Art O'Neill 2014

jusmeig

Road Bandit wrote: »

I was one of the group doing the AON over the weekend and I found a head torch on route.
If you know anyone who lost one please pm me details.
hopefully we can re-unite it to its owner.

We attempted to do the route from CP1 to the finish, but we could not get over Sally Gap to leave a second car. Bad ice, so we turned rather than risk getting stuck. Instead we walked out of Barravore to Art's Cross and back, following the official GPS route provided.

The route up to arts cross to the right of the river is steep but not too eroded, the leftside is in an awful state so best avoided

From the cross over to the saddle with Table had a nice dusting of snow and was not to bad underfoot. I hope we get similar conditions this friday

Gravale

jusmeig wrote: »

The route up to arts cross to the right of the river is steep but not too eroded, the left side is in an awful state so best avoided.

The route on the left side of the river is the route I always take. However, it's very muddy initially and requires a LOT more care, especially in icy conditions. I find it quicker though. I'm still trying to get the mud out of my fingernails however.

mr spuckler

what are people's thoughts on dealing with potentially icy conditions this weekend? i drove the road section on sunday and a stretch of it is up around 500m, which suggests it wouldn't take much for that to be iced over in the middle of the night. would be good craic trying to keep upright on that in a pair of runners / trail shoes!

nerraw1111

Met Eireann are forecasting minus 1 for Friday night, might make it less boggy.

Re ice. I think in 2009/2011 the roads were full of ice, meaning people had to walk along the side of the road etc. I think one road section called for people to use their hands to cross it. I remember reading a race report by Eoin Keith where he mentioned the crazy ice.

In 2011 and the roads were icy/frosted with light dusting of snow. Slippery in places with road runners but it made the off road section much easier. With the forecast so far, doesn't seem to be much in the way of rain in the latter part of this week which should lessen the ice risk.

jusmeig

mr spuckler wrote: »

what are people's thoughts on dealing with potentially icy conditions this weekend? i drove the road section on sunday and a stretch of it is up around 500m, which suggests it wouldn't take much for that to be iced over in the middle of the night. would be good craic trying to keep upright on that in a pair of runners / trail shoes!

Hiking boots don't make a whole lot of difference either if you hit a big patch of ice....they will however prevent your ankles from snapping

Off the roads the ice will be very welcome as it will make it far less boggy, however on the roads its fairly crap no matter what footwear u have on.

You're all as mad as muc u runners

Enduro

Overall I find that ice is easier to deal with than saturated bog, so I'm hoping we'll get the currently forecast cold night. And yes, the ice was great fun in the first year of the race. There were sheets of it over large sections of the road after stone cross.

If you're really worried about it, then you can buy various forms of grips which slip over (under) your shoes. They were for sale all over the place last year. They're quite effective.

mr spuckler

i was thinking of buying the grips for the road section, trust me i'm well aware of the benefits of the off-road sections being icy!

Alun

While it may be of benefit on open boggy areas, some of the tracks where there's exposed rocks or stones are still lethal. Even the Wicklow Way from the bottom of Djouce towards Crone was lethal on Saturday and everyone was walking along the vegetation to the side of the path.

nerraw1111

Am I right in thinking that the moon will have set by the time the off road section begins for most ppl on sat? And therefore no moon light? Seems to say moon sets at 3.17

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=78&month=1&year=2014&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1

Gravale

Yes, the moon sets at 3.17am so we'll not have any great benefit from it. It'll be only a little more than a quarter moon anyway.

Rogue Runner

Dublin City 103.2FM have a piece on the Race today from 10am

AON2014

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Am I right in thinking that the moon will have set by the time the off road section begins for most ppl on sat? And therefore no moon light? Seems to say moon sets at 3.17

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=78&month=1&year=2014&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1

The moon will be about three quarters illuminated on Friday night into Saturday morning and will set a little after 3am. Depending on cloud cover it might be a nice companion for the road section at least but the initial stages of the mountain section will be 'country dark' as they say!

Check this link for more detailed information: http://lunaf.com/english/moon-phases/lunar-calendar-2014/01/10/

AON2014

I was out marking the Glenbride & Athdown sections of the route today and met a man in Glenbride who had lost a pair of binoculars on the East side of the Glenbride valley in the region of O 05 04. If anyone found them could you contact me on info@artoneillchallenge.ie so I can arrange to return them. He even said he might offer a wee reward. Thanks.

DubOnHoliday

Best of luck to all those doing the AON tonight.

