Setanta Orienteers
Club Newsletter
October 2005
The new orienteering season has begun and we look
forward to Setanta being just as successful as in last season. After one event in the Autumn Leinster League
we stand in third place behind Ajax and CNOC.
In the All Ireland Club League, results being compiled by our very own
Gerry Brady, Setanta is in 9th place – 4th club from
Leinster behind CNOC(3rd), 3ROC (5th) and Ajax (6th). The key to our success in the past has been
to have the orienteers out in droves on the day. Let’s continue this successful strategy – the
more the merrier! Here’s hoping for
another successful and enjoyable time orienteering.
CLUB NEWS
Welcome to and a big hello to new club members…Somhairle
Foley who we have seen out at orienteering events in the past and was brave
enough to take part in the Rogaine has finally joined the club – doing very
well so far this season. Melanie Heather who was introduced to
the club at the Club Champs in September and we look forward to seeing much
more of in the coming season.
The Annual Club Championships took place in
Ballinagapoge, Aghavannagh on 10th September. Defending club champ Hazel Thompson reports
as follows:
This is a new map drawn by Brian Power
and Gerry Brady for the Mountain Bike Orienteering (MTBO) League last May and
specially updated for Foot-O at the club champs. As there was some concern that it
might be difficult to find the start
area, particularly for new members, we decided to meet in the Glenmalure Inn
car park at 1:00pm and then travel on to the event. This turned out to be a good idea as some
people had trouble finding even the Glenmalure Inn. We did manage to catch up with them after the
event though.
Once we gathered the gang
together at the Glenmalure Inn, we left in convoy to go to the start
of the club champs at Rosahane Graveyard.
It was pretty wet and misty as we were driving over the
mountains but it was actually quite a nice day at the start, where Brian
and Gerry were waiting.
About 20 of us competed around a 4 km
course. Everyone competed on the same
course but there were handicaps for the new comers and kids. Although he may not have been the
fastest around the course, Dave Weston was the fastest club member on the
day. Congratulations to the new club
champ Dave and thanks to Brian and Gerry for organising and
planning.
So, with the formalities out of the way,
it was back to Glenmalure Inn to find the stragglers and have a few drinks and
BBQ. Thanks to Jackie for booking the
bbq, Hazel for buying the food and Tony for acting chef for the evening. And for those who could stay, we were treated
to a night of music from the local band who were called - Setanta!!! Paul even managed to get a Setanta CD for our
new club champ...
As Dave summed it up - A lovely course
on a new map followed by a very social bbq and drinkies. A great way to start to the new season and
also nice to see a good few new members taking part.
Congratulations to Angus and Kim Tyner on the birth of a
baby son and brother to wee Zoe. The new
addition is named Tivon which
mean 'lover of nature' in Hebrew.
As always, we extend a word of thanks to club members
who have volunteered their time for the running of events since last
issue. Gerry Brady and Brian Power
planned and organised the excellent club championships at Ballinagappogue. They also remapped this area, converting the
MTBO map for foot orienteering. The Leinster
League event at Mullaghmeen on 9th October was planned by Terry
Lawless, organised by Brian Power and controlled by Dave Weston. Thanks also to all those who help out on the
day at these events.
Several
club members have made the shortlist for the Irish Home International
team. Nina Phillips is on the SHI panel
while Dave Weston, Philip Brennan, Gerry Brady and Maura Higgins are on the VHI
shortlist.
At the Mountainbike Orienteering World Championships
from 5th to 11th September in Slovakia Nina Phillips came
a superb 23rd in the middle distance final and was placed a respectable
33rd in the long distance final.
Setanta member and former World Champion Jussi Makila representing
Finland was 4th in the middle distance final (7 seconds off bronze)
and 9th in the classic distance final.
Congratulations to Maura Higgins on her 12th
place finish W60 at the World Masters Hillrunning Championships. Maura travelled to Keswick in the English
Lake District in early September to compete.
Well done Maura!!
