Piha rogaine attracts 380
Tuesday 12 June 2007, 9:06AM
1053 views
Saturdays Lactic Turkey 5th annual Piha Rogaine saw 130 teams of 2-5 people competed in the 3 or 6 hour rogaine in the bush-clad Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland.
This area offers great terrain for a rogaine. With vast networks of walking tracks (ranging from nice wide tracks to very indistinct trails) and plenty of hills - using the planning time to plan a good route is crucial.
A rogaine involves teams of 2-5 people navigating to a series of checkpoints in a set amount of time (either 3 or 6 hours). The checkpoints are allocated different points and the winner is the person with the most points who finishes in the allocated time.
Penalty points are taken off your total score for arriving back to the event centre after the allocated time. Competitors get an hour planning time before they start to try and plan the route that collects the most points in the allowed time. The pre start planning must have been well utilised because only 26 teams arrived back at the finish last and only two teams were "timed out" for arriving more than half an hour late.
The start to a rogaine is pretty special to watch because on the gun, teams (with all their packs on), take of in a rush in 20 different directions. If you didn't know what was happening you'd think you'd arrive to watch some weird loony race.
Some of the regular top teams were noticeably absent with the adventure racing world champs just finished a week ago, but that didn't prevent some good racing at the front of the field. The winning 6-hour team was mixed open team - "Nga Rakau" (Fiona McBryde and Tim Cochrane) who scored 1820 points.
They planned a very strong route heading north to start and getting the high pointer special stage out of the way early. This was a set of 4 checkpoints close together (within a 200 square metre area) which teams had to use a hand drawn small scale map to navigate. This included a checkpoint in a cave. The change in scale and look of the map stumped a few teams but Nga Rakau were spot on. They then proceeded to do a large northern loop of the course, which then had to be shortcut as their time started to run out. This meant some fast on course improvisation was needed at the end because they got close to the finish with time to spare so whipped out to get an extra 30 points at a nearby checkpoint.
Second was the "Girls on Top" team of Ally Davey, Debbie Chambers and Anne Lowerson with 1790 points. They did a very similar course but missed out on one vital loop mid-way through the course, which was the difference between the final scores. Third 6-hour team was mixed veteran team "Di & Roel" - the husband and wife duo of Di and Roel Michels. They scored 1520 points and they did about 2/3 the distance of the other two teams by missing out the northern most loop, but also missing the high scoring points.
In the 3-hour event it was very close. Mens veteran team "Fast Forward" (Guy Cory-Wright, Malcolm Law and Peter Swanson) bettered their third place last year to take it out with 1210 points. This was after arriving back to the finish four minutes late and taking a 50 point penalty. Second was "Team MJ" Jack Wolken and Martin Ralph with 1140 points and third was "Phil and Anne" Phil White and Anne Mortimer with 1100. Unlike the top 6-hour teams these three teams all took very different routes with Team MJ doing the course in the reverse direction compared to how other the other teams went and doing the special stage on the way home rather than at the start of the day. However it was the strong legs of Fast Forward that allowed them to do an extra loop and score the top points.
It was great to see a good junior field at Piha. This was bolstered by the four girls teams from St Cuthberts. They promise to be back to fight is out again but have challenged other schools to come and join the fun. The winning Junior women team was "St Cuthberts Head to the Hills" (Anna Gray, Libby Crum and Emily Linsday). They scored 620 points but had a penalty of 50 points for coming home 5 minutes late. Next was the "St Cuthberts Comets" with 530 points.
The best newcomers race would have to go to the junior mixed team of Ben Mains and Sally Mains (Team Vegemite Plus) whose total combined team age was less than 14. Their mum shadowed them on the course but said the kids planned their own route in the planning time and did all the navigation themselves. Very impressive and there were some sheepish looking people when it was revealeda t prize giving that 9 adult teams had scores lower than these two youngsters. Look out for the Mains kids in 10 years time!
All teams made it back in one piece to enjoy the post event meal of a sausage and some pizza over much route analysis. 50 pizzas delivered to Piha (40 minutes drive from Auckland) was a memorable trip for the delivery boy!
For full results, photos and Race Reviewer please go to the Lactic Turkey website http://www.lacticturkey.co.nz/. Racereviewer is a funky bit of software that shows the routes taken by all of the teams for both the 3-hour and 6-hour on an aerial photo or the race map (even in 3D if that rocks your boat!). The animated dots making their way around the course shows just how far the top teams can go in the time allowed.
