This weekend’s orienteering – September 27/28
The last shall be first and the first shall be last … A big weekend’s orienteering for 3ROC this week, with us running the final Leinster Mountain Bike Orienteering event at Three Rock/Ticknock on Saturday and the first Leinster League foot-O event in the same place on Sunday.
In the meantime, fitness training continues at Belfield on Monday and Thursday evenings, gym circuits in Stillorgan on Wednesday evening, Parkruns at 09.30 on Saturday.
Remember that entries for the Northern Ireland Championships at Castle Saunderson in Co. Cavan on Saturday October 4th close at midnight on Friday 26th September. See details here. Incidentally, if you’d like a run instead of an MTBO on Saturday, LVO have an event at Slievegarron, near Slieve Croob in Co. Down.
Well done to Eoin McCullough on 2nd place on the 45 km “B” course in his first Mourne Mountain Marathon with Ruairi Short last weekend. The orienteers did well with O-teams Marcus Pinker & Shane Lynch (CorkO) winning the Elite and Conor Short and Kevin O’Boyle winning the B course.
Justin May has planned two courses for the MTBO on Saturday, with start times from 11 to 12.00. The Long course is about 10 km and the Short course 7 km. The numbers at the MTBO events have been creeping up every week, and with Three Rock being a very popular area for MTB-ers, we might break all records this week. You’ll need a helmet and a reasonable mountain bike; we’ll have SI timing and premarked maps. See any final details on the club facebook page here.
On Sunday, Ger Butler has planned the usual league courses from Yellow up to Brown, plus a 5 km Red course which will be a feature of the league this year. Start times are 11 to 1 pm.
Mountain Bike Orienteering Saturday 27th September
This is the fourth and final event in the 2014 Leinster Mountain Bike Orienteering series. There will be two courses; Long and Short. Start times any time between 11:00 and 12:00. The courses will close at 13:30. Entry fees: Adult €10, Student/Junior/over-65 €7. SportIdent electronic timing, SI cards can be hired on the day. There is no need to pre-enter, just turn up in good time to be able to start between 11 and 12. You must wear a helmet and you must respect other forest users. You do not have right of way. If you see horses you must stop until they have passed. Be aware that bikes will be travelling in both directions on the MTB trails.
Leinster League No 1 Sunday 28th September
This is the first event of the new series with a range of courses to suit all abilities including complete beginners.
A new Red course has been introduced for 2014/15 which is aimed at people who are relatively new to orienteering but with sufficient fitness to cover 5-7.5km. The Red course will as far as possible be set at Technical Difficulty Level 3 (controls should be easily found from an attack point on a line feature (path/stream/fence etc)). Sunday’s cours is a similar length to the more technical Green course.
Start times – any time between 11:00 and 13:00. The courses will close at 15:00 sharp. You must return to the finish and download your times to avoid an unnecessary search effort
Entry fees: Adult €8, Student/Junior/OAP/unwaged €5, Family €20
SportIdent electronic timing, SI cards can be hired on the day.
Please help us by registering in advance HERE before 8pm Saturday 27th September, though you can of course just come along on the day without pre-registering.
Course Details: distances are provisional – all courses have approx. 5% climb
Brown – 8.9km Blue – 7.0k Green – 5.1k Red – 5.1k Light Green – 4.1k Orange – 2.5k Yellow – 1.7 k
Directions: Registration for both events will be in the upper most car-parking area in Three Rock / Ticknock Wood. On Sunday the event will be signposted from the R113 (Blackglen Road / Harolds Grange Road) junction with Ticknock Road
The map has been extended and longer courses on Sunday will visit some new areas of runnable forest. The map scale is 1:10,000 (1cm = 100m) with 5m contours. Maps on Sunday will be on A4 waterproof paper except for longer courses which may be A3. Loose control descriptions will be available at registration.
Terrain: Competitors on Sunday should note that a number of temporary mountain bike trails have not been mapped and many old fire roads/tracks have been eroded in open areas. As a result the short course is not suitable for buggies. Longer courses may cross isolated areas of windfell where the best advice is to go around.
If you are bringing a group do let us know in advance.
Thanks to Coillte for permits to run these events.