Night on the Bare Mountain

Conor Short (CNOC) finished ahead of the 3ROC pair of Colm Moran and Justin May in tonight’s  first “Dublin by Night” event of 2013 on Three Rock Mountain. On a cold, starry night, the views over the city were spectacular, if you could spare the time to look, while the wind whistled through the radio masts on the mountain-top.

Ger Butler’s courses brought the runners on the long course across the valley through the felled area before climbing through the old rifle range and over the shoulder by the masts. They then dropped into the runnable but tricky forest on the east side of the mountain where any miscalculation in height was severely punished. The course then contoured through the rough open area dotted with depressions and old quarries before re-entering the forest and weaving between the mountain bike trails back to the finish. The last control, a small re-entrant on the edge of the thicker patch of forest, caught out the unwary, particularly anyone whose battery or concentration was failing.

The short course of 3 km covered much of the same ground without going as far in any direction, and a small crag in the open approaching the final controls was the downfall of several runners.  Jonathan Quinn posted the fastest time on the short course, after running the Long course, so the fastest competitive time was Setanta’s Eileen Walsh.

The turnout was quite good, with about 50 runners, so maybe Night-O is starting to catch on after all?

See the results here. Please put in your route on Routegadget – it’s interesting for the other runners and for the planner!.

The next DBN event is Saturday 19th January at Carrickgollogan, near Kilternan. The next event on Three Rock is on Sunday 10th February.

Thanks to the helpers:  Gerry Cunningham, Brian Lawless, Emma McAuley, John McCullough, Lindie Naughton, control collector Mary O’Connell and planner Ger Butler.