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The Wicklow Round - A looped course covering 26 peaks totalling over 100K and over 6,

summit2summit

Hi Boards,

I am trying to increase the image and popularity of The Wicklow Round which is a mountain run consisting of a looped course covering 26 of Wicklow’s peaks totalling over 100K in distance and over 6,000M of climb inside 24 hours.

I myself achieved my goal of completing the WR last year and feel that far too few people have taken on this challenge.

I am setting up this thread to answer any questions that you may have about the challenge so feel free to ask away. It really was one of the finest achievements of my life so far and would encourage anyone to try and take it on. It is very tough but with the right planning and training anyone can attempt it!

More info can be found at https://www.imra.ie/wicklowround/ and don’t forget that is it worth 3 UTMB points too.

Thanks,

S2S

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Rossi7

finbarrrr wrote: »

The rules of the round have been severely tightened. With the 'new' rules the last two successful completions would not be valid but they are leaving the previous attempts alone.

https://www.imra.ie/wicklowround/

Personally speaking, I think its gone far too strict where it's really discouraging more average hikers who would require a lot of support at giving the round a go.

I'm pretty sure the Wicklow Round isn't geared towards the average Joe, certainly not for record attempts

Djoucer

It's not for average hikers. It's supposed to be hard. That's the point of it.

Many a veteran IMRA runner failed multiple times before being successful.

If you can't do it, the answer isn't to making it easier. You need to train harder.

I always thought the ban on GPS was fairly clear.

jamule

i can see an opportunity here, anyone that wants to complete the round , you can do it whenever you like, just let me know and give me €100 and i will give you a medal and all the kudos you want.

Hurrache

Don't forget a Gofundme page for them in order to fund their challenge.

summit2summit

I think more black and white rules have been needed for a long time now and fair play to Richard and the committee for addressing this. For such a big challenge, the simple one liner that existed for so many years was not sufficient in my eyes. Forgive my copy and paste from an IMRA post last year but this is the point I am trying to get at:

"I always found this Wicklow Round rule a bit grey. It states: "It is against the spirit of the event to have a pacing runner or navigational support."

The pacing runner part is clear but the rest could be interpreted in a few ways. Most of us know that it means a map and compass only but one could argue that it is a touch vague. What is the definition on navigational support? Is navigational support using a map and compass? A watch that has an altimeter? A GPS? A phone with Google maps? A person running in front leading the way? Using car lights on a road as a point of reference?"

I get that 'most' people know what it means but it did need clarification. For all the previous successful attempts, I think they should be all left as is purely because the 'rule' was fairly vague in parts.

As an additional suggestion, I think the provided grid references should be updated to 8 digit grids which is a box 10m x 10m. The current 6 digit refs provided are just saying you have to visit a box 100m x 100m which is the size of a soccer pitch give or take.

Peterx

There was a suggestion on the IMRA forum to move the start/finish to Glenmalure. Would that make sense logistically?

summit2summit

Any of the road crossings would work logistically but I think the remoteness of the current start/finish is a bit special plus, a change like this would fundamentally change the challenge as you would be bagging some of the 'tougher' peaks much earlier on with fresh legs whereas for everyone else, they were left towards the middle of the challenge when there was already several miles in the legs. Just my opinion though...

summit2summit

And we are off again!

I remember these guys from last year. What awful luck they had with that murder closing off big sections of the roads and essentially being the difference between success and not. Lets hope they manage it this time around. They are due to set off 01:00 June 6th

https://www.imra.ie/forum/topic/id/4894

http://live.primaltracking.com/wicklowround18/?n=2

finbarrrr

They must be very strong. 27 hours last year and the issues they had especially how far away from the usual start they were forced into.. Best of luck to them, I'll be interested indeed in some route choices. (Not that I'll change anything at this stage)

summit2summit

Hard look to the lads, it took balls to come back to give it another crack. Let’s hope we see them back in the hills of Wicklow soon so they can get the job done!

summit2summit

We have the 3rd attempt of the year coming up this weekend. The Barry brother's will be giving it a crack at 1pm, Friday the 15th.

