Note that this article was first published 1 May 2012 at Rogue Adventure.
So, hopefully by now the aches and pains have started to ease, the trail running shoes have dried out and the mud has been cleaned away from the bikes. Thanks to everyone for supporting another sell-out Rogue Adventuregaine. The weather certainly threw everything it could at you guys on the course, but everyone seemed to take it in their stride.
The increased dam levels made for some easier kayaking, particularly at the start of the 12hr section through the trees, also opening up more portage options for cunning teams looking for every short cut. However the slick and muddy bike trails killed everyone’s biking speed, catching out a number of teams and playing havoc with chains and derailleurs across the course.
From a course setters point of view, the race was a success with every check point visited by at least one team, but no team getting every check point. Although busy and wet, everything ran smoothly at HQ. The only point of stress for the day was the arrival of the kayaks at the first transition area less than 60 seconds before the arrival of the first teams.
Volunteer Thank You
Before I go any further, I must give a big thank you to the breadth of volunteers who made this race possible, in particular:
- Paul Guard for land finding and team entry administration.
- Paul Elby, Gavin Blisner and Alex Bondarenko for control hanging and TA official duties.
- Kim Beckinsale, Kelsey, Sally Staton, Derek McKinnon, Jane Zimmerman and Sean Reynolds Massey for running the two separate HQs.
- Todd, Tim, Rach and Jules for the awesome catering.
- Brenton Gray, team SART and Michael McMahon for control collection.
Every time I run one of these events, I’m amazed at how willing everyone is to give up their free time to chip-in without complaint. The wet weather and fact that I decided to effectively run two races with two separate HQs more than doubled their workload, so a very heartfelt thank you to these people.
Results
Results for the 12hr Race and 6hr Race are now up on the Rogue Adventure website and QLD Rogaine Website. Check out the excel spread sheet to see you splits between check points. A couple of special mentions: team Mountain Designs who dominated the course, collecting all of the kayak CPs, all but two of the trekking CPs, and all but three of the bike CPs. In dry conditions, these guys would have come close to sweeping the course. Also a special mention to team SART. These guys flew in from Singapore on the morning of the race, and were delayed by 2 hrs after a mechanical issue with their plane. Despite this, they managed to take the win in the mixed category of the 12hr course and 7th place overall. Apologies for not getting this result correct at the final presentations – the scoring software automatically deducted points for a late penalty when I had previously already arranged a late start for them. Good luck at the upcoming Alpine Expedition Race in Switzerland guys. Tri Adventure Vintage demonstrated age is no barrier as first women’s veteran, and first women’s open team overall.
In the six hour Rogue, racing was tight with only 20 points separating the top three teams, but it was team Ignite who took out the win. In the mixed category, there were rumours that local knowledge played a part in their victory, but I suspect it is the years of orienteering experience that brought them to the fore with Team Boonah taking the win. AR regulars, Jinka, won the women’s division. It was great to see so many novice teams out on the 6 hour course. I hope to see you all back at a rogaine and/or adventure race soon.
Sponsors
Again, a big thank you to the sponsors who chipped in with a great swag of prizes for the race: ARea51, Macpac and Ferno Engineering. Make sure to say thank you for their support of adventure racing and rogaining in QLD. These guys know their product and are willing to put it to the test out in the wilderness themselves.
Lost Property
I have bunch of lost property from the race. Shoot me an email if you want to arrange collection:
- A Met bike helmet.
- Black Nike shirt, smaller size (too small for me anyway).
- A pair of black bike gloves.
- Two rear bike lights.
- A bike pump.
- A bike multi tool collected by another racer.
Also, a team managed to lose their keys at the Eastern Trailhead. If they turn up, please get in touch.
Photos and Race Reports.
Photos of all the teams have been posted on the Rogue Adventure website, plus the team’s facebook page. If you have a race report you want to share, send it through. Copies of the race map can also be found on the QLD Rogaine website.
Live Tracking
For the first time in a rogaine, we trialed the live GPS tracking of teams. Overall this worked very well and gave us as organisers the added bonus of being able to keep an eye on teams on the course. This proved invaluable when a number of teams suffered bike mechanical failures which had them returning 2 hours late. We were able to send out a car and collect them and get them back safely. Hopefully the tracking feature will be adopted again at future rogaines in areas where the satellite signal is appropriate. Make sure to go back and check out your route choice and those of your competitors here.
Other Races
If you are keen for more adventure racing action, be sure to check out the all female only Wild Women Adventure Race in July as well as the return of the iAdventure series to QLD with a race at Mt Joyce in August. Also, don’t forget to sharpen those navigation skills at the other QLD Rogaine events with a complete calendar of events for the rest of the year.
Anyway, congratulations to all on a great effort. With a little help, hopefully the Rogue will be able to make a return at some point in the not-too-distant future. See you at a race soon,
Liam.