As adventure racing gains popularity in Ireland and
abroad, Setanta members are getting involved and producing results. On the two teams entered by the Irish
Adventure Racing Squad and sponsored by BIC and Outsider magazine in the
Wilderness ARC, a demanding 5-day adventure race not unlike the Eco-Challenge,
Eoin Keith’s team placed 4th and Paul Mahon’s team finished 5th. An outstanding performance for these Irish
teams in this international event. In
the Irish Adventure Racing Series Paul Mahon’s team placed 1st in
Galway while Barry Minnock & Gerry Lalor were on the 2nd place team. Most recently in Fermanagh Eoin, Barry &
team finished 1st, Paul & team finished 2nd, and
Colleen Robinson & team finished 5th.
Setanta will be holding some closed events just for club
members in the coming season. These
events will be termed club events and
are just fun social events and should not be taken too seriously. If you do want to do some training then
shadowing sessions can be organised for individual technique training.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Saturday 19th
November – 1:30pm
Hellfire,Club
Event
This
is an informal fun event where there will be one course with a bit of a twist -
there might be a handicap, or a mass start, just to add some interest. Then we
will head for Doherty's in Rockbrook afterwards.
December (Date and time to be confirmed)
Knocksink / Bog
Meadow Club Event
We also intend to hold an event on our new map of
Knocksink Woods and Bog Meadow, Enniskerry which should be ready by then. This will be a chance for club members to
run on a brand new area for the first time.
Saturday 17th December
Christmas Drinks
The
Christmas drinks will take place in Dublin, in a city center location. Venue to be announced.
Wednesday 28th
December
Christmas Walk
This year the meeting point for the annual Christmas
walk will be Lynham’s in Laragh. Drag
yourself out of bed early and meet us in the car park at 9:30am. The route is yet to be confirmed. There will be something for all the family
and we are sure to have a few social drinks afterwards.
RESULTS
Mullaghmeen
Setanta
hosted the first of the Leinster League events in Mullaghmeen, Westmeath on 9th
October. Many thanks to our organiser
Brian Power, planner Terry Lawless and controller Dave Weston, as well as a big
thank you to those who volunteered their time on the day. Without club volunteers we would not be able
to put on these events. The event was a
success with the weather holding out and almost 140 competitors all of which
made their way back…eventually! Setanta
had 21 runners on the day. Well done to
you all!
Northern Ireland Orienteering
Championships
The
Northern Irish Championships were held on 1st October at
Magilligan Sand Hills just north of Derry. Magilligan is a great area for
orienteering and has only been used once before for the British Orienteering
Championships in 2002 so it was surprising that so few club members travelled
north for this event. Sand dunes always
provide great orienteering and some prickly undergrowth in places did not
distract from the run. Second places
were earned by Maura Higgins W60L, Dave Weston M40L and Hazel Thompson W21L who
was only sixteen seconds off gold. The
NIOC is always a good event and worth the time and trouble to get there and
take part.
The
Senior Home International was also run at Magilligan on the same
weekend, with top runners from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
These runners did 4 loops on their courses, coming into a central
spectator control in the assembly field at the end of each loop.
Mourne Mountain Marathon
This year the MMM was held
on 17th and 18th of September starting from the Silent
Valley just beyond Warrenpoint. The
event has three categories which vary in length and severity of terrain….or at
least are supposed to – those of us on the ‘B’ course might beg to differ! The ‘C’, ‘B’ and elite courses cover up to
and over marathon distance and up to 2500m climb over the two days. Teams of two are self-sufficient carrying
tents, sleeping bags, clothing and food for the duration of the race. Teams travel to controls in order with the
exception of selected control clusters on the elite and ‘B’ course which can be
taken in any order – many a race has been won and lost in the cluster! This year courses and terrain proved to be
gruelling, especially for the ‘B’ course which had a 40% retirement rate on day
1 and 60% overall, but looking on the bright side we really couldn’t have asked
for better weather. Setanta was well
represented on each of the courses. On
the elite course Eoin Keith and partner Declan Doyle, and Paul Mahon and Roisin
McDonnell finished 8th and 10th respectively.
