2016 World Rogaining Championships
Race Report: 2016 World Rogaining Championships
Ross River, NT, Australia 23-24 July 2016
By Nick Harris
Robb & I were as ready as we were ever going to be. That is to say, we weren't ready at all. We'd entered 2016 WRC near Alice Springs, and hadn't done any training. Our preparation extended to buying new shoes and gaiters to cope with the Spinefex the organisers had warned about. We both had been sick in the week prior to the race. I had resigned myself to twenty hours of suffering and a pathetic score. At least we were in the same boat, and I trusted Robb to laugh about it and keep going. Good move #1: Pick a good teammate;
You need to be on the same page in your ambitions for the race, and roughly matched physically. And you need to trust your teammate to (a) get you out of the crap if things go bad, and (b) not put you in the crap in the first place.
The map came rolled into a tube. As it unrolled it seemed to go on forever and I felt my first & only flash of fear - I thought "This map is HUGE, what have we got ourselves into?". But we got to work with our highlighters and string and had soon assessed that the highest concentration of points was in the NE quarter, and the southern half of map. Thats where we decided to spend most of our time. We wanted to save the NW quarter for our run home because it offered plenty of options for short-cutting or extending, according to time. We also decided to minimise our time in the areas of heavy Spinefex. The points-value of those areas weren't enough to entice us, and we figured it would be slow going through the ruthless spiky grass. Distance-wise we thought 80km was ambitious for us, but we felt that our route plan gave us options to adjust to circumstances.
Good move #2: Make an ambitious plan, but build in options to adjust on the move
Ambitious is one thing; unrealistic is another. Get real! Also, be organised in your planning so that you maximise use of the time.
The start triangle was a reunion. We chatted with Jamie Stewart and Penny Kane, Tim Cochrane, Sakky Meyer and teammate Rob, Chris Forne & Greig Hamilton, Jim Russell... there was a great positive atmosphere and lots of chatter, then BANG - we were off! Chris & Greig disappeared in the first kilometer on their way to a commanding win. Robb and I jogged the first control to enjoy the atmosphere, then settled into a steady walk. Revelling in the scenery, we went up, along and down from the big hill system at the bottom of the map. Overshot one control losing 10 minutes, but otherwise clean tidy navigation at a steady pace. We'd had a very good day, but we were low on water and starting to worry about the distance to the waterstop. Heading into the last control of this section the sun set and it became very dark.
The sun set around 6:30pm, and the moon didn't appear until around 9:30pm - three hours of serious pitch black. We nailed the first leg in the dark (1200m bearing across nothing to hit a small hill, then attack the control in a shallow gully) but the next control had us completely bamboozled. We arrived at what we thought was the centre of the circle to find two other teams searching around, but no control and no reentrant. We explored a couple of theories then quickly decided to relocate... when boom, we stumbled across the control in a reentrant pointing in the opposite direction! I think we lost about 10 minutes. I still have no idea what happened there, but we wasted no mental energy on it - just punched it and left. Although I'm confused about how we went wrong I'm happy with how we managed the error.
Good move #3: When things don't match, be decisive
Its easy to fritter away time in a 24hr rogaine... it doesn't seem like much at the time, but cumulative time-loss to uncertainty and indecision can really add up! If you don't find a control first time, make a decisive attempt at correcting. Set a time limit. If you haven't worked it out when time is up, bail out.
All day I had been loving the race and feeling really positive, with the only nagging doubt being the water - were we going to pay for the lack of hydration? Thus, I was elated to reach the the waterstop, and force down a bottle or two of water before refilling and kicking on. Consistent with our policy of just going steady and enjoying ourselves, we didn't rush through the water stop. We took the time to drink, eat, refill, tweak shoes etc...
Heading out again we crossed paths with Georgia Whitla and Lara Prince (eventual winners of Womens Open) - our bubbly greeting "Hows your race?" was met with bitter reply from Georgia "A bit bloody grim". It was a sobering thought, as we headed into the area at night where they'd just spent the day. The moon was not yet up, and it was dark. But at least the stars were out in force by now. A few times we had to switch off our headlamps and just admire the swathe of stars. There can't be many skies with less light pollution than the Northern Territory! As foreshadowed by Georgia, I made an error on the next control - looking up the wrong reentrant within a larger stream gully. It was scrubby, steep and scrabbly underfoot, so really slow going. I knew in my heart it was wrong and should've pulled out earlier (see #3!). By persevering I just lost more time - maybe as much as 15 minutes. I was annoyed with myself but I managed to let it go pretty quickly. The rest of the night went smoothly, except for walking right past a control because I was looking at another team's lights coming down the gully (don't look at the lights!). Cost three or four minutes. When I'm planning I usually try to save an easy section for night-time - on this course the best features were the big stream beds which were easy to find and follow. They were the theme for the night and we used them for travel and launching into controls. It worked very well, and resulted in a productive night.
