State Champions! Jett McComb, Sam Woolford and Euan Best
By Sam Woolford
We (Sam at least) came to the event with the plan to stay out for the full 24 hours and not sleep. Euan tried his best to disadvantage us by rocking up well after maps were released, cutting into our valuable planning time. Our planning method was dividing the checkpoints into sections, working out the best routes within each section, then linking them up in the way that made most sense.
Quite early on we decided to do the western half of the map first, due to it being generally more open and faster looking, saving the north and north-eastern section for the night, where the higher track density and longer distances between checkpoints would make navigation easier. The only potential issue with our route was one rather long stint from the last water checkpoint to the finish (which, as it eventuated, was close to 6 hours in the increasing warmth of the morning). Our plan did involve cleaning up from the start, although with Jett on the team, the intention sheet was never going to show anything else. We had left a group of low-mid scoring checkpoints close to the Hash House for the end, so if we were tight for time it wouldn't have been too hard or costly to skip a couple at the end.
We set off at a pretty good pace, jogging the downhills and walking the uphills, and made very good time through the first section of the course. It started raining a little over two hours in, which was fine except for the fact that it made the vegetation wet, which prevented our feet from ever drying out. The wind did a very efficient job of drying out everything else, so we weren't cold for too long.
We'd (Sam at least) originally wanted to cover as much ground before sunset as possible, and have a dinner break only when it became necessary to get out the torches. However because we were a democratic team who voted on everything and never argued and had equal say in every decision (Sam is a benevolent dictator) we decided to have dinner a couple of hours earlier. Night fell just as we were entering the steeper, greener northern section as planned, and we crossed over from the western to the eastern map at around 10pm. At this point, around halfway through the course distance-wise, we were 2 hours ahead of time and feeling pretty confident about cleaning up, but the second half of the rogaine, still with most of the night and elevation ahead of us, and fatigue starting to build up, was always going to take significantly longer.
The least common phrase uttered by our team members during this time was ‘I love rogaining’ and I won't tell you what the most common phrase was but you can probably take a pretty good guess. At around midnight Euan wanted to take a quick nap behind a log while Sam wanted to keep moving (by this point, strictly walking) but because Sam is a benevolent dictator we had a break (part of why I [Sam] like to keep moving, is that it's hard to get going again after a break, and I find my legs ache the whole time anyway so I don't really feel better afterwards. Euan was very happy to lie back with his feet up on the log though, and he ended up being the freshest of us in the morning, so maybe I need to work on my powernaps too). It rained briefly after this but we are hardcore and didn't even notice (the wind dried us off pretty quickly again, and I was not cold wearing full body thermals. The boys in shorts…).
There was also one point where we ran into Kris and Ella and they were absolutely fanging it. Sam followed them out of a checkpoint and took a pretty dodgy line, Euan straightened us up and then we had a minor disagreement about our route choice. We had all originally planned to go straight, but having seen Kris and Ella return to the track to the right, Sam was reconsidering whether the right hand track route might be better, but Euan disagreed and because Sam is benevolent dictator we continued straight.
We had learned at the start that two checkpoints had been omitted from the course due to the area being burnt, and as we climbed the hill just to the north of 77 we encountered smouldering embers and traversed through a short burnt section with the occasional orange glow, although it was clear the fire was dying out and we didn't have marshmallows on us anyway :(.
Just as the sun was about to rise we encountered a creek which was choked with gorse. Euan decided this was the perfect spot for a quick powernap while Sam attempted to find a path through the gully (strictly within eyesight and earshot the whole time). Sam eventually resorted to a cliff scramble as the opposite bank was impenetrable everywhere else, and advised Euan and Jett to try slightly further along, which didn't turn out any better as they ended up with a cliff scramble too (least common phrase said here was ‘I love gorse’).
Morale was boosted soon afterwards with sunrise, and we started jogging again, with Jett's gorse anger directed towards finishing the course giving us a boost. We made another minor plan change here, running slightly further to pick up 82 on the northern side of the area that isn't Lovelybanks (but Euan insisted was. Really, orienteers should know better) to avoid crossing the steep, cliffy gorge on the way back (this wasn't a unanimous decision, but Sam is a brutal dictator).
We had hoped to get to the south-eastern most 100 pointer by 6am, however we didn't reach it until around 7 so we knew we'd have to push, but having already picked up 82 we pretty much had a straight line back to the Hash House and knew it was doable. By 9 we were confident we were on track and it made the last few hours slightly less painful knowing we were going to clean up.
We'd like to thank RT and Bernard Walker, plus everyone who volunteered to help make it a great rogaine. We might be back for the next one. I'll reveal now that the most common phrase said by our team was ‘I hate rogaining, why do we do this?’ but I'm pretty sure they were just using some reverse psychology to get themselves motivated.
Note from the editor: You can view their route on the RT results page.