3ROC Orienteering News 22nd January 2020

Thanks to GEN for running a fantastically successful training weekend in Glendalough last weekend, it’s business as usual this weekend with the third “Dublin by Night” event of the year at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, on Saturday evening, followed by a “Come and Try It” local event at Donadea, Co. Kildare on Sunday, with three courses from 2.8 to 8 km. (Details here).

Night-O on Saturday Our night-O on Saturday was originally intended as a night-sprint-O but it’s more of a night-middle-distance-O now! The two courses are 1.6 km and 2.6 km by straight lines, which translate into actual running distances of about 2.0 and 3.7 km.

There will be lots of controls – 19 on the Short and 29 on the Long course, so it will be important to check your control codes and control descriptions as there will be controls quite close together in places. There will be a map flip on the long course, with Part 1 on one side of the map and Part 2 on the back, so remember to look at the right side of the map and to turn it over at some stage!

Controls will have contactless punching enabled so if you have a SIAC contactless SI card, make sure to bring it. The controls will work in the normal way if you have a standard SI card.

Maps will be at 1:3000 scale on waterproof A4 paper. Control descriptions will be on the map and also available separately.

Screen Shot 2020-01-22 at 12.56.31

              A “not to be crossed” fence

There are a couple of not-to-be-crossed fences and you will be disqualified if you are found to have crossed them. They are marked on the map with the normal “not to be crossed” symbols and this is emphasised with an additional overprinted purple line. “Not to be crossed” is not the same as “impossible to cross” so please respect these boundaries as the future use of the area may depend on our not causing damage to these, as happened at the last event here (you know who you are!).

Parking will be in St Patrick’s College.

Start times are 6.30 to 7.30 pm and courses will close at 8.30 pm. Registration from 6 pm. Start, finish and registration are close together.

Here is a location map.

The event is easily reached by public transport: Buses 1, 11, 16, 33, 41, 44 all go past the college. See bus times here. You can also come by train to Drumcondra station and walk for 10 minutes.

IOA Rules state that participants in night orienteering must be at least 16 years of age on the day of the event.

DubGAANote: There are football matches in Croke Park on Saturday afternoon and evening, with the Dublin v Kerry match starting at 7.15 pm. This means that there will be extra traffic in the area both before and after our event so allow enough time for this. There are also matches at 3.15 and 5.15 but the big one is at 7.15.

Thanks to DCU for permission to use the St Patrick’s campus for the event.

3ROC events for 2020: after our two January DBN events (4th and 25th) we plan to hold the following events this year – March 15th Griffeen Park; 24th May Leinster League at Clarabeg; August 11-18-25 three Phoenix Park evening events; September 20th Leinster League at Carrick Mountain; December 26th Christmas Score event. These have still to be registered and included in the IOA fixtures list but this is just a preview.

The club Annual General Meeting will be on Tuesday 7th April, two days after the Leinster Championships. More details later.

Club clothing is still available: Jackets, fleeces, hats, buffs, O-suits, training jackets. Just e-mail 3rockoc@gmail.com to enquire about stocks, sizes and prices.

Welcome to the new members who have joined the club recently via our online membership page (here) and thanks to everyone else for renewing your membership. If you haven’t yet renewed, it’s easy – just head for the “Join 3ROC” page.

In the meantime, see you on Saturday evening. And if you can help, please do – we need a couple of more volunteers.