Australian Rogaine Championship.
SATURDAY 21/5/05, 12PM, 70K, WEEKLY TOTAL 108K, 4 HOURS SLEEP
Tony Howes and I were paired up for the Australian 24 hour Rogaine Championship to be held around the Cherrabah station between Warwick and Stanthorpe in southern QLD's granite belt high country.
Rogaining, for the uninitated, is the sport of long distance cross country navigation, requiring teams of 2-5 to score as many points as possible through locating control points with the aid of mapps and compass. Events are usually 24 or 12 hours. As usual, the ARC started at noon Saturday and finished at noon Sunday. Competitors can return to the central base camp (the "Hash House") at any time for complimentary hot food, drink, gear change etc and depart again, plus there were 5 water dumps on the course.
Tony has an admirable resume, having finished the 100 mile run at Glasshouse plus quite a bit of prior experience in orienteering and rogaining. As it turned out, he did most of the navigation and I was the passenger who followed his cues. Like me, Tony is aiming for sub 24 hours at this year's Glasshouse 100.
We walked the entire event, having devised a spiral shaped course that took us through hilly gully country in the Saturday afternoon daylight- which slowed us behind schedule- then the night leg was mostly gently sloping open paddocks and light bush which allowed us to move faster than expected and back on schedule, then Sunday morning was more rough gully country (much of it across the NSW border) during which we became thoroughly disoriented in some very nasty lantana infestations and ran out of time to reach the final few controls we had planned to score.
We scored about 2100 points of a possible maximum 4300- which gets us into the top half I think, but full results weren't finalised when we left. The winning score was an even 4000 by David Rowlands and Mike Hotchkiss.
Despite the fact that we walked it all, it is still a very demanding event- we covered over 70km in total and both of us suffered pre-dawn disorientation through lack of sleep. Tony was able to get over much of his courtesy of a 10 minute power nap around 1am when I was doing some footcare, however when my systems started to shut down about an hour later (hallucinations included!) Tony was on a roll with his navigation, plus it was getting damned chilly (3 degrees at Warwick, under 2 degrees at Stanthorpe) and we didn't want to stop as a result. As a result I spent about three hours stumbling along, unable to compute anything more than the fact that I needed to follow Tony's headlamp. A 20 minute doze just before dawn (very cold!) alleviated the condition.
PIcked up a couple of blisters- I now think my heel blister problems are related to my orthotics. Time for a new pair. Legs and hips quite stiff as a result of the uneven pace, footing and elevation- plus I'm just not trained for 24 hours (well, 23 hours 41 minutes) of walking. Also very tired- partly due to sleep deprivation. Good ultra training. Legs and arms covered in scratches from bushwhacking- the hiking pants I wore (which have handled a few rogaines in the past) were ripped open in several locations, some when scaling barbed wire fences, some as a result of barbed vegetation.
WEEKLY TOTAL 108K
Good week- two good interval sessions and a 24 hour training run. Next week I'll play by ear depending on my recovery- don't think there will be any speedwork before I race enxt Saturday, but volume might be highish.
Tony Howes and I were paired up for the Australian 24 hour Rogaine Championship to be held around the Cherrabah station between Warwick and Stanthorpe in southern QLD's granite belt high country.
Rogaining, for the uninitated, is the sport of long distance cross country navigation, requiring teams of 2-5 to score as many points as possible through locating control points with the aid of mapps and compass. Events are usually 24 or 12 hours. As usual, the ARC started at noon Saturday and finished at noon Sunday. Competitors can return to the central base camp (the "Hash House") at any time for complimentary hot food, drink, gear change etc and depart again, plus there were 5 water dumps on the course.
Tony has an admirable resume, having finished the 100 mile run at Glasshouse plus quite a bit of prior experience in orienteering and rogaining. As it turned out, he did most of the navigation and I was the passenger who followed his cues. Like me, Tony is aiming for sub 24 hours at this year's Glasshouse 100.
We walked the entire event, having devised a spiral shaped course that took us through hilly gully country in the Saturday afternoon daylight- which slowed us behind schedule- then the night leg was mostly gently sloping open paddocks and light bush which allowed us to move faster than expected and back on schedule, then Sunday morning was more rough gully country (much of it across the NSW border) during which we became thoroughly disoriented in some very nasty lantana infestations and ran out of time to reach the final few controls we had planned to score.
We scored about 2100 points of a possible maximum 4300- which gets us into the top half I think, but full results weren't finalised when we left. The winning score was an even 4000 by David Rowlands and Mike Hotchkiss.
Despite the fact that we walked it all, it is still a very demanding event- we covered over 70km in total and both of us suffered pre-dawn disorientation through lack of sleep. Tony was able to get over much of his courtesy of a 10 minute power nap around 1am when I was doing some footcare, however when my systems started to shut down about an hour later (hallucinations included!) Tony was on a roll with his navigation, plus it was getting damned chilly (3 degrees at Warwick, under 2 degrees at Stanthorpe) and we didn't want to stop as a result. As a result I spent about three hours stumbling along, unable to compute anything more than the fact that I needed to follow Tony's headlamp. A 20 minute doze just before dawn (very cold!) alleviated the condition.
PIcked up a couple of blisters- I now think my heel blister problems are related to my orthotics. Time for a new pair. Legs and hips quite stiff as a result of the uneven pace, footing and elevation- plus I'm just not trained for 24 hours (well, 23 hours 41 minutes) of walking. Also very tired- partly due to sleep deprivation. Good ultra training. Legs and arms covered in scratches from bushwhacking- the hiking pants I wore (which have handled a few rogaines in the past) were ripped open in several locations, some when scaling barbed wire fences, some as a result of barbed vegetation.
WEEKLY TOTAL 108K
Good week- two good interval sessions and a 24 hour training run. Next week I'll play by ear depending on my recovery- don't think there will be any speedwork before I race enxt Saturday, but volume might be highish.
posted by Mister G at 7:42 pm
3 Comments:
Wow Sean, that is unbelievable! Big congratulations. I'm still trying to figure out if you are incredibly brave or just plain crazy.
Hope the recovery goes well.
Wow Sean, that is unbelievable! Big congratulations. I'm still trying to figure out if you are incredibly brave or just plain crazy.
Hope the recovery goes well.
Nice work guys! 38th place is not too shabby at all. The ACT contingent reported that there were some quite nasty bits on the course.
As far as a workout goes, you know that IDW and I swear by the strength/hormonal conditioning value of events like this. In the past I have found that I get a real booster effect to my strength that kicks in about 10-14 days after the event. This should kick in just in time for your Strider's 10K in June for another PB if you don't go too heavy in volume that week.
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