Discussion: Rogaine Suggestions

Tomorrow my wife and I will do our first full Rogaine in Minnesota. 6 hours. We competed in one two years ago, but only had a babysitter for a portion.
I am looking for any suggestions experienced folks might have to help us out. The event is set up in a Score-O format ( I assume most Rogaines are).
We adventure race together and the distance/time is not the concern. I am specificially looking for the sort of "I wish I had known that" sort of thing, or a tricks that might help us shave time.
Do people highlight their expected courses like in AR?

Thanks in advance.

I'm an adventure racer who has only done 2 rogaines, but I've received some good advice from others with more experience. There are a couple of things you can do today:
- First, estimate how far you and your wife can go in 5 3/4 hours. (There are usually mega-points deducted if you are late, so don't plan to be out exactly 6 hours.) (By the way, if you read my log for Aug. 2-3, you can see that I stayed out 24 hours and 49 seconds at the North American Rogaine Champs, thus avoiding a penalty by a mere 11 seconds. But I really don't recommend doing that to your partner, especially since you are married to her.) Be realistic in your estimate, allowing for some bushwhacking time and some time running on roads.
- You probably know the scale of the map for the rogaine, so take a piece of string and mark distance on it. I mark each kilometer in black, and every 5 km in red.
- Get your "back to school" kit together: 3-4 colours of highlighters, some indelible pens, pencil, tape, extra paper, etc.

On race day:
- I should point out that in both my rogaines, nobody has come close to getting all the controls, and there is absolutely no chance that I will do it, so my strategy is to optimize my physical and navigational abilities by choosing the best subset of controls for me, and the best route between them. If your plan is to visit all the controls, then you can skip some of my steps.
- When I get the map, I look at the scoring system and assign the point values to three categories, e.g. from my last rogaine: Low (20-40 points), Medium (50-70) and High (80-100). Then I take 3 colours of highlighters and mark all the controls with an arbitrary colour code for Low, Medium or High.
- Then I look for clusters of High pointers, which should be supported by some Medium and even Low pointers enroute. You want to avoid being tempted by High pointers that aren't worth the trouble. Ask yourself the question: Could I get that 70-pointer and that 40-pointer in less time than climbing that mountain for that 100-pointer?
- Then, in my case, because I'm aiming for a subset of controls, I choose corners or quadrants of the map that I'm not going to bother with. Then I look at what remains and sketch out a possible route. (Organizers should give you a planning map that you can use, rather than ruining your real map.) I've seen people highlight their planning map, but I usually just pencil in arrows pointing to the next control, because this allows me to change my plan up to the last minute, while still keeping the map readable.
- Then I take my piece of string and measure the straight line distance between controls on my planned route. E.g. in my last rogaine, I estimated that we could go 65-70 km in 24 hours, so I didn't want the straight line distance to be larger than 50 km.
- If reality kicks in and I'm attempting too much, I look for what makes the most sense to remove. This is a good time to divide up the route even further, e.g. 10 km chunks, and calculate the points/km. This gives you a number to measure against when you are fine-tuning your final route choice. In my last rogaine, if I wasn't getting 40 points/km (straight line), it wasn't worth making the detour.
- It's a good idea to plan to come back early (i.e. don't do what I did), but plan a little loop close to the finish that you can do if you have the time.

Have a great time! I love the strategy of the rogaine format. It's lots of fun and great practice for AR.

I figured Bash would be all over this one... sure enough.

To further one of her last comments... no matter what your thinking at the time, do not go for that "one last control"!!! It cost my partner and I the NorthAm Champs earlier this month. Head in earlier than you think.