Not many opt for a lunch start which is interesting. I myself did, for the sole reason of not having to do any night nav at the very end but most do opt for the 3am start.

I will post the tracker link when it becomes available.

S2S

summit2summit

Here is the tracker link for the lads: http://live.primaltracking.com/wicklowround18/?n=3

Looks like a dry start to Friday with rain coming in from the west as the day progess's

summit2summit

And we are off again, Paul Kelville to start at 01:00 this Saturday. Weather is ideal

http://live.primaltracking.com/wicklowround18/?n=4

summit2summit

summit2summit wrote: »

Here is the tracker link for the lads: http://live.primaltracking.com/wicklowround18/?n=3

Looks like a dry start to Friday with rain coming in from the west as the day progess's

Eoin Keith gave me some great advice before I set off. He said you need to load the dice in your favour. What I did was block book a load of weekends and played the waiting game. Then one Tuesday I knew a gem of a weekend was on the cards and every other lose end was boxed off, so I knew I was good to go.

What I did in effect was let the weather chose my start date and not let myself chose my start date. This ultimately paid off.

I think for the two lads, who knew they were going to be close to 24hrs, made a mistake by picking a date far in advance and hoping the weather would play ball.

When you are running in such fine lines and success can be narrowly achieved or indeed narrowly missed, you really do need hat dice loaded in your favour.

It takes balls to even start running down that bog road so fair play to the lads for even getting to that point!

nowaynever

summit2summit wrote: »

Eoin Keith gave me some great advice before I set off. He said you need to load the dice in your favour. What I did was block book a load of weekends and played the waiting game. Then one Tuesday I knew a gem of a weekend was on the cards and every other lose end was boxed off, so I knew I was good to go.

What I did in effect was let the weather chose my start date and not let myself chose my start date. This ultimately paid off.

I think for the two lads, who knew they were going to be close to 24hrs, made a mistake by picking a date far in advance and hoping the weather would play ball.

When you are running in such fine lines and success can be narrowly achieved or indeed narrowly missed, you really do need hat dice loaded in your favour.

It takes balls to even start running down that bog road so fair play to the lads for even getting to that point!

Great post.

summit2summit

He may have done a ‘stringbean’ on it!

finbarrrr

Oh to be a fly on the wall when Committee meet to ratify this round..

summit2summit

Here’s the short film about Joe’s record breaking Wicklow Round earlier this year

https://youtu.be/DF_zx7_atMs

summit2summit

Well well, I’ve seen my fair share of ups and downs over the years both personally and as a spectator but Paul O’Callaghan’s winter solstice completion of the Wicklow Round is by far the finest achievement I’ve come across.

To battle against the harsh cold weather with literally the least amount of daylight possible AND being (the 1st?) unsupported completion just beggars belielf.

I cannot wait to read the report and will share here as soon as I see it.

Regards

S2S

Peterx

Very enjoyable film and chat afterwards last evening in the UCD Orienteers private cinema

When asked what was the tough moment during their rounds Gavin said it was all easy and Paddy said the wind - which equates to it was all easy - as no one with any sense (ie: no one living close to Wicklow) is going to pick a windy day.
Moire essentially also said it was all easy as she said her hardest moment was mental tiredness during a failed attempt - on her successful attempt - well she was successful

What I took from that is be lucky and be patient, do the round on one of those days where you are on fire and the weather is good.
And recces. Many recces for Gavin/Moire and two in depth recces for Paddy.

finbarrrr

The Recces are important alright, I had the route recced to death and back again for my failed attempt last year. On the day of the attempt I knew the route so well navigation wasn't an issue. Alas weather did with me picking a bad day..

paulocon2

Peterx wrote: »

Very enjoyable film and chat afterwards last evening in the UCD Orienteers private cinema

When asked what was the tough moment during their rounds Gavin said it was all easy and Paddy said the wind - which equates to it was all easy - as no one with any sense (ie: no one living close to Wicklow) is going to pick a windy day.
Moire essentially also said it was all easy as she said her hardest moment was mental tiredness during a failed attempt - on her successful attempt - well she was successful

What I took from that is be lucky and be patient, do the round on one of those days where you are on fire and the weather is good.
And recces. Many recces for Gavin/Moire and two in depth recces for Paddy.

is there anywhere to see the film?

