Hamels Haunts II
Snow all week didn’t seem to deter the nearly 70 people who turned up to the rogaine on Sunday, nor did the -5 degrees at Leith Saddle around 8am.
The day prior to a rogaine might normally be spent making sure there were enough maps, organising the food (thanks Ann), checking and double checking a few things. Well that was all done and at 4pm I had to go out on the course as I knew there were going to be controls buried or at least a bit difficult to find. So knowing that I was still surprised at how different things looked when I got up on top. 51 was semi buried, 76 was now hidden by branches weighted down with wet snow. 64 was missing and new one put in place. 93 I just couldn’t find. Well who would be able to find a small hebe under a foot of snow. It was obvious when I placed it though. 92 I wasn’t even going to attempt as that would have required 1/2 hour of waist deep slogging. 103 I tried to dig out but couldn’t find the card, 78 was obvious when I placed it and was now non existent, 44 was there, 82 would have been fun. 94 was always going to be difficult as the track entrance was so obscure. I had a couple of attempts at finding it and gave up. Congrats to Greig Hamilton who did find it. I eventually got home after a stunning evening out in the hills. SAR were there as well, looking for some dickhead who was on the run from the police.
So back to the day. At the end I had a good yarn with some guys from the Outdoor Ed course at polytech. They were asking a lot of questions about the course setting. So this is how I went about it.
Hamels Haunts II
Controls – Most of the area I knew and that gave options for 3 obvious loops, each of which could be hiked in around 3 hours. Control placement was then based around a combination of areas that I think are interesting, historic and clearly related to a feature on the map. eg Corners, Buildings, Track/Creek junction etc. Then it was a matter of keeping people interested, so I try to place a control for every 10-15 minutes of my hiking/running. I also try to place some that will be more challenging to those with good skills and try to make their route choices complicated. ie So they can’t get everything.
Scoring – with 3 main loops and 5 directions of travel from the main starting point I tried to balance the scores. I placed values for one of the loops and then scored the other 3 loops relative to that one. I also tried to have the score the same for the 1st 30-60 minutes in each of the 5 directions of travel. I think I got it close to being right as the top 3 teams in the 3 hour were separated by 30 points and used 2 completely different sections of the course. The 6 hour was also very close (other than Greig) with 40 points covering 2nd-4th.
So what can I do better, well I drew a couple of the tracks in the wrong place on the Mt Cargill side of the course. The heavy blacked out section also obscured some features and I should have used the more traditional hatched lines. Greig also complained about 51 as he didn’t get it and ran by it twice. He sent me his GPS track and it runs right between the centre point and the edge of the circle. So I reckon I was right.
http://www.attackpoint.org/sessiondata.jsp?sessionid=2530917
Greigs course is a useful tool for learning and planning. It takes a generally anti clockwise loop, gaining height early and leaving a cluster of controls near the end which be collected or dropped depending on what time allows. He’s also run a few out and back sections on relatively flat and fast terrain that minimizes the amount of climbing he has to do.
Alan Grant – how can I not mention Alan. He’s one of the more experienced people around and someone whose opinion on the course I respect. Last year he pulled me up on a control that was placed incorrectly, this year Alan and his team were late, very very late. In fact prizes had already been handed out by the time they returned. It appears they got a bit lost or enjoyed the course more than they were supposed to. I look forward to seeing him back next year.
So Thanks to everyone for coming out. It’s put a solid dent in the bill for travelling to the World Championship in the Czech Republic.
