Wow, a Rogaine race held in our backyard that we could compete in and not have to organise, and only have to travel for 10 minutes to get there. This race was a 6 hour urban roagine race around the streets (and some bush) of Caloundra. Apparently, if you were to clear the course, you would cover 67km or so. Seemed like a bit of a stretch, but with a bit of effort we could get that. Ummm, no. We did do a rugged 35km to pick up 1020 points which gave us 7th overall and 2nd in the mixed semi-oldies category (i.e. Veterans class; there is a super-oldies category, the Super Vets, which we are slowly getting close to).
Although rogaining seems on the outside to be a nice friendly racing discipline, inside, people are extremely competitive and secretly want to “beat up” on their competitors (or is that just us?). With our increasing experience and know-how, we like to have a bit of a race with other competitors, even if they don’t know it. This race we pitted ourselves against the Schafer’s who go well and have always been able to beat us; the Congo brothers, who have had some good results; and Team Megvan. We feel if we can compete with these guys we are improving and have raced well.
Team Megvan were racing with their little family (two dogs) and so we thought we could get the better of them this race. To be fair, the poor old guys (the dogs, not Walter & Sue) did look pretty knackered at the end of 6 hours, so may have slowed them down.
Our planning, as always, was systematically confusing, however, we did work a good plan, as this was our home ground, and knew where the tricky bits would be.
We decided to run an anti-clockwise route, hearing north to the bush of Currimundi Pk and then to the hospital area for some good points. We almost had to go to the hospital after I went totally A over T in the bush – luckily I landed on soft soft(ish) sand and only suffered a few grazes and some damaged dignity (or what dignity I have left). As usual, Fiona handled the situation well, by laughing her head off.
It was great to see some young people racing. There was a group of about four of young lads in one team, and they looked like they were having a lot of fun. Hope they keep it up. Much better than sitting in front of a computer (which, ironically, is what I am doing now).
As this was in our backyard, we had a good idea of where we needed to be on a time schedules. Our first timing was to be at the back of Fiona’s parents place just south of the bridge at CP56, after 3hrs. We did think of nicking in for a cuppa, but thought that may slow us down, even though we got there 30 mins early. Instead we dropped into the shops nearby for a Gatorade top up and tropical Frosty Fruit (so refreshing). That was the first of our impromptu feed stations, with the second one at a service station at Golden Beach a bit later for another Frosty Fruit. One team we saw was really keen, or desperately hungry, and headed off to Bunnings for a snag.
We got to Ben Bennett park with about 90 minutes remaining and picked up the necessary points before heading off. Here we ran into the Congo boys, and wondered how they were travelling. Funny how you see competitors here and there, but then they disappear, which is what the Congo boys did off to the town centre.
After Ben Bennett, we picked off a few smaller CPs to the finish, which we did with about 20 minutes to spare. We did contemplate going for one more CP worth 10 points but just felt too smashed. Imagine our disappointment when the run down was being called and the Schafer’s beat us by 10 points. Aaaarrrggghh! Oh well, that’s racing. We had a great day out. The Congo boys also got the better of us.
However, a recalculation of the points had us now just ahead of the Schafer’s and on the same points as the Congo boys (with us 20 minutes to the good). So we did much better than we thought we could. Some home ground knowledge must have helped, although we found some places we had never been before.
Well done to all who competed the race, which was taken out by Paul, Sean & Andrew on 1270 points. It was a close race with 2nd and 3rd only 10 and 20 points adrift.
A lot of thanks go out to Adam and Katina, and their group of volunteers. This was a great place for this race, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.