3ROC Orienteering News 22 November 2018

Leg 14-15: what would you do? The river looked quite deep …

Last Sunday: Well done to Valdas Tilunas who had a clear win on the Brown course at Sunday’s Leinster League event at Deer Park Forest, Virginia. We had a range of ages running, from under-10 Catherine O’Kelly to Over-80 Con Carroll. It was a great day for orienteering: dry, cool and bright, and Val Jones’s courses used the forest very well. A map-flip on the Brown and Blue courses meant that the runners could traverse the same terrain twice without being confused by having lots of lines criss-crossing the map.

First controls on the Blue course in forested old turf-cuttings

River Deep, Mountain High: The river, actually the Leinster Blackwater (not to be confused with the Ulster or Munster rivers of the same name) proved problematic: the Brown and Blue courses crossed it where there was no bridge and the depiction of the river on the map was ambiguous (is it crossable or uncrossable?). This caused some runners to make a long detour while others just waded across, or if they were lucky, found a shallow part to cross (Valdas) , or a fallen tree to shuffle over (John McC). In fact the river as shown on the map was crossable but the corresponding feature in the legend was shown as uncrossable. The leg crossing the river was subsequently removed from the results (magically, electronically) and the times adjusted accordingly. A dilemma for the controller! See the results and routes here.

Deer Park is a really nice forest, if brambly in places, but at least the brambles are shown on the map. The longer courses dived in to an interesting area just after the start, where old turf cuttings had been planted with forest, giving the runners an early chance of fine map-reading and an opportunity to get their feet very wet!

PS It’s not called Deer Park for nothing: have a look for ticks if you ran there!

This weekend: There’s no Leinster orienteering this weekend but the Munster League event at Glengarra, Co. Tipperary, is worth considering: only 2 hours on the motorway from Dublin. The CNOC league event planned for the Curragh on 2nd December has been put back by a week to December 9th because the parking/assembly/refreshment area at the Curragh Rugby Club wasn’t available on the original date. CNOC have run a league event on the Curragh at the beginning of December since records began and it’s usually worth a trip, although the Curragh can be something of a blasted heath in Winter!

Charity Challenge: 3ROC’s Julie Cleary (former Irish World Championship runner, former IOA Secretary…) has been running a charity fundraiser during November to visit 120 orienteering controls, to raise money for the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia. Julie had a stroke in 2008 and made an amazing recovery with great determination and the help of a lot of people, notably her husband Ronan (former IOA Treasurer and World Championship team manager). To mark the 10th anniversary of her stroke, she visited 1 control for every month since 2008. She has raised more than STG£2700, largely through the generosity of orienteers. You can read Julie’s story here. Her Dad is Frank Martindale, still very active in orienteering and current Irish Champion in M80.

PPS Julie visited 137 controls in the end!

Next 3ROC events: Christmas Score Event, Ticknock, Wednesday December 26th; Dublin by Night #1, Phoenix Park, Saturday January 12th.

Join 3ROC here: it’s easy, its cheap and it’s fun! See you in the forest!

Remember to visit and like the 3ROC Facebook page where there’s all kinds of other interesting O-stuff. In the meantime, you can read the October International Orienteering Federation Newsletter here.