St Kevin's Way
Authors
Unknown
28 November, 2009
<B><center>50k Challenge Race 3</center></B><a href="http://www.imra.ie/ad-hoc/50k.htm">Final Positions</a>
The start of race three was moved up to the entrance of Brockagh Wood, not as was believed because the race was going North rather to offer a choice of routes to the first control Derrybawn.
The band of 18 starters broke up roughly evenly in two halves, with the slightly larger group opting for the Woollen Mill route and the rest going via the interpretative centre car park. Each group contained one of the two planners showing that they did not even agree on the quickest route. As it turned out the Glendalough group had the slight edge, however most of both groups made it there before the race marshall who was delayed by a certain very talkative runner.
Before the race it was expected that the next legs would offer the most route choices, however as it turned out all runners (except Andrew and Zoe) opted for a direct plunge into the upper lake car park and the ferocious steep climb up to the Camaderry ridge. It was thought that some might fancy a contour around to Glenealo and from there up to the Camaderry Ridge without loosing as much height. It was agreed by all after the race that this was never a “runner”. The next control was the coll on the Camaderry ridge before reaching the summit specially picked for its relatively easy route down to Glendasen. Two runners however decided to make things hard for themselves, one on not finding the marshall (it was a bad hair day for the marshalls not giving it enough time to be in place for the elite runners) decided to go looking for him and travelled on the Camaderry summit and descend by cliff to Lough Nahanagan forgetting that the point of the exercise was to visit the given Grid References not “find the marshalls” . The other runner although part of the reci team who ran this route in November left Camaderry Ridge way before the first peak and again had to cross terrible terrain. The last control was Brockagh Summit on the other side of the Wicklow Gap Road and a fast finish back to starting point. Most found the course very demanding with over 1140 metres of climb in quite hot conditions but there was quite heavy fog for the first stage. Inevitably local knowledge played a part. It made a big difference if you hit the track from the miner’s village in Glendasan, which lead all the way to the road. A few more runners were piped to the post by not knowing of the lane which leads from Brockagh to the forest entrance (not on Harveys Map) by a shorter route than that used by the Wednesday Run but the two GEN orienteers have no cause to complain.
Winners on the day were Mike Long and Philip Brennan, and of the five runners who completed all three races Jeff Butler was over all winner and Zeo Melling first lady.
