ACT Rogaine Championship, Tarlo River National Park.
SATURDAY 25/6/05, 12PM- SUNDAY 26/6/05, 12PM, 60K, WEEKLY TOTAL 104.5K, 6 HOURS SLEEP
I teamed with IDW for another 24 hour rogaine. Both of us were looking for this as a long training run for Glasshouse and other commitments later in the year. We were a bit of a mismatch- Ian has an excellent pedigree, with two second places at the Glasshouse 100 miler, fast runs at Bogong-Hotham, Six Foot Track etc, and is one of the fastest walkers I've seen. I knew that I was going to have trouble keeping up with him on this course, and I was right.
Stayed at Ian's place in Canberra Friday night before driving up to Tarlo River National Park (north of Goulburn) on a cold, drizzly Saturday morning. The Hash House (race headquarters) was in a farm paddock, but most of the course was in forest with plenty of gullies and vertical. Thanksfully, there was very little undergrowth so the going wasn't bad, although there were some rocky sections and the amount of vertical involved was fairly taxing. The course elevation varied between about 500m and 750m, with a highpoint of 980m on Mt Cowper.
Ian and I mapped out a course looking like a mutant figure 8, involving some high scoring controls and lots of vertical on the Saturday afternoon (including Mt Cowper), returning to the Hash House for a meal around 8pm, then heading out again for a long, mushroom shaped loop with a stop at the "All Night Cafe" (a meal stop in the northern part of the course) around 3am scheduled in.
Saturday afternoon was reasonable (although we did waste time after somehow crossing the Tarlo once when we were sure we'd crossed it twice) although I was walking more slowly than Ian. In late afternoon the rain started (we had light drizzle/mist most of the event and temps between 4 and 10C) falling more heavily and I got cold- paid the penalty for not bringing more clothes with me, sacrificing that weight as I was coming back to the car that evening anyway.
Our night navigation was not so good, we missed a couple of controls in the late evening, then after leaving the All Night Cafe around 2am we scored a couple more controls before getting lost for three hours in gully country that had us crossing at least four ridges searching for a familiar landmark, before finally stumbling onto a dirt road after 6am with all the fight knocked out of us and ready to toss it in. We wandered back down to the All Night Cafe, had a bite to eat and a coffee before getting reoganised and heading back out for a short loop through the centre of the course to make up the time before the midday cutoff.
We did better on this one, although we still had some navigation problems (we were both very tired at this stage- I got the nods on my feet once or twice, but not as bad as last month's rogaine at Stanthorpe) and the last 90 minutes, as time got short, consisted of very fast walking over a few ridges before running for the last 45 minutes.
Our navigation problems cost us as we finished on 1470 points, 17th of 34 teams. Still, it was a good training hitout, but Ian is a far superior bush athlete to me.
Today (Monday) I am much better than I was after Stanthorpe- no soreness, a little stiffness, a couple of blisters, but damn I am tired, and have three bags of wet gear at home ready for a wash tonight.
This classic photo was taekn by Emma Murray around 6.30 Sunday morning, when Ian and I returned to the cafe after being lost in the gullies for three hours:
I teamed with IDW for another 24 hour rogaine. Both of us were looking for this as a long training run for Glasshouse and other commitments later in the year. We were a bit of a mismatch- Ian has an excellent pedigree, with two second places at the Glasshouse 100 miler, fast runs at Bogong-Hotham, Six Foot Track etc, and is one of the fastest walkers I've seen. I knew that I was going to have trouble keeping up with him on this course, and I was right.
Stayed at Ian's place in Canberra Friday night before driving up to Tarlo River National Park (north of Goulburn) on a cold, drizzly Saturday morning. The Hash House (race headquarters) was in a farm paddock, but most of the course was in forest with plenty of gullies and vertical. Thanksfully, there was very little undergrowth so the going wasn't bad, although there were some rocky sections and the amount of vertical involved was fairly taxing. The course elevation varied between about 500m and 750m, with a highpoint of 980m on Mt Cowper.
Ian and I mapped out a course looking like a mutant figure 8, involving some high scoring controls and lots of vertical on the Saturday afternoon (including Mt Cowper), returning to the Hash House for a meal around 8pm, then heading out again for a long, mushroom shaped loop with a stop at the "All Night Cafe" (a meal stop in the northern part of the course) around 3am scheduled in.
Saturday afternoon was reasonable (although we did waste time after somehow crossing the Tarlo once when we were sure we'd crossed it twice) although I was walking more slowly than Ian. In late afternoon the rain started (we had light drizzle/mist most of the event and temps between 4 and 10C) falling more heavily and I got cold- paid the penalty for not bringing more clothes with me, sacrificing that weight as I was coming back to the car that evening anyway.
Our night navigation was not so good, we missed a couple of controls in the late evening, then after leaving the All Night Cafe around 2am we scored a couple more controls before getting lost for three hours in gully country that had us crossing at least four ridges searching for a familiar landmark, before finally stumbling onto a dirt road after 6am with all the fight knocked out of us and ready to toss it in. We wandered back down to the All Night Cafe, had a bite to eat and a coffee before getting reoganised and heading back out for a short loop through the centre of the course to make up the time before the midday cutoff.
We did better on this one, although we still had some navigation problems (we were both very tired at this stage- I got the nods on my feet once or twice, but not as bad as last month's rogaine at Stanthorpe) and the last 90 minutes, as time got short, consisted of very fast walking over a few ridges before running for the last 45 minutes.
Our navigation problems cost us as we finished on 1470 points, 17th of 34 teams. Still, it was a good training hitout, but Ian is a far superior bush athlete to me.
Today (Monday) I am much better than I was after Stanthorpe- no soreness, a little stiffness, a couple of blisters, but damn I am tired, and have three bags of wet gear at home ready for a wash tonight.
This classic photo was taekn by Emma Murray around 6.30 Sunday morning, when Ian and I returned to the cafe after being lost in the gullies for three hours:
posted by Mister G at 9:46 am
2 Comments:
Great report G. Hope you'll have those bags through the washing machine before GC
Well done Mister G. The sleep deprivation king. Good training though for 12 Foot and GH100.
I think you needed ORunner mate?
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