SoHo organisers – Jaymee, Bridget, Jack and Gary
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After a fantastic weekend competing in the 2022 Australasian Rogaining Championships in the Pyrenees, Victoria (not the Pyrenees in Europe!) Jaymee Knoll and I enthusiastically signed up to help with the upcoming metrogaine in Tasmania: The SoHo shuffle. We signed up to vet for Jack, who had begun setting a course in December. By the end of January we hadn’t met Jack Marquis, but we had a long list of checkpoints he had set to visit!
Our first few trips out were accompanied by Roxy, a boisterous young puppy. We walked the streets of Lenah Valley, West and South Hobart, and Knocklofty with her on hot summer days, enjoying the urban gems that Jack had discovered for us. Some favourites include: a mosaic whale, the black and yellow cockatoo mural, and the motto of the Sandy Bay bowls club. Jaymee and I spent evenings both together and separate, working on small sections of the map, getting a bit of exercise after work. We spent a cooler day exploring the Waterworks reserve and Ridgeway, watching an echidna seemingly melt into a tiny hole, and experiencing trails neither of us had been along before . Both of us found the experience very different to participating in an event- we got to take our time, enjoy the views and consider the viewpoints of the competitors, and visit everywhere on the map: something that we usually can’t achieve in a rogaine!
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The SoHo Shuffle results are now available HERE, and some photos from the event and presentations are HERE.
It was a memorable event held in ideal, calm and mild autumn conditions. The course was excellent with loads of interesting checkpoint sites. Thanks to course setter Jack Marquis, and vetters Jaymee Knoll and Bridget White. The SoHo was the first event they’ve organised so well done to them.
In the 6-hr: Jon McComb and Ian Parker were clear winners visiting 48 checkpoints, travelling 42km with 1.7km of climb. The race for the mixed category was very tight. The top 3 mixed teams took overall positions 2nd to 4th and were separated by just 30 points. So close! Kris and Katie Clauson scraped ahead in the mixed, and also won the family category. Keeping it in the family, Imogen and Ella Clauson were 5th overall and first womens.
In the 3-hr: Frank Casimaty, Colin Berry and Steve Eastwood took out first overall and first mens, just ahead of first mixed James and Ainsley Scott. Veteran campaigners Jo Mitchell and Miriam Palmer came first womens.
Thanks to all involved, especially to those who answered the call to help with scoring and result processing at the end of the event.
Gary Carroll (RT President)
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By Thorlene Egerton and Jonathan Sutcliffe (newly Tasmanians)
Thorlene Egerton and Jonathan Sutcliffe at the prize ceremony. Photo credit: Victorian Rogaining Association
Oh boy, what an area. We went into it pretty confident in our ability to handle it given we just came back from Worlds in the mountains of the Czech Republic. But the Victorian Pyrenees were a whole new world of challenge. The climbs were steep and relentless and it simply wasn’t possible to plan a course that avoided them. Probably in hindsight, we should have gone to the northwest flatter area first and cleaned up there before facing the bigger climbs but we thought we’d save it to the end and see how much time we had left given the points/km was considerably lower. But we just exhausted ourselves in the first few hours in the centre and east side of the map. We realised we were going to need some major revisions of our plan and we got to work cutting big chunks of our planned route and then also cutting any checkpoint that involved a really big climb. As it went dark our strategy was to move slowly and stay on tracks as much as possible – taking long track routes to any checkpoint that had only a moderate amount and steepne
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By Lucy Hawthorne
This month I travelled to Victoria to the Pyrenees Ponder Australasian Rogaining Championships where I competed with my dad, Neil Hawthorne. Unlike Neil, who has competed in the World Rogaining Championships multiple times, coming second in his category one year, I like to think of myself as an enthusiastic participant, rather than a champion. Happily, we achieved our modest goals: get over 1000 points, don’t get a concussion, don’t get irreversibly lost, and get back to the hash house on Saturday night to sleep at a reasonable hour.
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Congratulations to Jonathan McComb and Ian Parker for their overall victory in the 6-hr category, and to Anthony Stoner and Niko Stoner in the 3-hr. Full results and winning routes can be found at www.rt.asn.au/event-results.
We are constantly updating our local maps, so if you spotted any errors or have suggestions, email Gary. Keep reading for reports by the course setters and winners.
Course setters report by Jacqui Guy
When Mandy McIntyre conned Carolyn Davis and me into joining her, I had no idea that setting a Metrogaine would be even more fun than competing!! I anticipated a lot of exploring and planning at a more leisurely pace with my rogaine besties, but didn’t realise I would learn so much. As novice setters we proved that with the support of the committee anyone can have a turn at setting an event.
The Midlands Muster