Evan Thomas from Paddy Pallin with winners Joseph Nunn, Ryder Jamson and Samuel Webb
By Joseph Nunn
Reproduced with permission from Joe's blog article Redemption at the Winter Wander 6hr Rogaine.
After my pitiful effort at the 24 hour Rogaine last year I sought redemption. The Winter Wander 6 hour was the perfect battleground. I signed up alongside Ziggy and had high hopes of an improved performance. Ziggy has plenty of orienteering experience, but he’d never rogained. He was meant to be on the 24 hour team last year but pulled out at the 11th hour due to sickness leaving George and I to languish. This time I was ready to right the wrongs of my first experience and apply all of my hard learnt lessons.
Assembling the Team
Ziggy and I signed up initially. Then Ryder messaged me asking if I wanted to team up with him after his team mate bailed out. I suggested he join Ziggy and I and we became a trio. Ryder revealed that he also had experience in orienteering and rogainaing. I felt confident that this time I was in a team gifted with high levels of spatial awareness and fitness.
Planning for Battle
Last year I learnt that a good planning station, well stocked with stationery and other apparatus is imperative to success. It’s impossible to plan when your map is flapping in the breeze. We acquired a table, cork board, pins, string with 5km markings, camp chairs, highlighters and clear contact. I now deem these items to be the bare minimum required for a good route planning session. And good planning is so important!!
We arrived with plenty of time to register, setup our command centre and have a few minutes to spare before the maps were issued. The morning was clear, sunny and cool; perfect conditions. But it somehow got briskly cold when a light breeze decided to get involved. Wearing every layer I had brought we went over to claim our map. I was immediately struck by how much smaller and manageable the map was compared to the behemoth from the 24 hour event. It was a nice modest A4 page, much less intimidating.
With our newly acquired maps we got to work plotting our strategy for domination of the Lovely Banks region. I suggested that the best course of action was a large loop of the area picking up as many points as possible along the way. We placed green pins on all of the 100 point controls, then continued the colour coding down the scoring ranks. Then the stringline came out and we started playing dot to dot. It was soon apparent that our ambitions of clearing the course were unrealistic. We planned based on a target of 6-7km/hr and once our route started exceeding 45km in length even while missing many controls we realised clearing the course was borderline physically impossible. This realisation changed our planning and we started to forego the low scoring inconveniently placed controls.
Eventually we landed on a loop of the course picking off the highest scores along the way measuring around 42km in length with the dodgy stringline method. Ziggy and Ryder spent some time debating the minutiae of the route plan. Once it was locked in I transcribed the plan onto the map with highlighter then we set ourselves hourly targets, which I marked with a black dot, then finally I applied a layer of clear contact to my map to preserve the markings.
I was ready with 45 minutes to spare, a stark contrast to the stressful experience George and I experienced last year going right down the wire and George not even making it to the starting corral. With all the planning done we sat around freezing and debating our clothing choices.
Going to Battle
After much deliberation we all decided to adopt the ‘be bold start cold’ mentality. I stripped off my three outer layers and went over to the starting corral in just a tshirt and shorts. The 10 minutes before the start was probably the least comfortable period of the entire day. I stood shivering listening to the briefing desperately wanting to get running.
Thankfully the start was punctual and we were off and running at 10am sharp. Ryder lead the charge at a startling pace. Neither Ziggy nor I complained both wishing to raise our core temperatures. We hurtled towards the first checkpoint with another fast moving duo alongside us. We nabbed our first checkpoint then headed straight up a big hill towards the first 100 pointer of the day.
The climb was brutal. Ryder was on a mission and Ziggy and I dragged ourselves up that hill in his wake with our calves protesting immensely. The steepness and uneven terrain left me stumbling, sliding and rolling ankles for quite some time till my legs got the hang of it. In the first hour we were racing. Ziggy and I wondered about the sustainability of the pace. We hit our 1 hour target checkpoint right on time. We were on track but unsure if we could hold onto the intensity.
Thankfully we all, including Ryder, settled into a more sustainable pace. Still moving briskly, but sustainably brisk. We are all decent runners of fairly similar fitness levels, but it was important to ensure none of us blew up. In these team events you are only as good as your weakest link. And while we all had the fitness levels, none of us were immune to hitting the wall, in fact we all have history of monumental blow ups.
With Ziggy and Ryders experience, they were doing all of the navigation. I occasionally glanced at my map to orient myself and see how we were tracking against our target times. The most constructive thing I did for the team was having a half an hour alarm on my watch and reminding everyone in 30 minute intervals to eat or drink something, and to check in on nutrition intakes ensuring we were all fuelling and hydrating. My other role was as team videographer. With all of my free time from not navigating I filmed and recorded a running commentary that will be turned into a video and added to my blog post in due course.
