Gulyakör is a collection of trail running challenges that can be completed walking or running, individually or in relay teams and any time. It's mostly located in the Hungarian Pilis mountains.
As far as we know that's the first such system in Hungary that can handle relay teams. To adhere to relay requirements tracks go through checkpoints that are approachable by car and contain many small segments.
You will need a smartphone with internet connection, a Chrome (Firefox might also work) browser and GPS capabilities.
How to begin?
- If you haven't done already, register on the site! If you have a relay team, all team members need to register separately.
- You can sign up to a challenge after logging in. If you're doing relay, the relay team needs a single signup. You cannot alter the members of the team later, but it's not an problem if somebody signed up does not run in the end. To deter people from coming we ask for a signup fee for the Tehénfark (101 km) and Kergemarha-kör (347 km) tracks. All the other tracks are free. You can pay using a banc card. The signup fee is only authorized. In case of a successful finish we capture only an amount after the actual runners, the rest of the money gets back to your account. The signup gets cancelled if there's no successful finish for 1 month after the signup and you get the money back.
The actual challenge
The startpoints and endpoints of the fix routes are in Piliscsaba, at the resting place called Kisgulya at the forest end of the Kossuth Lajos street. Klotildliget train station is 600 m. The start and endpoint of the Gulyaturmix can be freely chosen.
To succesfully finish you need to checkin at all checkpoints of the track inside the cutoff time. To do this you need to login and go to the Checkin menu and click the GPS button on the page of your run. To make this work the browser needs access to geolocation and (quite ironically) the high accuracy geolocation usually needs to be disabled (so that only GPS is used for geolocation, not the network). The checkin is valid if you are close enough to the checkpoint.
You can try the GPS button at home as well. If it works it should display your distance from the start.
You can find the cutoff time at the description of the track. If you are over the cutoff time, your run will be "unfinished".
In case of relay anyone can start the track by checking in at the starting point. That's when time tracking starts.
When changing the runner ("handing over the relay baton") first the arriving runner checks in then the leaving runner checks in.
We can check in in behalf of our relay team partner as well (if they allow it on their profile page) if we select their name on the run page from the "Team member" dropdown.
It's possible to check in without network (i.e. offline) as well. In this case the phone records the checkin data which can be submitted later by pressing a button, when the runner is online again.
Starting and finishing the route is only possible via online checkin.
Offline checkins are invisible for the others (team members or anyone following you run), only after you submit them. An offline checkin is successful even if you are at a different checkpoint than you should be. However, this is validated when you submit offline checkins and invalid combinations of offline checkins are discarded. To avoid complications we suggest to checkin offline only if there's really no network and try and submit offline checkins as soon as possible.
If you log out, you lose all your offline checkins.
It is possible to change runners offline as well, but make sure that the arriving runner has a sooner timestamp than the leaving runner, otherwise the system will discard it on submission.
Offline checkins are most tested using Chrome, that's why it's best to use that browser.
You can test offline checkin by turning off mobile network.
In case of offline checkin the time displayed in your timetable is the offline checkin time, not the submission time.
It's possible for more people to checking at the same checkpoint but the first can only be the one who checked in on the previous checkpoint for the last time. The lastly checking in runner will have the relay baton, i.e. that runner can continue running and check in at the next checkpoint. (This way if someone falls out in the middle of a segment the baton can be taken over by someone else by checking in at the beginning of the segment.)
It's still required to checkin (once) if there's no runner change at a checkpoint.
It's allowed to change runners at any checkpoint but only there.
It's allowed to do shortcuts. Routes are only recommendations. The only requirement is to check in at every checkpoint in order.
It's forbidden to use any vehicle if you are running (i.e. you have the baton). The only exception is the Kergemarha-kör where using the ferry (or any other boat) at Visegrád is allowed. Of course, team members not running at the moment (not having the baton) can use any vehicle.
The completion can be interrupted (even with a vehicle) if the runner continues from the same place where they stopped.
In the Results menu track times and segment times can be viewed.
Support
You can support the Gulyakör when you sign up by buying Gulyakör swag (medal, cup or shirt) or just by plain support. The amount is only deducted from your account if the run was successful and the team member finished at least one segment.
We have wooden, handmade, pyrograph medals that are uniquley numbered.
The medal costs 3500 HUF.
Cups and shirts usually show the track. The exception is the Kergemarha-kör where the icons of the 109 checkpoint are shown.
If you can't find the proper size in the list, just select another one and write us an email.
We try to hand over purchased items in the finish. If that's not possible we contact the runner individually.
We thank you for all support!
What To Follow
- facebook page
- facebook group
- Newsletter (google fiók szükséges)
- Google calendar
Tips
- Navigation happens by using the GPX file of the track. The file contains both the track and the checkpoints. You can download them at the bottom of the track page.
- To open the GPX file you will need a map application. The app needs to be able to display the track and the checkpoints as well. Tourist signs can be very useful as well. Contour lines don't hurt but it's not a must. We can recommend OSMAnd for Android. (If you download it from https://f-droid.org/ the contour lines are free as well.)
- Always make sure that after an online checkin the successful checkin message has appeared and the next checkpoint is right.
- It's important to proberly choose the size of the relay team. Above 5 people waiting too much for you turn can be boring. At the same time everyone should know their own capabilities.
- It's much more fun if there are more relay teams running at the same time.
- For longer tracks it's recommended to take a powerbank with you. It might be useful to switch off all unnecessary phone features like wifi to prolong battery life.
- GPS might work better if we launch another app that uses the GPS. For example strava. (Unfortunately browsers are not consistent when determining GPS coordinates.)
- It might happen that the GPS button only works after several pushes. This can also be caused by the power saving feature of the phone since this keeps switching off GPS which need time to wake up. So switching the power save mode off might fix the GPS.
- Any team member can upload images and a story for the run.