Heroically finishing the ‘B’ course were Dave Weston and partner Paul
McArthur in 15th place as well as Emma Sokell and partner Zoe
Melling who finished 1st women (45th overall). Sean Hassett and Colleen Robinson completed
Day 1, but were forced to retire midway through Day 2. Unfortunately Hazel Thompson and partner
Brendan O’Connor were two of the many victims of the course part way through
Day 1. Gerry Lalor and partner Derek
Charles finished the C course in 37th place, and Rachel Cinnsealach
and partner Dairin West finishing in 119th.
Moose tale...Nina & Jussi Report from Finland Well, it’s been a busy summer for the Tampere MTBO addicts – 5 months, 30 MTBO races, 6 countries… averages more than a race per week! In terms of what’s different to home, well… 100’s of km’s of quality and mapped bike paths, ski trails and single trail to train on, without leaving the city…getting to train with the Finnish squad and attend their camp…stopping to watch moose cross the road, hearing there was a bear in the forest during the Finnish MTBO Champs (thankfully didn’t hear til after the races!), playing with the squirrels in the garden, and reindeer for dinner! The travels and highlights include two MTBO 5-Days in Czech and Poland (highly recommended O holiday/club trip – MTBO is so much more fun away – social, less physical but faster, nice paths, great maps…2006 club trip anyone?). And of course the World Champs – Setanta’s own (well, shared…) world champion Jussi Makila taking another relay gold with his team, and me making my debut in the top 25 girls, with 23rd in the individual middle distance, and beating most of my Finnish friends for the first time (I wonder when they’ll stop letting me train with them?!). Off the bike, we were at Jukola in June – biggest O relay in the world, live action all night (orienteering that is…), thousands of teams - another SET team must-do guys ‘n’ gals, great craic, and there’s a beer tent (where I found DFO’s Pats Healy & Farrelly and Gareth Evans before they ran – surprise, surprise). But I do miss the Irish social life (you guys and the post-event pub) and, well…, being able to understand the conversation around. My Finnish is improving but why did I have to land in a country with one of the most difficult languages in the world?! However, life’s great here (though I might have to get a job one of these days) and the World Champs 2006 are here in July so training for that has already started…Terveisin Tampereelta kaikkille… Greetings to you all from Tampere!
The following is
an article about our Rogaine a couple of months ago. It was written by Russell
Ladkin and has been copied from the adventure racing site www.sleepmonster.com.
A Rogaine in the Wicklow Hills
Firstly,
most people are probably still thinking 'What is a Rogaine?' Rogaining originated in Australia in the
1970's and has been adopted more widely in North America and Eastern Europe.
Rogaines are long distance, cross-country, foot navigation events usually of 24
hours duration for teams of two to five and planned in a score format i.e.
Choose and navigate your own route between controls to acquire as many points
as you can in the time allowed. A
central base provides food, drink and a place to camp. Teams may return at any time to the base to
eat, rest or socialise. At the
competitive end, teams are more likely to bivi out on the hill or keep going
and involve a substantial element of night navigation. There is always the decision though whether
it is more productive to spend a couple of hours shivering on a hillside
compared to a detour back to a proper tent, dry clothes, hot tea and
sandwiches.
The
Setenta Rogaine is now in its Eighth year and is one of the few Rogaining
events in Europe. The European Champs
were in Estonia earlier this month with an entry of 80+ teams. The Setenta Rogaine is on a smaller scale and
held in a very friendly atmosphere with competitors of varying age and
abilities, many of whom come back year after year. So far the event has always been held in the
Wicklow Mountains just a short drive to the South of Dublin, but having removed
Wicklow from the event title, Setenta Orienteers are keeping their options open
for the future!
27
teams assembled at the edge of a plantation in the North of the Harvey's map
area, some setting up tents ready for the midday start. In fact, we didn't
start until somewhat later, having waited for everyone to arrive and be ready,
such is the informal nature of the event!
