Summer League #11: Farran Forest Park Tuesday July 19th Relay Race Results and Report

On Tuesday night Farran Forest Park was the destination for the final event in the CorkO 2016 Summer League. Our league kicked off eleven weeks ago on an extremely wet Tuesday evening in early May but thankfully the conditions for our Summer League finale were a lot more pleasant. The weather reports early in the week indicated that Tuesday was shaping up to be the hottest day of the year to date and Met Eireann even had a high temperature weather warning in place on the day. Their forecasting was accurate and the glorious sunshine meant the park was exceptionally busy all day with picnickers, walkers and adventures trying out the Zipit Experience. Orienteers added to the bustle in the park as they began to arrive to battle it out for the title of 2016 Summer League Relay Champions. The ten previous events in the league were all about individuals pitting their orienteering skills against one and other but on Tuesday night it was all about team work. To make our closing event a bit more social and fun the format was a two person relay race. The race commenced with a group start of each team’s first leg runner. So between registering and the race getting under way competitors had ample opportunity to meet and mingle with fellow orienteers. Furthermore, to celebrate the end of a very successful and competitive summer of orienteering the evening concluded with a BBQ and prize-giving ceremony in the National rowing centre.

In the end the group start didn't have the same level of exuberance of a typical “race” and competitors didn't exactly sprint out of the blocks. With four different courses and four different first controls it took a few seconds for contestants to get their bearings before sprinting off in the correct direction. For others that decided to map read on the move some sharp u-turns were observed. None of the controls sites were too tricky to locate and nearly all were accessible by paths. Between the four courses just 16 control sites were utilised in Farran so many of these were shared between the various courses.  For instances control 214 located on a thicket close to the tranquil waters of the river Lee and Inniscarra Lake/Reservoir was utilised on all the courses. This meant that competitors exited this control in one of four possible directions either eastwards towards controls 213 or 208 or in a south west direction towards controls 200 or 210. In a relay race it can be easy for competitors to get distracted by the sight of other orienteers and follow them rather than read the map. Given the relatively small area covered by the map on Tuesday and the varying direction of the courses contestants paths would no doubt have crossed several times in the wood. Therefore it was very important for participants to pay attention to the map and their control codes and not to get carried away following fellow competitors.

The resident deer population had a great view of all the orienteering action as competitors ran adjacent to around the deer enclosure. Meanwhile all the second leg runners waited patiently at the finish area for their team mates to arrive. All courses had a common final control which would bring competitors into the taped finish shoot to hand off to their team mate. Some teams operated some very efficient handovers while others were a little more lax in this area and lost previous seconds.

Basked in the evening sun this beautiful and majestic park proved a fitting setting for our relay race and following a very competitive race the 2016 Summer League Relay Champions were the father and son team of Eric and Alex O’Connor. They completed both their relay legs in a combined time of 28 minutes and twenty seconds. The impressive running from this pair means they received our fabulous first prize which was sponsored by Zipit Forest Adventures. So Eric and Alex will get to return to Farran Forest Park and transverse it from the tree tops and along the various zip lines as they experience the exhilarating and challenging Zipit aerial trails. All those participating in the Zipit experience on Tuesday certainly looked like they were having fun.