Rogaine Ireland 2010 - fancy an all-nighter?

Paul McArthur / 19.05.2010

One of the toughest events on the Irish orienteering and adventure racing calendar must be the Setanta Rogaine (though strictly not an adventure race, rogaines provide similar navigation challenges to multiday AR events). Originally called the Wicklow Rogaine it is now known as Rogaine Ireland, due to the growing international interest over the last few years. It is also the only 24hr rogaine to be held in the British Isles and full credit to the Setanta Orienteering Club for reaching its 13th year of this wonderful event.

Rogaining is a sport of long distance navigation on foot for teams of two or more over a twenty four hour period. The object of the sport is to score points by finding checkpoints located within a specially mapped area within the allowed time period. As checkpoints can be visited in any order, strategy and teamwork are important features of the sport as well as endurance, stamina and navigational skills, with night navigation a key element. The team members must stay together at all times. The classic rogaine is a 24 hour event, but there are also shorter events durations of 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12 hours. The Rogaine Ireland 2010 consists of a 24hr and 6hr event.

The event takes place in the Wicklow Mountains to the south of Dublin. The precise start/finish location is not disclosed until close to the event date. The terrain is mainly open moor-land with large tracts of planted coniferous forest. The 1:30000 Harvey’s Wicklow Mountain Map is used for the event.

24 Hour event
This event will start at mid-day on the Saturday of the weekend of the event and finish 24 hours later, at mid-day on the Sunday. A central Event Centre will be manned from 8pm on the Saturday until the event finishes on Sunday. Hot food will be available at this time from the event centre, and an area to pitch a small tent will also be available, subject to permit. Teams may opt to come back to the event centre or stay out on the competition terrain for the full 24 hours.

6 Hour event
This event will also start at mid-day and finished 6 hours later. As this is a shorter event, hot food will not be provided by the organisers. Camping will be available if competitors wish to remain at the event centre overnight, subject to permit.

For both events, the winning team was determined by totalling the number of points scored less any penalty points accrued for over-running the cut off finish time. In the event of a tie, the higher placing shall be awarded to the team that finished earlier.

The date for the event is the weekend of June 26/27th 2010. For further details and on how to enter, then please visit the Setanta website http://www.setantaorienteers.org/event/rogaine-ireland-2010