Unknown

28 November, 2009

Philip Brennan reports

<b>No Fun in ?The Oasis? - 21st August 2005</B>

Leg 2 of the 50K series had promised to be the longest of the 3 legs and Joe Lalor certainly didn?t disappoint in that regard. 21.4km with almost 600 metres of climb encouraged us all to study our maps carefully in order to pick to most appropriate route. As usual, misinformation was being spread by various competitors as to the most appropriate way down this mountain or through that forest but by now most people realise that you really just have to plan your own route and ignore the ?advice? being bandied about.

Just before the start the weather closed in and that misty rain which soaks you thoroughly started to fall encouraging some runners to change from singlets to long sleeve garments and perhaps to pack some waterproof tops. We had the feeling we could be out for a long time !

Starting from Kywock Lodge (a.k.a. The Oasis) underneath the broody cliffs of Carrigshouk (the frosty rock) our first port of call was the south side of Cleevaun Lough, nestled under the shoulder of Mullaghcleevaun, some four kilometres away. Most of us opted to run along the edge of the forestry all the way to the top corner from where we headed to the summit of Mullaghcleevaun East Top. However Paul Nolan broke away from the group and moved left away from the forestry onto the ridge and from there to the summit.

Shortly after, Marcus Geoghegan also moved left with the intention of gaining the advantage over the group. As we gained height and entered the mist the group began to split and navigation become an issue with trying to find the line from the summit down to the saddle and from there contouring around the side of Mullaghcleevaun and down to the lake. Paul Cullen and myself had gained about four to five minutes and as we ran towards the lake there was Paul Nolan running back towards Duff Hill with about a four-minute lead. But where was Marcus?

The lake appeared out of the mist and looked as majestic and magical as only a corrie lake can look. We had to punch a control behind a boulder on the south shore of the lake and strangely enough it turned out to be one of Setanta Orienteer?s rogaine controls ! I thought all of those had been collected ?! As we turned back towards Duff we spotted Dave Weston, Doug Corrie and Cormac O?Ceallaigh followed closely by the ubiquitous Brian Bell, all heading towards the lake. But where was Marcus? Only later did we discover that he had taken a very unusual route to the lake which resulted in him losing a very considerable amount of time.

On we ran towards Duff Hill, contouring across some beautiful valleys and disturbing a large herd of deer. In the mist we inadvertently lost too much height and had to work hard to regain the ridge and from there to he summit of Duff. Wait, was that another rogaine control I spotted? Gavan and Santina Doherty bravely manned the summit and with winds strongly blowing we descended toward the forestry in order to get back onto the Military Road and from there to the Oak Wood where the Inchivore River joins Lough Dan.

The route through the forest was critical and we were fortunate in picking a ride that brought us directly down to the Military Road, albeit with some brashings hindering our descent. By now the rain had eased off and with the loss of height it had become quite warm. After about 3km south along the road we turned down through the forestry, along a track which seemed to go on forever and eventually brought us to the beautiful Oak Wood, along the banks of the river where Nora Lawlor sat serenely under an old oak tree.

At this stage the legs were beginning to tire but the toughest climb was yet to come. We had to figure out how to get from the riverbank up to the summit of Kanturk Mountain. Fortunately we had been supplied with CNOC?s orienteering map of Scarr which helped us pick up a wall that went straight up through the forest and provided a reasonably unhindered route through the trees and welcome respite from the swarms of flies buzzing over our heads. By now we knew that only Paul Nolan was ahead of us by about 7 minutes but how close were the other runners behind us?

At the top of the forest we turned right onto a good trail and followed this for about half a kilometre. Now we had to venture onto the open hill and this looked most uninviting. The slope was particularly steep, the heather was almost waist high, the ferns were head high and underneath was a particularly nasty boulder field. To make matters worse the heather, which is in full bloom at the moment gave off large puffs of pollen dust thereby hindering progress even further.

After what seemed like a lifetime we eventually gained higher ground and emerged on to the summit ridge. Picking the true summit of Kanturk is not easy; there are loads of knolls that look as high as each other. We ran to about four of them and decided we had done enough. From here it was a steep descent to the forest corner and from there a long slog along the edge of the forest back to the Military Road. Once again the rain and mist had descended and the last 500 / 600 metres along the road to the finish were not pleasant but as I?ve said before: hill running is a bit like banging your head off a wall, it?s great when you stop!

On a general note all of us would like to see more runners on these longer races that require a little navigation. It seems a bit odd that the summer series evening races can attract over 200 runners and we are only getting around 10% of this figure on the longer runs. I don?t imagine it?s the distance that puts people off but rather the fact that you have to actually think about where you are going and how to get there. We need to work on encouraging more people to tackle the navigational aspect of hill running

Organiser Joe Lalor writes

In a tough 21km course that took in Lough Cleevaun, Duff Hill, an oak copse on the Inchavore River and Kanturk summit the 50k series continued with a small field. With Gerry Brady, leading from the first leg away in Austria there was an opening for orienteers Philip Brennan and Marcus Geoghegan to pull away.

The 13 runners started out in steady rain with mist covering all the high ground. None of them appeared to take the well-used walkers track up on the side of Carrigshouk leading all the way to Mullaghcleevaun but rather took the forest edge towards East Top and contoured to the saddle on difficult ground. Marcus decided to save on climb and contoured east of East Top and was meet by runners on their way to Duff Hill, proving it not to be the fastest option.

Runners were recorded on Duff Hill by Gavan and Santina (well most were) and had the difficult decision to make as how to descend to the Military road to pick up the track leading into the Inchavore River. Lead runner Paul Nolan thought he saw earlier in the day a break in the forest though which he could descend, he was wrong he spent six minutes of his otherwise fast descent on his belly.

Those who persevered with the Harvey?s map found the forest ride which brought them down directly, others followed the main river down in very tough ground, while Brian Bell followed forest all the way back to the start. Three runners had a very interesting route choice, let us just say they arrived at Kanturk before the Inchavore River.

At the popular camping site at oak copse runners were met by Nora and again had a decision to make how to proceed to Kanturk. There is no doubt this was by far the most difficult leg. To help runners they were supplied with an orienteering map of Kanturk (supplied by Ruth Lynam of CNOC). The most popular choice was the direct assault along a wall, the very wet ride at the end of the approach track was also used. Charlie O?Connell had possibly the easiest (but longest) route, he continued on to Brown Mountain and travelled on to Kanturk by the ridge.

Ten runners finished, leaving only five with a chance of finishing the series.

Where does that leave the 50k challenge? It was never envisaged that this series would attract big numbers, there is no minimum number required for the series to go ahead. It was however conceived as an event where navigation was a central element. It was not envisaged that runners would run in groups and those failing to be checked at manned points should in theory be disqualified. To do well all available resources (mentioned in briefing notes on site) should be checked, OS map did not have rides in forest, only Kanturk map (supplied) had wall.

To run the event strictly all sites should be manned or have control, this is logistically difficult and probably not worthwhile for 13 runners.

I would be interested in comments re future of event joe.lalor(at)imra.ie