There is a basic mandatory kit requirement as you'd expect for a 24 hour
mountain event. Fleece, waterproofs,
food, drink, first aid etc. At the start, everyone is issued with the grid
references, descriptions and point values of the 40-odd control points. Most people choose to spend about 30 minutes
plotting all the controls and working out a rough route. For those planning on keeping going in the
dark, trying to aim for a section with more paths or roads and easy controls
for the dark section is a careful consideration. However, by UK standards the Wicklow
mountains are tough terrain with few tracks, large areas of energy sapping
heather and steep sided valleys up to peaks over 2000ft interspersed with plantations
of various ages.
People
were soon heading off in at least 4 different directions and settling into
their own pace. This event is much more
about planning, pacing and navigation than speed. The points were allocated such that the most
of the highest scoring controls were closer to the base camp, making for a
close competition as those heading further out were only collecting a few extra
points for their efforts.
The
mist was down on most of the higher ground which made for some tricky
navigation but at least kept the temperature down to a reasonable level. We started out around the slopes of Kippure
and including a control at Crockan Pond, close to the arsh area around the
source of the River Liffey - we didn't fancy having to stumble around there in
the dark. We left out a couple of low
scoring controls here to save a bit of distance. We met a few teams doing a similar route in
the opposite direction during the afternoon but then it went quiet for several
hours until we were up in the western forests in the early evening. Many were planning a few more controls and
then heading into the base camp for refreshment. We were moving faster than expected and found
ourselves doing the forest track section before dark which left us back out
onto the hills as darkness approached.
We had a short stop for food, to inspect our feet and fit headtorches
before heading off through another forest section. We took this carefully, opting to follow
forest rides and walls where possible rather than cutting through. There should have been a fairly full moon but
it only occasionally popped into view between the clouds. The lightning discharges between the clouds
gave us something else to look at though.
By 1am, we decided it was time for a longer rest. We stopped for an hours sleep close to the
edge of a forest 1500 feet up. Close
enough to mostly be sheltered from the wind but just enough breeze still to
keep the midges at bay. 2:30am and we
were heading back into the hills. Due to
our mis-timing, the next obvious leg was 2km over fairly featureless terrain to
a control on a boulder on the edge of a boulder field! We figured we'd give it our best shot and if
it didn't work we could always sleep some more until it was light enough to see
the control. A slow plod following the
compass as much as possible and it was a very relieved pair who hit the control
almost dead on 30 minutes later. The
next control was a high level Lough on the slopes of Mullaghcleevaun where we
woke up another pair attempting to sleep between a pair of peat hags - it was a
pretty desolate place! A couple more
controls and it was getting light enough to switch off the torches.
This
more Southern area is quite isolated and we saw loads of herds of deer and
heard their barks. The Wicklow Mountain
deer are introduced sika/red deer hybrids and one of my lasting memories from
the event is a whole line of their heads poking above the horizon observing us
just after sunrise. We realised now that
we had ample time to visit all the remaining controls apart from the couple we
missed early in the course. We set off
to get at least one of these controls but once we hit the road, my brain went
into auto-pilot and I was falling asleep as we walked. Between lack of motivation and blisters we
decided to head for the finish and arrive back early.
The
sun soon came out as teams started to appear, guided in by the smell of the
barbeque food being prepared and endless soup and noodles. Meanwhile Sean Hassett studiously studied the
punch marks on people's control cards and added up scores. The overall winners had a clear lead with
Eoin Keith and Paul McArthur clearing the whole course and finishing 3 hours
within the time limit. The scores were
close in most classes though. As people
ate, routes were compared with no two being the same and important questions
answered like "Who were the pair running up Gravale at 7am?" (by
which time nearly everyone else was at walking pace).
GLENDASAN
Setanta
mapped the part of Glendasan Valley below Camaderry Mountain for the Leinster
Championships in 2004. The very
technical yet steep and rough nature of the terrain received mixed reviews at
the time. Below are a couple of facts
about the area that you may find interesting.
