Night + day = exhaustion!
ACT night/day rogaine, 24th Sep 2011
Michael Reed, posted on 2nd Oct 2011
Two races in a row is definitely double the fun... and double the pain!
I invited a couple of friends to join James S and myself for a weekend of outdoor activity. We all keep fit with regular bootcamp sessions (BattleCamp 3 days a week at Lake Burley Griffin), so this was an opportunity to put the fitness to good use, and a good lead-in to a 12 hour adventure race James A and I are doing in 6 weeks. Neither John nor James A had been rogaining before, but they were keen to see what I had been raving about!
The first race was a foot rogaine around Kowen forest, mostly in the dark. We all had some experience of Kowen forest on either foot or bike (I started mountain biking in Kowen in 2005 for the Mont 24 Hour) and knew it would be fast on the trails, so course selection was mostly about choosing the least ugly climbs and the best approaches to checkpoints when it got dark. The course setter had done a great job - checkpoints spread approximately 1km apart, high point values toward the perimeter, and ample hills to tire the legs! We chose a meandering path that picked up high values to the south before leaving us in the east with options for a fast return if required.
The run away from the start was the usual split-up - teams went in one of three main directions, and as we got each of the nearby checkpoints there were gradually fewer and fewer teams heading in our direction. We headed south at first, through 21, 31 and 53, aiming for 104. After 104 we saw very few teams as we headed north east through the big points of 93, 83 and 84, although we lost some time after finding the wrong knoll at 84. Then it was south for the long slog to the marshland around the ruins where 92 was located, and some wet feet as punishment for crossing the creek. At this point the sun deserted us, and we started spotting other teams in the distance by their head torches. 63 was relatively easy to find as the forest was open, but 82 was another matter - "a clearing in the shallow gully" - the shallow gully was easy to find, but we had to backtrack to the fire road and pace 200 metres in before finding the right clearing and the checkpoint hiding amongst blackberry! Given the number of lights of other teams still searching in the area, we were happy to have found it and headed for the fire road and the long hike to 91.
After finding 91 amongst the fallen pine trees (there must have been some strong winds a while ago!) we reviewed our position. I was just over 2 hours into the race, and we still had lots of energy left, which was just as well since the big hills were coming up! The wind had picked up a little, but it wasn't as cold as we had prepared for, and it hadn't started raining. We headed up the escarpment to 51 then 103, but ran into problems finding both of them, mostly due to lack of visibility in the dense forest (we did the same checkpoints the following day in about half the time)! After finding the wrong knoll (again - this was getting silly) at 103, we meandered west in search of the checkpoint, until John turned around and found he was only 10 metres away from it! There is something to be said for low power head torches - in that dense forest our bright Ayups made it hard to see more than a few metres, and the checkpoint didn't stand out like the neon sign we had hoped.
We finally broke out of the forest and saw the lights of Canberra and Queanbeyan in the distance, then it was a steady run back to the valley floor, with James A powering down much faster than the rest (I had rolled my ankle for the second time that night, so was taking it easy at the back, and John's cruciate ligament was making it painful to descend). Checkpoints 81 and 62 were fairly easy to find (were we getting better at reading the terrain in the dark?) and it was back to the fire road to find the knoll on which 52 was located.
It was now 3:30 into the 5 hour race, so we had to decide what to do with the rest of the time. Our original plan hadn't included much detail beyond this point, so we set our sights on 71 and 105, both of which required lots of climbing. At 105 we made good use of the trailing person - armed with a compass, the last person in the group can easily monitor the general direction of the group and make corrections as necessary. This job had fallen to me because I was the last one down the steep descent into the creek line (still watching my ankle), and I found the team was headed south west down the main creek, rather than north west up the little creek where 105 was located! This technique saved us a few times during the night, with James S usually doing the honors, and was probably more useful than having the team spread out sideways on the search (I regularly found myself going in circles in the dark, despite a normally good sense of direction).
Then it was back down to the valley floor again and along the fire road to 55 where we again searched vainly for the shallow gully in featureless forest. Fortunately a number of teams were converging on checkpoints near the hash house by this time, and we stumbled onto the control with ample time to get 23 also before heading for home.
The end result - four very tired blokes, about 30km covered, 1350 points collected, and with the novice bonuses for James A and John, 2nd place in the Male Open category and 3rd overall! Well worth the effort for a single event, but did we have anything left for the following day? And would we want to, given the rain had started just as we finished, and was now falling in earnest as we headed for home and its comforts - hot food, a shower and a warm bed.
The next day dawned cold and windy, but at least it was dry. Surprisingly, everyone turned up at the planned time (I would have understood if anyone didn't want to go back out again, and was seriously wondering why I had entered both events!) This time it was just James A, John and myself (James S was doing the foot event with his son Max), and our preparation was much more relaxed - we knew the course, we knew where we would go, and we didn't have to do it for quite as long.
With slightly less clothing than the previous evening, we headed south again when the siren sounded. This time we picked up 64 and approached 53 from the opposite direction to avoid more climbing than necessary, before visiting 104, 93, 83 and 84 like the previous night. Interestingly we were 15 minutes slower to 84 than the previous night, possibly due to the extra checkpoint, but most likely because we couldn't shortcut through the bush and had to return to exactly where we'd left the bikes each time. Our on-foot excursions were definitely slower too - the feet were sore (I carried 4 blisters from the previous night and James would develop one during the day) and the bike shoes were less stable on the rotting logs and slippery rocks.
We had our sights set on getting the two 100-pointers we had missed the previous night, so we dropped 92, 63 and 82 in favour of picking up 62, 61 and 91 on our way to Kowen East and the awesome single track of the Mont 24 hour course. At this point it started drizzling a little, but we pushed through to 101 and 102, then turned back and headed to the climb of 51 and 103. The time was just after 2:30 when we left the bikes and started walking up the escarpment to 51 and then 103 - that hill alone cost about 20 minutes of foot slogging, plus a blister for James. At least we were faster at finding the controls than the night before - it's amazing how obvious a gully is during the day, and how invisible it can be at night!
Then it was back up to speed as we picked up 81, 52 and 41 (I'd had misgivings about finding the subtle saddle, but approaching up the gully to the east was fine), and on to 23 and 55 before turning for the hash house. We finished with ample time to spare, and no one was complaining too much about how sore they were - except for John, who borrowed my bike for this event and didn't appreciate the kevlar race seat :)
In the end it was a great weekend out, with lots of ground covered and fun had with friends, and the weather didn't get in the way too much. I'm hoping John and James will sign up for the 6 or 12 hour spring rogaine, but after this weekend I'm sure James and I will be able to withstand whatever the 12 hour adventure race has in store for us.
Many thanks to the organisers and other volunteers who made these two races possible, and to the competitors who made the trek into Kowen and suffered on its hills with us!
PS. I was out in Kowen again today (Tuesday) retrieving some controls, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! Shame it wasn't like that a couple of days ago...