Good move #4: Spend the night in areas where its hard to lose map contact;
If you lose map contact in the dark it can be bloody hard to correct, and it costs a lot of time. So it's good to spend the night close to strong features to have confidence of where you are. Every terrain is different and lays its traps in different ways, so you have to respond accordingly, but its good to aim for a safe, error free night.
Good move #5: Light equals confidence confidence equals speed
Thats a quote from Neil Kerrison, but its still true. Take the strongest lights you can get your hands on. There are hundreds of headlamps on the market, but for rogaining you're looking for output, weight, & battery life. In addition to your walking light, its good to have a "search light" that you can use in bursts for searching for features & controls. Robb & I both used a double Ay-Ups arrangement (wide beam for walking, narrow beam for searching) which works well. I was also impressed with the Spike Lights product (made for rogaining by a young guy in W.A.) which a few people seemed to be using.
It was also a social night. We didn't go more than 30minutes without seeing another team, which is unusual, and quite fun. One team in particular we kept crossing paths with: Katie Bolt & Emily Wall (eventually 2nd Womens Open). Our route plan must have been similar because we kept coming across each other. And because we were travelling about the same speed we wound up doing a few legs together, then separating again. By the end of the race we'd done half a dozen legs together all up. They were really chatty and it was always fun to see them. They beat us by 20 points - fair play to them, they were efficient and accurate - really impressive to watch.
Night went quickly, and we were a bit worried that the "All Night Cafe" (a remote "hash house" in the centre of the map, since the main hash house/event centre was near the western side of the map) would be closed before we got there. The All Night Cafe was said to have a BBQ, campfire, water... but it would shut-up shop just after sunrise, so we had to hurry. The sky was just beginning to lighten when we heard the generators, and we walked into the ANC and headed straight for the BBQ. Bacon! The cheery team served me up a massive bacon & egg & sausage & onion roll - honestly, it was amazing. It took me about 15 minutes to eat it, but I got some water down and a sweet strong instant coffee, whilst sitting by the campfire. The fire was big and hot, and in the safety of its warmth it seemed to have collected the broken spirited, like some kind of magnet. Rogainers slumped in chairs, wrapped in all their clothes, or rustling in their space blankets, staring with dejected gazes into the fire, talking quietly to their teammates. By chance I sat next next to the only talkative group by the fire - a team of womens vet's, one of whom was having a rough time. We had a good chat about I don't know what, then I finally got through that bacon & egg roll and it was time to get busy with refilling water, rearranging food and clothes etc... We wound up spending about 40 minutes at the ANC, which certainly cost us points in the end, but it was a neat little interlude and great memory of the race.
Sunrise always lifts the spirits in an all-night race. Our feet were cutting up by now, but with full bellies, and the rising sun we hobbled along with renewed energy. The rest of our route was predominantly flat, with short climbs in the circles - another benefit of our planning. We felt really positive about our race so far, and were stoked to still be moving well in the morning. But with the sun comes the realisation that there are less than 6 hours to go! Only 6 hours left to use; we have to hurry!! Its bizarre how your perception of time shifts! The thought of getting up and going for a 6 hour walk right now... it seems like a big mission. But when the clock is ticking down from 24 hours it feels like you're running out of time!!
Emily & Katie caught us again and we both hit #41 with two hours to go. The debate was whether there time to extend our route to reach #110. Katy & Emily decided to give it try, and took off. Robb & I chose to play it safe. We were honest about feeling pretty jaded and our feet were not in good shape, and the exit from 110 looked sketchy. We felt we'd be pleased with having completed (most of) our plan and figured we were comfortably on track to do that. And, it turned out that Emily & Katy changed their minds halfway to 110 anyway, so they couldn't even hassle us for being soft. We managed to collect #30 as a bonus on our way home instead, and finished with 20 minutes to spare.
Could we have made it to 110? To be honest, we didn't care. We were just elated with the whole experience. We'd walked for 24 hours through amazing terrain, implementing 95% of our planned route with no significant navigation errors, had a fantastic time, our desk-driving bodies had held together. We managed our water, our food, our gear, our pace, our navigation, our planning... there are so many ways to go wrong in a 24 hour rogaine, and we'd managed to avoid them all. We scored 2670 - twice as many points as I'd imagined we'd get - and came 24th overrall, out of 306 team who started.
The Aussies did a fantastic job organising this event. Every aspect of the 2016 World Rogaining Champs was well implemented. The terrain was beautiful, physically challenging and required attention to navigate well. The map was superb, the controls were in the right place, and the course was well set. The volunteers were plentiful, friendly and competent. They sold beer at the finish... really, I couldn't have asked for more. Thanks to the organisers, to my old mate Robb who thirsts for these adventures just like I do, and to my family, Sheridan, Tahi, Quinn and Lauren, for giving me the freedom to go. I'm still buzzing.
Good move #6: Enter World Rogaining Champs
24hr rogaining is a complex and engaging race format which can be quite addictive... you really get to experience a place intimately and the memories are amazing.
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