The
first thing you notice in the valley are all the old mine workings. The mines were worked on and off from 1795 to
1957 with the main period of mining being between 1850 – 1880. Between Glendasan and Glendalough mines
60,000 tons of galena and sphalerite was extracted from veins which varied from
an inch to a foot across. The mines were
worked by hand so conditions must have been very hazardous and unpleasant. A leat running from Lough Nahanagan to the
ruined workings is still evident, as are the remains of an old tramway. The ruined buildings are mainly crushing and
launder pits, and there is also a water wheel pit that was used to power the
refining process. These buildings are
said to be of Cornish design. The spoil
heaps contain heavy metals and their toxic nature prevents any plant
growth. Each individual mine had its own name such as
Moll Doyle and Old Hero mines.
Another
feature of the area is the ESB power station of Turlough Hill. Work on this hydro-electric power station was
started in 1968 and was completed six years later. This project involved the construction of a
huge cavern in the heart of the mountain, in which the generation plant and
controls are housed. A pumped storage
system allows for the use of excess electricity capacity during non-peak hours
to pump water from the Lough Nahanagan to the upper storage reservoir on
Turlough Hill and then the release of the water in the reverse direction to
create electricity in times of maximum demand.
The
Wicklow Gap at the top of the valley became known for a very short time as ‘le
Col du Wicklow’ when the Tour de France rode through it in 1998.
St
Kevins Way also runs through the valley.
It was opened as a waymarked path in 2001 following the traditional
pilgrimage route from Hollywood to Glendalough.
The 26km route is said to follow the journey of St Kevin when he left
Hollywood after not seeing eye to eye with the locals. He set up camp at the old bronze age workings
of St Kevins Bed by the Upper lake in Glendalough. While he prayed a local cow would come and
lick his clothes. This contented and serene
cow gave much more milk than the others so the herdsman followed it one day and
found the holy man. St Kevins fame
spread and he eventually founded the famous monastic settlement. St Kevin amongst other things is the patron
saint of crows (he is always drawn with a blackbird in his hand) so there is a
tenuous link to the Setanta mascot, the raven.
Bits of Other News
Hillrunners continue social
running on Wednesday nights after their summer league finishes. As a change of
scene they tried an orienteering event in Hellfire Woods which seemed to be
well received. Maybe we will see some
more hillrunners turning up at orienteering events in the future.
A new All-Ireland Inter Club
League has been started based on the four Regional Championships and the two
Irish Championship events. The compiler of the results is our own Gerry
Brady. Gerry has devised a scoring
system that ensures that everyone entering a Championship will score for their
club with extra points given for the Irish Championship events. Also elite and long course competitors earn
more points than short, novice and B course runners. Gerry did a draft score for last season’s
championship events where we came a respectable sixth out of the twenty clubs
competing (third Leinster club). This
position was down largely to good scores at the Irish Champs, we still seem to
have difficulty getting people out to the Regional Championships. ‘Tis a pity
as these events are invariably on good terrain, very well organised and
planned, and well worth the effort in attending. After the Northern Irish Champs we are in a
lowly eighth place – come on people, let’s get out there and score some
points!! Note that the Connact Champs
will be held in Portumna on 27th November with start times 11 –
1pm. Colleen has entry forms or you can
e-mail Frank Ryan at frankryan46@hotmail.com.
The Irish Orienteering
Association is organising a mapping course in November. The course will cover
both fieldwork and computer aided drafting using the latest version of
OCAD. Five Setanta members will attend
which hopefully bodes well for future mapping projects. The committee sees these courses as a means
to investing in the future of orienteering and the club and has agreed to foot
the bill. We hope to hold our own
mapping workshop in the future where these members can share what they have
learned on the course.
The IMRA dinner dance is
taking place on Saturday 12th November in St. Marys Rugby Club in
Templeogue. Setanta are booking at least one table for this annual hop. Contact Philip Brennan to reserve your place
at philip@pmbins.com.
Those of you looking to
perform at your best and stay injury free may be interested to know that Colleen
has set up shop providing Sports Massage and treatment of Sports Injuries. Currently she is advertising a pre-marathon
Maintenance Massage Special (€20 for a 30min leg massage) for the month of
October. Setanta members may avail of
discounted prices at all times.