BeBetter

Weather ain't so hot right now looking out the window in Limerick but the forecast for the route later looks pretty good!!! Roll on AON 2014! Best of luck to everyone tonight, see you in Dublin Castle!

mr spuckler

it's windy, dry & clearish in dublin right now though there are some clouds over the mountains!

nerraw1111

The 5 day Met forecast is looking almost perfect.

http://www.met.ie/forecasts/5day-ireland.asp

No rain from midnight and for the whole of Saturday, temperatures of zero or less and little wind.

opus

After the storms of the last few weeks think we've certainly dodged a bullet here!

Best of luck to everyone tonight...

Gasherbraun

Hope everyone taking part has a great event tonight and tomorrow. Have a fast safe run / trek

AON2014

Marked the last of the route sections today. The river crossing in the Glenbride valley was no issue. The rain has cleared through so we are in for a chilly but dry Art O'Neill Challenge. Better get busy…time for some hassle at Dublin Castle. Good luck everyone, pace yourselves and stay visible! See you all in Glenmalure!!!

mr spuckler

probably late to be asking...can i drop into dublin castle at 9 o'clock say to register, drop off my bag for 1st rest stop and have my mandatory kit checked, then leave and come back at half 11ish?

Gravale

Outbreaks of rain in the east will die out and it will become dry this evening and tonight apart from isolated showers. It will become cold also with long clear spells and light breezes. Lowest air temperatures of zero to -3 Celsius with a widespread frost and a risk of icy patches. Some mist and freezing fog patches may develop also.

Good luck!

nutts_77

What an event !!! Organisers even sorted the weather for us.....

summit2summit

What a super event! Let's hope it's not the last one.....

Cheers for organising Declan!

Rogue Runner

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Well done to Declan, volunteers, and DWMRT for running such an increbible event. Well done to Eoin and Caroline. Great to see the winners hang around and greet the finishers at the end.

If as Declan says this is the last AON Challenge, we'll have lost an amazing event.

nerraw1111

Agreed. Superb event. Magical experience on the mountains as dawn was breaking. Such clear skies. Tough conditions going over Billy Byrne's Gap. Like the Bermuda triangle, people suddenly disappearing from view 15 metres away, despite the headtorches.

Gasherbraun

Rogue Runner wrote: »

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Well done to Declan, volunteers, and DWMRT for running such an increbible event. Well done to Eoin and Caroline. Great to see the winners hang around and greet the finishers at the end.

If as Declan says this is the last AON Challenge, we'll have lost an amazing event.

It was rumoured that 2013 was the last AON but that was happily proved wrong this year. If it does cease to exist as an organised and supported hike / ultra it will no doubt just revert back to a smaller and less formal event as it was for decades.

Either way a great well organised challenge and it would be a shame to see it vanish since it does offer many people a unique experience they may not otherwise get.

mr spuckler

well that was my first AON and it certainly didn't disappoint. i did the trek with 2 mates, we went guided after checkpoint 1. personal highlights were on the first leg looking back just before the turn at seefin and seeing the line of head torches bobbing as they came up the road behind us, with the city lights in the background. getting over the funk that set in not far into the second leg, crossing the river in the glenbride valley by part torchlight & part emerging daylight, reaching art's cross and thinking that was all the hard work done! and then finally running across the river at the car park at barravore!

i assumed it would be tough and i also assumed that (if completed) i'd get a great sense of achievement from it, both of those assumptions proved to be 100% correct

fair play to declan and all the crew, it seemed that there was a lot of hassle involved this year, between the permits and the registration process but they really put on a great event. finally kudos to all participants, whether trekkers, hybrids or ultras

Gravale

Certainly Gearóid Towey's initial organisation of this new-format Art O'Neill in 2009 and Declan's subsequent renditions have brought new life (runners) and more people to the experience. Reports are that it may not be happening next year. We'll see.

Be mindful though that the Art O'Neill Walk has been happening since the 1950's and has continued to this very day. Already in 2014 there has been one walkers-only organisation of the event and another is happening before the month is out and they will continue throughout the year.

Here's one from 1954.

Art O'Neill Walk (early years).jpg

Alfa Quadrifoglio

My second Art O'Neill Challenge completed, what an epic event. Many thanks to Declan and all involved in the organisation of the AON, to the DWMRT, and to Eoin Connolly and Alan our guides who ensured we got to Barravore safely and in decent time. Darren Frehill of RTE was in our Group, he completed the event and interviewed Eoin in the thick fog on Black Hill, not sure when this will be aired?
To the guy pulling the tyre behind him as training for an event in the Yukon... respect!
Congratulation to Eoin Keith on winning the Ultra event again, an Irish sporting legend, a time of 5 hours 20 minutes, which to cover 53km through the night in the dark and fog over difficult terrain simply defies logic.
With regard to the rumour's posted that this may be the last organised AON, I sincerely hope they are unfounded.The AON means to much now to come to such a premature end. If anything, whatever measures/lobbying that needs to take place to increase the numbers back to 2012 levels should now take place.