Slogger Jogger

paulocon2 wrote: »

is there anywhere to see the film?

It is to appear at a couple more film festivals in the early part of 2020. I expect later in the year it'll be available online.

summit2summit

May be of interest to folks here....

Would you love to do the Wicklow Round but feel it’s beyond your reach? Would you like to recce the route, but at a leisurely no-stress pace?

Happy Out Adventures is super excited to announce an exclusive Wicklow Round recce weekend, Saturday 23 May and Sunday 24 May 2020. We’re breaking the route in two, navigating on your behalf and traveling it at your pace, with an overnight home-stay in the picturesque Glenmalure Valley.

https://happyoutadventures.com/product/wicklow-round-recce-230520/

summit2summit

After a lull in Round activity this year mainly down to the lockdown, we were given the treat of 2 attempts, pretty much back to back to look forward too over the weekend of Jun 20/21.

First up was Graham Bushe who went out at 2am in calm and clear conditions. Unfortunately his tracker was faulty so keeping track of his progress proved a bit difficult. It became clear as the day progressed that the weather started to worsen with heavy winds kicking up and poor visibility setting in. Not what you want on the back half of the Round! The poor conditions proved too much for Graham and he came across the finish line an agonising 10 mins over the max 24 hours allotted for a successful completions. Heart ache for him no doubt but none the less this was still a fantastic achievement and I really hope to see Graham back this summer to make amends.

Next up was a somewhat unknown Greg Clarke who set out at 2:30 am on the Sunday. He headed off into the same rough conditions but luckily for him the weather settled down and apart from a decent breeze, the day was perfect for mountain running. Greg’s tracker was working and it was clear that he was making very good progress from the off and all reports were that he was going strong and looking fresh. I got up to Scarr to see him and had a quick chat and it was like he had just begun his run he seemed that fresh and alert. Quite the feat considering all the miles in his legs and the lack of sleep. I was able to see him again as he entered into Oldboleys and again, he seemed incredible fresh considering! I headed up to the start/finish where there was a decent crowd gathering including Richard Nunan, Lillian Deegan, John Murray, Laurence Colleran and many others including Greg’s proud folks. Greg powered across the finish line at 9:53 pm in smashing time of 19h:23m to become the 36th person to complete the Round since Moiré’s successful attempt way back in May on 2009.

So what’s next for the Round this year? Well quite a lot as rumour has it. If the weather plays ball, I can see another 4/5 attempts at least with a few more woman taking on the challenge too which would be fantastic to see! Watch this space…..

TomD101

summit2summit wrote: »

May be of interest to folks here....

Would you love to do the Wicklow Round but feel it’s beyond your reach? Would you like to recce the route, but at a leisurely no-stress pace?

Happy Out Adventures is super excited to announce an exclusive Wicklow Round recce weekend, Saturday 23 May and Sunday 24 May 2020. We’re breaking the route in two, navigating on your behalf and traveling it at your pace, with an overnight home-stay in the picturesque Glenmalure Valley.

https://happyoutadventures.com/product/wicklow-round-recce-230520/

I'm keen to organise a group to do this, could you DM me please? Thanks!

The Noble Nudge

TomD101 wrote: »

I'm keen to organise a group to do this, could you DM me please? Thanks!

Obviously a few factors before committing availability being the main one as Im looking at a few different events but still undecided as to what to pick so keep in touch. DM sent

summit2summit

Here we go again!

https://www.imra.ie/forum/topic/id/5573

summit2summit

summit2summit wrote: »

Here we go again!

https://www.imra.ie/forum/topic/id/5573

Hard luck to Tom Roche last weekend. It was some effort none the less! No doubt he will be back for more, as will Graham, I am sure.

summit2summit

In other WR news, I note that over on the IMRA forum that Paul O Callaghan has given notice for a DOUBLE round attempt. I know this was attempted once before but it was not completed. This would be some feat if he pulls its off!