ascent and terrain. We apply a standard grade adjustment for the first run which is then adjusted to use your best actual grade when you have completed other courses.
Download the course to your phone so you can use it even if you have no data signal when you get to the start. Then, anytime you want to run it , you just need to open the app, approach the start and wait until you see the start button change colour to become active.Hit start and the countdown will begin. Get ready to run!
You will see a marker for your position on the route and a line for the suggested route, just follow this and you will see each control point change colour as you pass it.A dashboard at the bottom of the screen shows how many controls you have completed and how many remaining, and the same for distance. If you are confident you know the route then you can put the phone in your pocket or bag and the app will give you sound notifications when you pass control points. When you pass through the final control point the timer will stop automatically.
To record a valid run, you must only pass through all the control points in the correct order. The exact route you chose is entirely up to you. Generally, we have tried to identify the fastest and most enjoyable route but there may be occasions when it is not possible to follow exactly, or you prefer to go a different way.
Yes. You can keep runs private completing a run and Skamper will use this as the default until changed.
You will be able to see other runners on the public leaderboards but not see private activities or follow specific runners.
After you have completed your run, you will see your finish time, splits for each of the legs between control points and your grade. You can also view the results from other people who have completed the course and these are listed in order of grade as we feel this presents the best view of individual performance. You can select the filter at the top of the leaderboards if you want to view by gender or age category.
Yes, for all courses or for a specific run.
The Skamper grade is a fair way of comparing one running performance against another, adjusting for personal characteristics. Grade is expressed in relation to the best possible time a runner of your age and gender could achieve on the relevant course and is calculated by that time and dividing it by your own. As an example, if Skamper calculates the best possible time for someone of your age and gender as 30 minutes and you run a course in 60 minutes then your grade would be 50. If you run that course in 45 minutes, then it would be 75 and if you run it in 30 minutes then it would be 100 and you would be at world record level!
Skamper will be available in both IOS and android versions. We hope it will work on the widest possible range of phones but will not be able to assess this until the alpha version is available and we are able to test it on the widest possible range of phones
You will need a wifi connection or mobile data to choose and download a course. Once you have done this you will not need a data signal to navigate around the course or record your visits to the control points. Instead we rely on gps which is universally available in the areas that Skamper plans courses. There are some places where the gps reception can be unreliable (for example, in deep gorges or underneath tall buildings) and we try to avoid placing control points in these areas.
No. Skamper is not available in a watch compatible form, although we plan this in a future version.
No, we recommend you record your run on Strava or another app of your choice, in the background and we are designing Skamper so it is compatible with other apps, but not to integrate with them.
Yes please! We need as much feedback as possible if we are going to make the app the best it can be. Each time you run a new route, you will be asked to rate it and identify any problems.We will remove any routes that do not achieve certain levels of positive endorsement.
Not initially but this may be possible in the future, if we can be sure of new routes meeting our quality criteria. If you have an idea for a new route then please drop us a line.
No. Please make sure your achievement of the control points is recognised at the time with a notification.
We don’t retain your gps track and do not use that to validate your run. We rely solely on the control points.
Not in the initial version and routes will only be available in the UK.
Skamper routes are designed for pedestrians and may include sections where it is illegal or unpleasant to cycle. Please do not attempt on a bicycle
No. Skamper is all about getting out and running in the outdoors.