Setanta Wicklow Rogaine

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A Rogaine in Wicklow

Paul McArthur / 24.07.2003

The first time I heard about the Wicklow Rogaine was the day after the Adrenalin Rush when Eoin Keith (Team Apex) asked if I was interested in doing it with him. Now this brings me to the point that Adventure Racers must be a strange breed. Standing in the Adrenalin Rush camp site, after just experiencing the most painful 12 hours of my life with blistered feet, in fact the day after, still in pain with every foot step…and there was I agreeing to do a 24hr foot race in four weeks time…because it sounds like fun!!! Either we are all closet masochists or completely bonkers. Maybe, a bit of both? Four weeks passed and my feet slowly recovered.

For those who do not know what a Rogaine is, its a 24 hour large scale \"score\" orienteering event for teams of 2 or more - you’ve basically got 24 hours to check in as many markers, scattered across a large area of a map, as possible…. in this case the Wicklow Mountains over the weekend of June 28/29th. Each marker has an orienteering punch to record your visit; some locations are worth more points than others .... and at the end the team with the highest points wins .... but if you arrive back over the 24 hours you get heavily penalized for every minute you are late .... simple isn\'t it!!!

Registration at 10:30am was the usual affair…sign your name, pay your money, kit check plus the pre-race chitchat and gossip. About 30 odd teams turned up, including a few from the Irish Army (Yes, they do exist!). The organisers gave the little speech about the rules and about 30 minutes before the noon start the list of controls and their grid references were handed out. There were 50 controls each ranging from 100 points up to 500 points. Obviously, the 500 pointers where the hardest controls to get to. Quickly, maps are marked up (using the Harvey\'s 1:30000 Wicklow map), strategies made and at 12:00 noon everybody dashed off (in all different directions I may add).

Our strategy was simple, pick off as many of the high scoring controls as possible and any others that are left over. On the map the controls were spread out in a rough circle approximately 20 km in diameter with the majority of the high scores on the outside of the circle. We planned our route to roughly follow this circle, ticking off the controls on the north side of the map and then working our way down south and back around. The start was in the centre of the map, and you were allowed to revisit and make use of the tents and food anytime during the 24 hours. We planned to stay out on the course. See All Event Posts