Results
| Team |
Grd |
Score |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 3 Hour | ||||||
| Ed’s team |
x |
850 |
Pru Renshaw | Chris Cowie | Ben Woodward | Ed Styles |
| The Dropkick |
m |
830 |
Ant Jackson | Mike Lawrence | Stephen Cooper | |
| Three Queens |
f |
820 |
Clare McDonald | Jan Johnstone | Maria Gamble | |
| GLUTEN |
m |
760 |
Jared Maclachlan | Jack Synnott | ||
| Highland Fling |
x |
710 |
Gareth Hargraves | Elaine Hargraves | ||
| Fernbrae Whanau |
f |
680 |
Karyn Becconsall | |||
| Allan Grant |
x |
680*** |
David Grant | Jenny Rhodes | Lisa Rhodes | Peter Boxham |
| Vodka and Raro |
f |
500 |
Esther Sibbald | Harriet Walsh | ||
| NIM |
x |
310 |
Carl Rathbone | Sarah Baird | ||
| Are we lost yet |
x |
0 |
Rory McLean | Natalie Soper | ||
| 6 Hour | ||||||
| Greig Hamilton |
m |
2300** |
Greig Hamilton | |||
| Twihards |
x |
1840 |
Neville Thorne | Tim Bright | ||
| R.I.P |
m |
1820** |
Robert Jarvis | |||
| Bud Law |
m |
1800 |
Charles Law | Bud Law | ||
| Keas |
x |
1490 |
Mark Chignall | Helen Chignall | ||
| speedy turtles |
x |
1480 |
Peter Blyth | Kirstin Cooper | Stephanie Freeman | |
| AAA |
f |
1470 |
Anna Heckler | Anna Roseingrave | Alice Westgarth | |
| Team Williams |
x |
1330 |
John Williams | Bruce Eyers | Vivien Eyers | Richard Willams |
| Who’s the man? |
x |
1330 |
Hayden Titchner | Julie Grant | ||
| Helen Mathias |
x |
1180 |
Scott Davis | Lorna Bain | Nicky Gibbs | Helen Mathias |
| Sally Nichol |
f |
1100 |
Rachel van Gorp | Sally Nichol | ||
| Apple Orchard |
x |
1060 |
Murry Pridham | Mike Pridham | Rick Mains | Carolyn Pridham |
| Mud Monkeys |
x |
1040 |
Tim Jowett | Jennifer Turek | Daniel Turek | |
| Northern Slopes |
x |
980 |
Penny Love | Charles McLaughlin | Bob Cunningham | |
| Mum’s on the run |
f |
430 |
Michelle Koni | Liz Sebelin | ||
| Mike Stuart |
m |
0* |
Mike Stuart |
* Mike does have a score, it will be around 1200 I think
** Greig and Robert need to have 10% dedicted for running around by themselves
*** Alan Grants team were about 20 minutes late and need to have 200 points removed.
Lowburn Rogaine
Executive Summary
Ed and Terry from Highland Events did a great job, we had a fantastic weekend away and as promised to a number of people, I killed an Australian.
The Truth
As with all rogaines and runs we go on, looking at the potential weather forecast begins about 10 days out. Which is not an efficient use of time with the vagaries of our weather. Still, most of us do it and we go through a regular roller coaster of panic, fear and excitement. Central Otago decided to turn on a stunner, plus Fog, Rain and Snow.
4am is not the normal time to get up in our house but the kids popped out of bed very quickly and were ready to go without any prodding 30 minutes later. Ann and I were marginally slower to get sorted but it was enough to get a coffee on board for me. We chose the Middlemarch route to get to Cromwell and I quickly regretted that with fog rolling in from just past Outram until somewhere past Ranfurly. I shouldn’t have worried though it was the same on the southern route.
Arrived at 7:45 and maps were out at 8am leaving a scant 45 minutes to look, scribble, draw and plan a route for 12 hours. It was either, start left and collect it all or start right and collect it all. I chose left and took a punt that a clean sweep wasn’t possible even though Terry had hinted 60k would be enough to get us to Cromwell for a coffee. Turns out 60k would get a comfortable win and leave a lot of controls out there. See Greig Hamilton and Tim Farrants loop. http://www.attackpoint.org/sessiondata.jsp?sessionid=2470510 Obviously that means bugger all without controls on it.
I entered this with David Kennedy, Commonwealth 24 Hour Silver Medalist with 236.9km. He was over with family for a holiday and bit of running. He ran a comfortable 8:59 for 100k the previous weekend while the likes of Greg and Tim were out at TWALK for 24 hours and I was just doing bits and pieces at both. So being from Aussie, Perth, I’d hammered home the potential for cold and the hills. Apparently if they drive in a car for 24 hours they can get to a hill that’s 1500m high. So I was pretty keen to show him what actual hills and trails or not trails were. He backed himself, all Aussies do. I was planning on killing him. A battle of wills really.
The Map & Route
Quite possibly the most enjoyable locations and control setting I’ve had in a rogaine. Lots of cool historical places visited from old gold mining days. Beautiful gorges, Torrs, historic and active Water-races, Stunning views, interesting variations of sidling, climbs, marked and unmarked tracks. Other than #4 which was accidentally marked wrong on the map (#35 was just inside the circle) everything else was within spitting distance of the centre point. A hell of a lot more enjoyable than TWALK.
Lowburn Map – Route Marked in Red
Straight line distance = 43.7km, vert = 2600m (equates to about 50k actual distance)
Planned (extra green loop) 9.5km and 1000m
Actual Route (Red) and Planned (Green)
So to cut what was a very enjoyable 11hrs 45 minutes short. I disqualified the team by sending David home after 7.5 hours before he did any real damage to himself. Dodgy ankles, road runners, rough terrain and the onset of darkness aren’t good friends. We had a good time, talked a crap load about running, training the usual stuff you’d expect from guys who are stupid enough to run 1k loops on the road in Wales. He gave me a beating over there, it was good to reciprocate. One day I’d hope that I can get myself together and give him an honest go over 24 hours on the road. Maybe not though, rogaines are just that much more fun. So we parted ways at #76 which is the red bend right in the centre of the map.
Greig and Tim covered more or less the reverse of what I’d planned with a couple of extra controls and covered around 60k. If we’d collected all ours we’d have still been around 300 points short. They pretty much disqualified themselves as well by getting enormously separated for long stretches of time (up to 1/2 hour, hahaha). For those who have no idea who I’m talking about. Greig Hamilton finished 4th at the 2010 World Championship (with Phil Novis) and Tim Farrant won the Junior Mixed Teams at the 2008 World (with Georgia Whitla). Pretty funny hearing them arguing back at the hash about who was wrong with navigation and who was holding who up. Pretty happy to come 2nd to those guys.
The Family
So what were they doing. Bagging controls of course and then we all snuggled up in the tent together and had a great sleep.
Highland Events (click the link, top right)
Thanks Ed and Terry. We’ll be there as a family for the 6hour in September as long as it’s not the 1st or the last weekends.
Team Salomon
Well done to summer training buddy and manager Frosty for winning what has been one of the most hyped Ultra’s in recent memory. Transvucania to go with her two San Francisco TNF50 wins must make her the top 50 mile athlete in the world. Nice.
Good luck GTG, Mick (hugs), Ryan and the rest of the team Sydney this weekend, if any of you don’t like your shoes and they’re size 8.5UK I need a replacement pair for the ones our Bunnies Ate. Grrrrrr.
