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I had the pleasure of dragging a first-time rogainer, Hamish Lockett, around the Lindisfun metrogaine by foot. We had figured that given the large map area and possibility of a lot of street running, the winning team would probably be covering somewhere between 30-40 kms, depending on where the big points were spread across the map, and we felt up to the challenge.
Upon collecting the map, it was clear that there were two overarching route options, focusing on either the hills of the Meehan Range or south in the streets of Rosny and Howrah. Hamish and I quickly agreed that we needed to see a few more high scoring controls in the hills for it to be worth our while, especially since he considered his strength to be flat running, not the hills. We ended up with a route which took in most of the big controls in the streets of the south, plus a few of the lone hills of the eastern shore. I was glad to find that some of our competition had decided to head into the hills. It would be interesting to see which option proved best!
The weather was hot and sunny, a pleasant respite from the rain of the past few months. Unfortunately, my Garmin watch insightfully informed me that I was only 2% adapted to the heat, and as we averaged 6min/km in the first hour of the rogaine, it quickly became apparent that managing our bodies throughout the 4 hours was going to be key to a successful run.
We headed south trailing Niko and Jett before traversing around Rosny Hill, past Blundstone Arena and quickly arriving at our southernmost point near Wentworth Park. The journey back north involved some occasionally confusing but mostly straight forward navigation through the numerous tracks of Waverley Park and Flagstaff Gully. Climbing the last obstacle for the day, Natone Hill, we both dealt with some leg cramps (a recurring problem for me while rogaining) before arriving back at the hall with 3 minutes to spare. 32kms with 1000m elevation got us to 38 controls totalling 1880 points, enough to secure 1st for the foot category. Thanks once again to everyone who contributed to the event. It was a fun day out with friends.
by Oskar Bucirde
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For those of you wanting to read about daring exploits and dramatic tales of human endurance I would suggest the report from the foot entrants would be far more enthralling. This is a tale of moderate ambition and riding far from the edge. [Jeff says: as a team endurance sport, individuals within the same team will experience a given race differently: maybe one as a nice adventure involving some physical activity, and the other as a desperate feat of human endurance. The latter can give some satisfaction, after a sufficient period of physical and emotional recovery (I’m okay now thanks). Anyhow, back to Ken telling his story…]
The genesis of the “dream team” was a discussion I had with Jeff at an orienteering event along the lines of let’s go for a ride, the metrogaine might be fun. Jeff mentioned he had previously set an event in the area and knew the area pretty well. This knowledge and Jeff’s navigational skills would certainly compensate for my renowned ability to make navigation mistakes whilst under pressure.
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Ben, Charlotte and I set and vetted the Lindisfun metrogaine. We tried to set a fun course that had something for everyone: a challenge for the people wanting to push themselves with lots of controls, big hills, and some hard to reach places requiring interesting planning decisions. "To Meehan or not To Meehan" was an important question for competitors planning longer routes, and control 63 proved a challenging find for a few groups. The sunny eastern shore offered plenty for families - fun riding and walking along the foreshore with plenty of opportunity for bakery and ice-cream stops on what ended up a gloriously warm spring day.
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By Susan Gardner.
After competing in a metrogaine around 2 years ago with my husband and bushwalking friend John, he asked if we would like to do a rogaine. We were a little apprehensive at first but thought why not try something new.
The venue at Murrayfield on Bruny Island was a bonus, I had stayed there several times with bushwalkers and scouts. We soon signed up and received our information packs. As we are all over 65, we were put in the ultra-veterans class.
Arriving at Murrayfield on the Saturday morning we saw a mass of people of all ages and the tents of people who had stayed overnight. We picked up our maps and sat down to plan our route for the 6-hour course. We decided on a route towards the south that took in coastal scenery and the church ruins where we have walked several times. This involved finding 15 checkpoints.
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By Peter and Robyn Tuft.
We have cycled regularly on Bruny because we live nearby, and every time we rode through some part of North Bruny we couldn’t help thinking how perfect it seemed for rogaining because of its undulating terrain divided between pasture and delightfully open forest. As all competitors now know it is indeed ideal for a rogaine, with the added bonus of the glorious eastern coastline.
Setting a rogaine has many interesting challenges, one of which is deciding on the length of the course. Ideally the setters want to tempt elite teams to collect every checkpoint, but to put that target just out of reach. Setting more checkpoints than anyone can reach is just wasted effort. In this case we almost got that right - one team did get the lot, but only one. Congratulations to John McComb and Ian Parker for cleaning-up by travelling 66kms in just 10 hours 25 mins. Also congratulations to Oskar Bucirde and Joseph Dickinson who won the 6-hr.
The Midlands Muster