By Bernard Walker
The course setting and vetting team for this rogaine consisted of Bernard Walker, Darryl Smith, Jeff Dunn and Sara Brain. Many thanks to these individuals for the kilometres walked and the feedback provided. It was a nice area to work in and we enjoyed the experience!
Setting for a 24-hour Tas champs involves trying to set a winners course of over 110km. This requires a large land area but in the case of Stagger On the area selected had to be balanced with restricting the number of landowners to a sensible limit. As it turns out, we ended up with ten very helpful landowners. Many thanks to Nick Bowden who did a lot of early work making contact with these and obtaining permissions.
We selected a hash house location that wouldn't get blown away in the frequent strong winds. We also wanted somewhere pretty and in a location that would allow 24-hour competitors to build loops that would allow them to return for food on Saturday night. All in all, we were very happy with the location.
We tried to set a course that would not be too demanding for inexperienced rogainers doing the 6-hour or 24-hour events but would provide route choice and physical challenge for the more experienced teams. We also tried to include some of the nice features of the area - good views, sandstone rocks and pretty forest. All of this was mixed in amongst farmland that made for relatively fast travel, assuming you stayed off the ploughed bits!
The days leading up to the event were challenging. Thursday saw winds over 100km/hour and we were concerned that some checkpoints would not survive the punishment. Some didn't, so many thanks to the teams that took time out to rehang or reposition checkpoints that had blown off. On Friday, there was also the risk that a wildfire in the north-east of the area would burn out a significant portion of the course. Thankfully, in the end, only two checkpoints were affected.
The weekend of the rogaine threw up more challenges - warm, cold, wet, dry. Literally four seasons in one day. But it was great to see that teams handled the changeable conditions well and most finished with a smile on their faces.
We congratulate the very strong Under 23 mens teams that won both the 24 and 6-hour events. The 24-hour winners "cleaned" the course with 15 minutes to spare so we really needed the two checkpoints burnt out by the fire! Also congratulations to the significant number of first timers. We hope you had fun! And finally, many thanks to the 30+ mainlanders who made the trip to experience rogaining Tassie style.
Big thanks to Paddy Pallin for the generous spot prizes.
The results are available on the RT Event Results Page, and at rogaine-results.com where you can view all the teams' routes under the "Tasmanian Champs" tab.