LUG Relay: Sat 21st Aug 2010

Message from Philip Brennan re Lug Relay this year

Many of you will remember this legendary mountain relay, in the days whenorienteers were happy to run for hours in the open mountains, confident thatthey could navigate successfully whatever the elements threw at them. We hadepic battles between the various clubs - Ajax, Curragh, 3Roc, with some amazingtimes recorded for each leg. It truly is a real mountain race where you arenavigating and route finding continuosly and if the cloud decends, then the funreally starts.

In IMRA we have been trying to revive this race for the past couple of years,albeit with limited success. The number of team entering is small and this yearwe are trying to broaden the appeal of the race and looking to get as many teamsas possible from the orienteering community. I would have thought that given therace's roots, we could raise at least one team from each orienteering club andindeed some of the larger clubs should easily be able to enter two teams, maybeeven more. I would like to appeal to all of you now to get in touch with yourclubmates, running partners and commit to entering this race.

Colm Hill has suggested that we should be able to get up to 20 teams to enterand I would be hoping for around this number.When we look at the success of the Wicklow Way Relay and see how easy it is to get 30 + teams with 8 runners oneach team, surely be to God we can entice 20 teams of 3 people to enter a race which I would consider to be a lot more challenging and rewarding than the WWR.

I realise that the date may clash with other events but unfortunately with somany events taking place it is very difficult to pick a date that suitseveryone. Entries are open now for the Lug Relay. Log onto the Events section of the IMRA website & have a look at the route. Decide upon a leg you would like to run and get a team together. With the super weather we are having at the moment - what better time to get out for a run & recce the route. Teams entering should email me at philip at pmbrennan dot ie. If you cannot get a team together but still want to run let me know and we will try & accomodate you.

Ed: If anyone in BOC is interested in competing and needs teammates, let me know (sharonlucey at gmail dot com) and we will try and get people into teams.