Note that this article was first published 9 December 2013 at Rogue Adventure.
Firstly, thank you to all those who took on the Urban Rogue in the spirit of a fun night out. The general consensus was that the race was a success and everyone enjoyed themselves. All the check points proved to be spot on, which is the number one goal of an organiser. We had a great turn out of over 160 competitors, with a significant number of novices accounting for almost a third of the field.
Secondly, I owe two very important apologies. Sorry goes to all those that missed out on the catering. I know if I did a race and the catering ran out, I’d be pretty grumpy. I simply underestimated how hungry you guys would be, but all I can say is that I won’t make that mistake next time. Also, apologies to our awesome volunteers on the night, who I forgot to thank publicly in the final presentations. Derek McKinnon (along with his daughter Natasha) held down the fort at HQ once again – I’ve come to rely on heavily Derek for all those tricky admin duties during the adventuregaines. Also, thank you to Jason Ross and Sally Staton for their valuable assistance on the night, and Alan Ferris for not only prize sponsorship from Ferno, but also for vetting every single CP in the lead up to the race. While on the subject of thank yous, a tip of the hat also to Brenton Gray from Wildfire Sports for prize sponsorship.
Final results can be found in the spread sheet here: Urban Rogue Results. Congrats go to team Mystique for edging out the overall win, taking out the “On Wheels” category in the process with 2080 points. I thought there was a realistic chance that the overall win would go to a team on wheels, but I assumed they would be on a kick bike, not roller blades. An honourable mention goes to team Jay & Silent Bob only 80 points behind, also on roller blades and also our winning novice team. In the “On Foot” category it was another close run for the top result, with the Rochedale Runners (1880 points) in the MO category, beating out winning XV/XO category racers team No Bruce (1860 points), MV winners Old Injuries (1750 points) and WO winners Wrong Direction (1730 points).
At this stage, it looks like the Urban Rogue is set to return next year with a very similar format. I’ll make a few tweaks with the lessons learnt from this year and maybe implement one or two more new ideas for what should be a fantastic event. At this stage, the date is looking likely to be December 5th, 2014, but this will be confirmed in the new year once the rest of the racing calendar is available.
In the interim, keep those CP100 photos coming in – a full collection of photos from the race can be found here. For those novice teams, don’t forget that there will be a Mini Rogue Adventuregaine on March 1st, 2014. This will be the perfect introduction event for someone looking to give adventure racing and rogaining in the bush a try. Gordon Bossley is taking the lead on event organisation for this race and is sure to put on a great day out. Refer to the QRA website for further details, and I look forward to seeing you at a Rogue race soon.