Heading into the second hour we could see a duo trailing behind us. Going into this event we knew Sam Woolford and Niko Stoner would be our main adversaries. In my mind this duo was them, bearing down upon us. We made a decisive push to get ahead. Only later did I realise that Sam and Niko hadn’t started and the duo chasing us were just a random couple of nimble rogainers.
We were about 10 minutes behind schedule at hour two, but still going well compared to our ambitious plan. We got another big pointer on the top of Bisdee Tier then traversed a cambered hill for a torturous amount of time as we rounded up towards the observatory. We continued to relentlessly nab controls without any hesitation. At around the 3 hour mark we stopped at the water point near the observatory. We were all in good spirits but needing water. Despite the cool conditions we were sweating immensely and needed to keep on top of fluid intake.
We had started to lag a little behind our target times, but the plan still seemed within reach. Our progress slowed as we entered thicker scrub on our journey between 81 and 73. Despite slowing we still headed in the right direction and always stayed in contact with the map. The south eastern side of the map was proving to be rougher than the open farm land. We were deep in it at this stage but still resolutely committed to the plan. It was decided that we would forge onwards and review our status as we entered the 6th hour.
My favourite part of these events is the ability to roam where we please (within reason). It makes me fantasise about having the ‘right to roam’ in Tasmania. Although we don’t have that right these events provide a glimpse into what it would be like. On top of that it is so liberating to point towards a big hill and just straight line it up and over. Not restricted by the limitations of pathways, there is total freedom. An opportunity to exercise free will.
We passed the working sandstone quarry and wondered why they were still operating on a Sunday. Then around past a farm house where it seemed as though they’d never thrown anything out, keeping every piece of rusted metal just in case they may need it one day. At the second water point we stared up at the glorious green mass of Mt Mercer. We’d been eyeing it off from the start, it was the quintessential hill. Aesthetically bulbous and verdantly green, which reminded me of telly tubby land. Before getting our chance to reach the ultimate summit we had various controls around the base to clean up.
The open paddocks and road sections left us with no choice other than running fast. Initially it was nice to open up the legs, then the 4.5 hours on our feet started to catch up on us. We were all feeling the days exertions but the finishing excitement was helping to counteract the fatigue. As we approached the Mt Mercer climb we saw two nimble runners picking their way down, in my mind these were our adversaries. We ran up the hill for as long as possible to show our strength and psyche out our opponents. At the summit it felt euphoric, we’d reached our Everest and walked away with another 100 points.
The excitement of the finish approaching and the epic views fired us up as we hurtled back down towards our next target. We picked off 92 then headed for 90. This section was probably the highlight of the course. The ravine we needed to get into was flanked by sandstone cliffs. It was an epic feature and it felt adventurous trying to find a way down. Thankfully we found a path without any dicey down climbing and ran through the canyon admiring the beauty of the place.
We ran hard out of the valley, got 82, then went hard down to 51. Then we realised we’d run out of controls near the hash house. We walked slowly back towards 20. We had 25 minutes to go but all other controls were too far for us to risk the out and back. So we walked back to the hash house satisfied that we had actually achieved our plan plus a few extra bonus controls along the way with time to spare. I thought our initial plan was quite ambitious and it was extremely fulfilling to execute it perfectly with time to spare. Not a single navigation error was made all day. It certainly helps cover a lot of ground when you can keep moving rather than go around in circles.
We clocked off at the hash house, received our score cards and were stoked to see we’d cracked the 2000pt threshold. With the spare time after finishing we got changed before heading to the presentations to learn if our efforts had been enough to claim the victory.
Results
The hash house provided us with snacks, hot drinks and treats. We nibbled and sipped while we waited for the presentations. Gradually as they read the names out of the top 10, the scores were lower than ours. Then they called out second place, their score was 30 points less than ours. We had won!!
Points: 2380
Distance: 40.27km
Climb: 1993m
Reflections
It felt so good to get the win and run a well executed Rogaine. While I thoroughly enjoyed getting to run around for almost 6 hours with Ziggy and Ryder, I didn’t gain much navigational experience. I think you probably gain the most going into one of these events and fending for yourself regardless of your navigational experience. The best way to improve is to throw yourself in the deep end, get lost and found again a few times. Having two great navigators on my team was a great way to get the win but I don’t think my nav skills improved at all.
Overall I had a great time at the winter wander. Getting the win was a bonus but the best part was getting to play a grown up treasure hunt with some friends and run around in paddocks. It’s such a fun combination of strategy, navigation, teamwork and endurance. Trail running with dopamine hits along the way. If you’re into trail running, bush walking or any outdoor pursuits I’d encourage you to give Rogaining a try. It’s such a good way to brush up on your navigation in a safe and fun environment that could one day save you from strife.
Thanks for reading, the video of the day is in the works, stay tuned.