ROUTE ANALYSIS: Dungarvan - #4 Munster Urban League 2025

This winter saw the first staging of the Munster Urban League, a joint offering by CorkO and SEVO. The first event was hosted by SEVO in Fethard in late 2024, followed by two CorkO events in early 2025 - Youghal and Cork City Centre. The League concluded with a second SEVO event in Dungarvan on the 9th of February, whose Long course is the subject of the route analysis below.

Overview

The course is a shorter-than-average urban middle distance, featuring a mixture of long, short and medium-length legs. Route choice features on all but two legs. The map extent covers the main centre of Dungarvan, west of the river, and features a fairly linear planned town layout with some irregularity by the riverside, and some more open public space in the centre.

Leg S-1 (Optimum Route: A)

With route choice on the first leg, it was important to have a marked run-in; in this case, 60 metres long. Due to the winding nature of both routes, it’s hard to discern which is better, especially under pressure. B’s shortcut along the open areas might make it look like it has an edge on A, but in fact it travels too far out from the line, and spends too much time perpendicular to it, to be worthwhile. A’s early diagonal across the grass and lesser time spent perpendicular to the line makes it a small bit shorter, 20m, which represents 5 seconds at winner’s pace - a valuable lead so early in the race.

Leg 1-2 (Optimum Route: A or B)

In the early stages of planning, this route was intended to be less of a 50/50, with a possible diagonal on B through the open land and paved area on its first corner. However, a permanently locked gate there made these routes more evenly split. With less than 10m in it, either route is fine here, and B might even be preferable as it maintains optimum-route control flow towards 3 (although with no SI Air on race day, this bears no real weight).

Leg 2-3 (Optimum Route: A)

B is significantly longer here. The key is to notice early that there’s only one gap through the impassable wall leading into 3; this makes approaching from the north a much better choice. A is 50m shorter, nearly 15 seconds at winner’s pace.

Leg 3-4 (Optimum Route: B)

The same logic applies on this leg; the single small gap in the western impassable wall creates a costly switchback on A. An easy 20m, and 5 seconds, gained by B, representing a significant time saving on a leg so short.

Leg 5-6 (Optimum Route: A or B)

The route to avoid here is C; if going left, the runner should use A, which benefits from the diagonal through the car park and the alley. A and B are close enough in length to effectively be 50/50. Runners who took B experienced the novelty of running through the indoor shopping mall.

Leg 6-7 (Optimum Route: D)

This was the longest leg of the course, and, again, featured a route to avoid. A is the worst possible option; despite being simple to execute, it’s 140m longer than the next worst option, and 180m longer than the best option, travelling so far away from the target control to start. Of the remaining three routes (B Green 618m, C Blue 644m, D Purple 602m), those that make use of the central car park (B and D) to gain a diagonal are best, with D gaining an additional diagonal through the town square and ending up best by 15m. C is another reasonable option, even at 40m and 10 seconds slower than D.

Leg 7-8 (Optimum Route: B)

A is designed to look simple and appealing here; it leads the runner invitingly into the control, but ends with an acute turn and a long stretch perpendicular to the line. B requires a bit of careful reading to discern the shortest possible route, with some runners interpreting the passable wall at the top of the earthbank as impassable. If read correctly, B is a significantly shorter route.

Regrettably, control 8 was put out wrong on race day, on the pole northeast of the shown control site. This made the actual routes 50/50 on the day, with B still remaining a few metres shorter.

Leg 8-9 (Optimum Route: B)

A fairly simple leg on paper, either side of a row of housing. In reality, B saves nearly 20m by gaining a diagonal across the grass, and avoiding A’s small hook into the control.

Leg 9-10 (Optimum Route: A)

Very much a 50/50, although the optimum route 8-9 will naturally flow into the optimum route here for 9-10, and preserve control flow out of 10 towards 11 too.

Leg 10-11 (Optimum Route: A)

A is shortest here, and is much the same as B. C is easy to execute, but is let down by hooking beyond and back in to the control site.

Leg 11-12 (Optimum Route: A)

While this leg might look 50/50 at first glance, B is longer than A both on the first stretch (from 11 to the first turn) and the second stretch (between the first turn and the second turn). A also preserves control flow towards 13.

Leg 12-13 (Optimum Route: B)

This was my favourite control site - ‘Building, North tip’ around 15m down an alley, making for a small hook when taking B, while giving A the apparent potential to save some distance by approaching from the south. In reality, there are three signs against A. Firstly, the alley leading up to the control from the south is angled >45 degrees to the line, giving the route a more jagged shape and shifting that stretch of the leg too far into ‘perpendicular’ territory. Secondly, A forms a not-insignificant S-curve through the line, especially once it gets left of the line. Both of these points contribute to A’s slightly greater distance travelled compared to B. Lastly, A involves an extra turn compared to B’s smoother line. B’s only downside is its loss of flow for the optimum route towards the next control, but with no SI Air, this is of little to no concern.

Building, North tip (is it an inside corner? North tip describes it as mapped!)

Leg 13-14 (Optimum Route: A)

The key on this leg is to notice the excellent diagonal yielded by A. This represents a 30m saving compared to B. If distracted or making a late decision when picking a route, it can be quite easy to oversimplify the shapes and allow the darker colours of the buildings and OOB areas to take over; training your eye to focus more on lighter patches can be a good strategy to combat that tendency and find shortcuts and diagonals.

Leg 14-15 (Optimum Route: B)

This leg is the perfect follow up to caution moderation in the ‘seek out light patches’ approach. A is a tempting route here because it appears to offer more diagonals than B. In reality, those light-patch diagonals just lead you further away from the line, with the main paved area which looks like it might yield some savings in distance fenced off.

Leg 15-16 (Optimum Route: A)

A is a nice option here; it remains entirely to one side of the line, and has a smoother shape than B, avoiding any S-curve, saving 15m. Further savings in distance should be possible on A by passing diagonally through the canopy, but in reality this is unlikely to be of benefit due to it being a busy multistorey car park.

Leg 16-17 (Optimum Route: B)

The final route choice of the course before the last control and the finish. Again, the diagonal along the car park on A might be tempting when leaving 16, but the resultant hook required to get back in to 17 makes it much longer; over 70m, or around 18 seconds at winner’s pace. B travels away from the target control at first, which can feel counterintuitive, but in this case saves a lot of distance later in the leg. The choice might look obvious on paper, but the key to picking correctly here is to have retained your focus right to the end of the course - much like a sprinter should be aiming to run 110m, not 100m, to get their best performance, an orienteer needs to ensure that the impending finish line doesn’t result in diminishing focus.

Conclusion

The course isn’t overly complex, for the most part featuring simple, accessible control sites and left-or-right route choice. It will reward a consistent, decisive and confident runner who doesn’t hesitate and picks the correct route the majority of the time, and especially where it counts.

- Jack Hanafin, planner