Open Category Winning Couples - Rosie Arvier, Monica Crawford, Chris Arvier & Ryan King
Imperfect but Good Enough
by Chris Arvier
We were keen to have a crack at defending our metrogaine title after winning the Autumn Amble in May. There were big plans to do some solid running training before this event but the only part of that I nailed was the tapering! Ryan had just been in the 24hr event at the Aus Rogaine Champs the weekend before, and assured me his legs would be feeling fresh.
It was a glorious sunny morning, and we had a bit of a double date situation as our partners Rosie and Mon were also teaming up. For the route plan, it was hard to accurately estimate distances in the metro area, however it was immediately clear this was a pretty big course. We knew we would have to miss lots of the high value CPs at the edge of the map. We made a plan for a big loop with a few bailout options, but were regretting not arriving right on time to maximise planning!
Unknowingly, we made our first error at the very first checkpoint, 40 points missed due to a clue read-out miscommunication. We then set off up into Rokeby Hills, at one point being easily overtaken by another team, who were clearly stronger runners. After some momentary bushbashing we popped out into Rokeby, then toured the construction sites and new housing estates of Clarendon Vale. The first hour had elapsed, and it was around this point that we realised we were behind schedule for our ambitious plans.
Back through Howrah, with several more hiccups along the way: We somehow overshot #23, but made the good decision to not waste time backtracking for 20 points. We also attempted a scrubby shortcut between #62 and #75 (absolutely turned out to be a long cut), and got momentarily lost at a retirement village.
After the big climb over Waverley Hill, and with about 90 minutes remaining, we drastically changed our plan and cut out essentially all the CPs north of Eastlands, choosing to focus on the high density area around Rosny and Montague Bay. However, now without a route plan, we kept second guessing every decision, which potentially led to some inefficient route choices and missed opportunities. We had serious regrets about not changing the plan slightly earlier, which would have allowed us to pick up 2 more CPs while we were near Eastlands (originally had been planning to grab these on the way back, but our revised plan made this too inefficient).
On the home stretch and time for a swim. We'd been planning to paper-scissors-rock for the pontoon detour, but thought it made the most sense for us both to do it! It was such a warm and sunny day, and we'd done about 30ks by the time we got to the beach, so it was very refreshing to have a quick dip. There was some debate over whether this would either freshen up or seize up the legs for the final dash. For me, the cold water was a perfect intermission, and post-swim was about the only part of the day where I was (briefly) able to set the pace.
We made it back late (again) and copped a 70 point penalty. We lost another 40 points for that wrong answer, and still had some regrets about some imperfect route decisions on the fly. So it was a very big surprise to hear that we had scraped together the highest score, equally exciting was finding out that Rosie and Mon had won the women's category!
Thanks so much to all the organisers and volunteers for another great event, as always it was impeccably organised and great to see some many teams having fun out there. Very much looking forward to the next one!