The next rogaine is on 7th July at Hunua where Shaun and Phil from Lactic Turkey Events have promised a very interesting course, even to those that think they know the Hunua Ranges.
This area offers great terrain for a rogaine. With vast networks of walking tracks (ranging from nice wide tracks to very indistinct trails) and plenty of hills - using the planning time to plan a good route is crucial.
A rogaine involves teams of 2-5 people navigating to a series of checkpoints in a set amount of time (either 3 or 6 hours). The checkpoints are allocated different points and the winner is the person with the most points who finishes in the allocated time.
Penalty points are taken off your total score for arriving back to the event centre after the allocated time. Competitors get an hour planning time before they start to try and plan the route that collects the most points in the allowed time. The pre start planning must have been well utilised because only 26 teams arrived back at the finish last and only two teams were "timed out" for arriving more than half an hour late.
The start to a rogaine is pretty special to watch because on the gun, teams (with all their packs on), take of in a rush in 20 different directions. If you didn't know what was happening you'd think you'd arrive to watch some weird loony race.
Some of the regular top teams were noticeably absent with the adventure racing world champs just finished a week ago, but that didn't prevent some good racing at the front of the field. The winning 6-hour team was mixed open team - "Nga Rakau" (Fiona McBryde and Tim Cochrane) who scored 1820 points.
They planned a very strong route heading north to start and getting the high pointer special stage out of the way early. This was a set of 4 checkpoints close together (within a 200 square metre area) which teams had to use a hand drawn small scale map to navigate. This included a checkpoint in a cave. The change in scale and look of the map stumped a few teams but Nga Rakau were spot on. They then proceeded to do a large northern loop of the course, which then had to be shortcut as their time started to run out. This meant some fast on course improvisation was needed at the end because they got close to the finish with time to spare so whipped out to get an extra 30 points at a nearby checkpoint.
Second was the "Girls on Top" team of Ally Davey, Debbie Chambers and Anne Lowerson with 1790 points. They did a very similar course but missed out on one vital loop mid-way through the course, which was the difference between the final scores. Third 6-hour team was mixed veteran team "Di & Roel" - the husband and wife duo of Di and Roel Michels. They scored 1520 points and they did about 2/3 the distance of the other two teams by missing out the northern most loop, but also missing the high scoring points.
In the 3-hour event it was very close. Mens veteran team "Fast Forward" (Guy Cory-Wright, Malcolm Law and Peter Swanson) bettered their third place last year to take it out with 1210 points. This was after arriving back to the finish four minutes late and taking a 50 point penalty. Second was "Team MJ" Jack Wolken and Martin Ralph with 1140 points and third was "Phil and Anne" Phil White and Anne Mortimer with 1100. Unlike the top 6-hour teams these three teams all took very different routes with Team MJ doing the course in the reverse direction compared to how other the other teams went and doing the special stage on the way home rather than at the start of the day. However it was the strong legs of Fast Forward that allowed them to do an extra loop and score the top points.
It was great to see a good junior field at Piha. This was bolstered by the four girls teams from St Cuthberts. They promise to be back to fight is out again but have challenged other schools to come and join the fun. The winning Junior women team was "St Cuthberts Head to the Hills" (Anna Gray, Libby Crum and Emily Linsday). They scored 620 points but had a penalty of 50 points for coming home 5 minutes late. Next was the "St Cuthberts Comets" with 530 points.
The best newcomers race would have to go to the junior mixed team of Ben Mains and Sally Mains (Team Vegemite Plus) whose total combined team age was less than 14. Their mum shadowed them on the course but said the kids planned their own route in the planning time and did all the navigation themselves. Very impressive and there were some sheepish looking people when it was revealeda t prize giving that 9 adult teams had scores lower than these two youngsters. Look out for the Mains kids in 10 years time!
All teams made it back in one piece to enjoy the post event meal of a sausage and some pizza over much route analysis. 50 pizzas delivered to Piha (40 minutes drive from Auckland) was a memorable trip for the delivery boy!
For full results, photos and Race Reviewer please go to the Lactic Turkey website http://www.lacticturkey.co.nz/. Racereviewer is a funky bit of software that shows the routes taken by all of the teams for both the 3-hour and 6-hour on an aerial photo or the race map (even in 3D if that rocks your boat!). The animated dots making their way around the course shows just how far the top teams can go in the time allowed.
The next rogaine is on 7th July at Hunua where Shaun and Phil from Lactic Turkey Events have promised a very interesting course, even to those that think they know the Hunua Ranges.