By Chris Arvier
My First Rogaine
When Ryan asked if I wanted to do a Rogaine with him, I was keen! It's been something I've wanted to try for a while. I love reading maps, and suffering, but I had some doubts I would be able to keep up with a fit boy like him. "I'm sure there will be lots of walking", he lied. Naively, I even brought a sandwich thinking that we would fit in a short lunch break!
We planned a big, ambitious route, encompassing much of the course (though early on we decided against trying to fit in anything at Kingston Beach / Alum Cliffs). A lot of the planning came down to intuition (it was very hard to estimate distances, or know how much we would have in the legs), but we followed these vague principles:
- Break down the route plan very roughly into quarters
- Minimise doubling back, especially where a hill is involved
- Keep nav simple in Peter Murrell Reserve (unfamiliar terrain for us and we were unsure how obvious some of the smaller paths would be)
- Have some escape route options if we aren't on track, especially in the final quarter
- Have some bonus CP options if we are making good time!
Like most teams we started by heading north, then looped over to the western side of the Southern Outlet, picking up most of the CPs, but skipping the High School ones at the top of the hill which seemed less efficient. We made good time and made it under the Algona Rd underpass in under an hour. We tried to do most of our map reading without breaking stride. "We really should try not to trip over" I said, as we moved over some more uneven terrain Peter Murrell reserve. 5 minutes later, Ryan faceplanted over a root, luckily no harm done!
We started feeling the legs more and more in the 3rd hour, and a slow grind up the hill from Stinkpot Bay made it an easy choice to abandon the high value CP in Tinderbox Hills. As we descended towards Blackmans Bay, still making good time, we spontaneously decided to add on CP62, and intentionally picked a non-direct route to get there to avoid losing elevation. As we jogged down towards the coastal path, we looked to our right and unexpectedly saw the glorious sight of the TasWater settling ponds a short distance away across a grassy paddock, and helped ourselves to a bonus 100 points.
In the final hour we looped back over the hill to Kingston, and as we neared the finish realised we had too much time in hand! With 15 minutes to spare we made a final dash (stumble?) to Kingston Beach, knowing we would be late, but the available points made it worth it. We were last across the line, with a 50 point penalty, but had gained 170 points from the last minute madness.
Thanks to all the volunteers and organisers for putting on a great event. I'll definitely be back!
Chris and Ryan