Stone Cross to Lug Relay

Last weekend, 9 hardy CNOC runners took part in the annual open mountain relay - Stone Cross near Tallaght to Fentons Pub at the base of Lug in the Glen of Imall. The relay is 3 legs, varying in lenght. The first is from Stone Cross to the Sally Gap, 14.5km, the second leg is from Sally Gap to Wicklow Gap, 17.5km and the final leg is from the Wicklow Gap to the Glen of Imall, 21km.
Now this sounds all very easy - just follow the trails! But if your talking to anyone who ran, trails is the only thing they don't come across. The CNOC runners had to battle through the early morning mist (and afternoon torrential rain) across mountain tops and crossing bog and peat hag filled saddles.

CNOC had a senior team, Niall McAlinden, Seamus O'Boyle and Colm Hill. The Junior team was Conor Short, Kevin O'Boyle and Niall Ewen and the Vets team was Bernie O'Boyle, Don Short and Ruth Lynam. All 3 teams ran with a battling attitude and all preformed extremely well giving the testing conditions.

Leg 1 had to battle up Seechon, Corrig, Seefingan before slogging up to Kippure and down to Sally Gap. For people that know Kippure, there is a massive areial ontop of the mountain. To give you an idea of the conditions, when standing beside the cables that hold it up, you were unable to see the mast. Niall McAlinden (currently writing a report) was only seen on the start line before he blitzed off to come home 7mins clear of the field. Conor had some naviational issues in the mist but corrected and came home 4th (?). While Bernie, who was running in her longest hill race ever, had a clean run and handed over to Don in the sheets of rain. All leg 1 runners in and accounted for.

Seamus took full charge of the race on Leg 2 increasing the lead from 7mins to 15mins. He's currently writting up a report for me. On this leg the runners had to cross Carrigvoher, Gravale, Duff Hill, Mullaghcleevaun East Top, Mullaghcleevaun, Barnacullian Ridge, Stoney Top, Tonelagee before collapsing at the Wicklow Gap. Kevin had a blinder of a run, and now seems addicted to the open mountain races. His report is here. Don, been sent out in apocalyptic conditions ran clean, gaining some time to unleash Ruth on the last leg.

On 3rd leg, which had to go up Turlough Hill, Conavalla, Table track junction, Camenabologue, Cannow Ridge, Lugnaquillia and Camerahill before a 2km descent to the finish at Fentons pub. Seamus let Colm out 15mins in the lead. He ran a controlled race. His report is here. He ran clean and fast, almost taking the leg record to bring our first team home in first place by 52mins.

Kevin unleashed Niall who chased Aonghus O'C the entire way up until the Lug summit, before mist hindered him and he was forced to take the scenic route home through the Glen of Imall firing range. (Someone else went over Slievemeen!) Ruth ran clean (no surprises there) on the last leg to take 3 teams and bring the team home as First vets team.

All in all it was an extremely successful day for CNOC at the Premier Open Mountain Relay in the country. The orienteering season is soon apon us with our first event been held in Emo on the 12th of Sept. I'll do my best to find a few photos and put them up as soon as possible.

Once again well done to all teams. Results available on imra.ie

CNOC in top 35 at WOC.

Congtratulations to CNOCs Niamh who had plenty to cheer about in Grannasen ski-centre Norway. Both Niamh and Nick Simminon (Cork)were Irelands two Long distance finalists at WOC both had great runs in front of the thousands of spectators.

Niamh finished in a fantastic 34th place in her race. She put all her Trondheim training to good use and ran a clean and strong race, coming through the arena with a very tough last loop of 1.5km she was in good shape and continued hard right to the end finishing in style to the delight of all her supporters.

The 9.9km womens race was won by the unstoppable Swiss runner Simone Niggli who captured her 17th World champs gold medal.

Then it was the mens turn with Nick one of the earlier starters we could follow his progress through the forest with the excellent television and tracking coverage. Nick too had a strong race and performed admirably in what will surely be the first of many World champ finals for him, coming home in 39th position.

The home favorite Olav Lundanes was eventual mens winner, the 23 year olds first gold.

I had to pikie this from the IOA website as all my reporters have gone to ground somewhere in the northern forests, maybe there is no web or mobile signals if this is not the case there will have to be a good explination as all the fans left at home have been checking google and Skype to see if anyone puts their head up.
WE NEED PHOTOS PICTURES ARE BETTER THAN WORDS ??????????????

Maps and Route Choices

As we all know we have route gadget to share our routes with. However, with GPS's becoming a regular accessory for your average orienteer, it is now possible to upload just your route to your map using software called QuickRoute.

At present CNOC have a large gathering in Trondteim, Norway. Some excellent programming by Seamus O'Boyle has now enabled them to upload there maps with routes from trainings to CNOC's own map data base!

The map data base can be found here . If you also want to add your own maps to the archive from races or training session in Ireland or anywhere else in the world drop me an email and we'll sort you out.