Bangor Rogaine

Sunday, 2 December 2018

It's been a long time since I've done a rogaine. In fact I can't remember the last one - perhaps it was a mountain bike one I did in Victoria in the 90s, or maybe something in NSW.  I'm not normally a huge fan of rogaining - it's always seemed to me that they take a long time (6, 12 or 24 hours) and the large scale maps without accurate details can make the control locations a bit dodgy.  Route choices can also be a bit of a lottery as you might find yourself stuck in impassable vegetation or you might get a clear run - you can't tell from the map!

Having said that, there hasn't been much orienteering on lately, and after a few weekends of us all mooching around at home, I was keen to get out and do something, so a few days before the entries closed I tried to interest the family in attending this event. I had no takers until 11:45pm  on Tuesday night - 15 minutes before entries closed, when Jon suddenly decided that it would be fun.  And I'm so glad he did, as it was really fun.  Jon and I entered as a team and we entered Zali and Jett as their own team (once the organisers had conferred and decided that it would be ok for them to compete - they would normally need someone over 18 to be with anyone under 14).  Paul and Clare entered as a team as well. We were all doing the 6hr version, starting as noon Saturday and finishing at 6pm.  All the serious teams were planning to do 15 or 24 hours versions finishing around noon on Sunday.

Jon and I were a bit nervous about how Zali and Jett would take the news that we had entered them in a 6 hour endurance event while they slept, but they were totally fine about it, and in fact by the time we started, they were downright enthusiastic which was fantastic.   I think the fact that they would be able to make their own decisions for the entire day appealed to them (and of course they would be the masters of their own snack supplies).

So after work on Friday we headed to the Forestier Peninsula just near Dunally and set up camp in a field on a property called Bangor. There was just time to play a game of frisbee golf before setting down to bed.   

The view out of the tent on Saturday morning was great - sunny with blue skies - perfect for rogaining with just a hint of snake.   Once we were given our maps we had a leisurely 3 hours left to ready ourselves and plan our route. The key thing about any sort of score event, whether it's 45 minutes or 24 hours, is that you plan a route that can be cut short or extended near the end, depending on how you are going for time - the penalties for arriving even 10 seconds later are harsh, while arriving back with an hour to spare is simply wasteful!

It seems that Jon and I planned a totally different course to most others, as we had been out for almost 3 hours before we reached a control that another team had been to first (you had to write your team number and the time down on a sheet at the control when you got there - an activity which distracted us so much we almost forget to punch a number of times).  

Jon and I were really happy with our navigation all day, we only lost time when we struggled to spot the control flag - but generally we managed to be exactly where at least one of us thought we were at all times - which was great!  We traversed bushy hills and open fields, ran along tracks, jumped over steams and did a fair bit of bush bashing.  We saw 3 echidnas, 1 wombat, and a snake swimming across a dam.

Aside from trying to get the navigation right, our strategy was to walk all the uphill and rough bits, but where the vegetation allowed it, jog the flats and downhills - so whilst it was probably pretty slow for Jon (although he is recovering from his calf injury) we kept a really comfortable pace all day - it made it really enjoyable!

Since I last went rogaining the sport has created rules around the carrying of gps devices - basically you aren't allowed to have them with you.  If you want to take a phone, you have to seal it in a bag which was 'tamperproof' and if you used it on the course you were automatically disqualified. This was a bit of a pain, as firstly I would have liked to be able to check the kids were fine via text message a few times during the day, and secondly I would have texted Denny and asked her to feed the cat, as we forgot to arrange anything for her (don't worry she was fine).  

The second half of our race contained the bigger hills, and our route had us climbing up Mt Forestier, the highest point on the map, with 90 minutes left to go.  Our elation at making it to the high scoring control at the top swiftly turned to concern as found our route down was pretty thick and horrible. Luckily it wasn't our un-doing and we ended up having enough time left to try to get a few of the bonus controls we'd saved until the end.

We reached our last control with 20 minutes to go, and after some discussion we decided we didn't really have time to try for one more (well I decided that, as one of my lasting memories from a previous rogaine is having to run 5k flat out to the finish after 8 hours of running, and the whole experience was really unpleasant).   This time we had a nice relaxing walk back and arrived with 10 minutes to spare  - pretty perfect!

Once we checked in we  looked around nervously for Zali and Jett as we really had no idea how they would go - we had both thought they might come back really early, so it was a bit of a surprise that there was no sign of them.    But with 2 minutes to go they suddenly appeared galloping down the track towards the finish. They had to run pretty hard but they made it with 30 seconds to spare - pretty amazing timing!    

They were both exhausted and relieved to be back - it seems they had a few problems in the 2nd part of their course. Amongst other things they'd lost Jett's compass and retraced their steps to try to find it (to no avail). They'd also lost their 2 pencils (for signing at the controls), so had to do it with charcoal they found on the ground, and there were a few controls they hadn't been able to find which they were dissappointed about.    Despite all of that we are so proud of them -  they covered 22 kilometres and finished right on time, what a pair of champions!    Jon and I did 26kms, so it wasn't that really that much more.  Ultimately Clare and Paul won the day with 1000 points, Jon and I were 2nd on 900.  

Driving home the kids were pretty sure they wouldn't be signing up for another event, but with a good nights sleep  in them they have both mentioned today that they might like to try the 15 hour event next time (there's nothing scheduled until late next year), so that's pretty cool! I think they would have learnt a lot from this event (not least to keep track of their stuff), so they will certainly be a formidable team the next time around!  And how cool is it that we can give them a map and send them confidently out  into forest for 6 hours!  So proud.