rogaining race (24hr State champs part 2) 11:49:00 [3] 38.0 km (18:39 / km)
shoes: Asics Gel 2130
Knackered at Nackara
By midnight we had realised that we weren't going to get the controls on the very western rim of the map, so we headed south to water drop 3 and then picked up an 80 and 90 in the SW corner. Moonset about 4 am, after whickh we stuffed up an easy control. Cross country to hit a track, shouldn't have mattered where we hit it because we could just walk north till a creek crossed it, and then head in to the control. Works fine if you see the creek...we never did. The windmill next to it should have been obvious, (assuming it was still there) but when you have your chin tucked into your collar trying to keep warm, you don't look around much. Consequently we overshot it by about 1km :(
By now the dew was starting to freeze, on the grass, the fences, the back of our packs and even the punch on the controls! We knew we needed 4 hours to get back from the soup kitchen, which closed at 8 am, so I talked Z out of a 90pt on an island in the creek bed (which sounded really cool according to the people who did go there) and we headed pretty much straight north as the sky got gradually lighter. Just when we could see enough to turn our torches off, Z announced that she was asleep on her feet. She lay down and was asleep instantly, while I watched the sun rise over a beautiful misty pink world with layers of hills.
Cup of tea at the soup kitchen was refreshing, then we headed east. There was a point in the map about 5km out from the HH which was a narrow neck because of some out-of-bounds land, so we had no choice in our route. Mt Cone was a given and we were down off it at 10 am. The next couple of hours was just picking off easy low-point controls on the way back in. Unfortunately I couldn't run as much as I wanted because of a really nasty spot where my shoe was pressing on my ankle, but it made no difference in the end.
Maybe we could have stretched ourselves for another 20pts if I was a bit faster, but the gap to the Murphys' team ahead of us was 50 points in the end. How we rued the 80pts we never found! We were 320 points behind first, Paul and Ruhi were always going to win.
3rd overall is not to be sneezed at, and we covered 90km, and kept going pretty steadily, it's just that our night navigation was less than efficient. Oh well, something to practice for next time. We're pretty evenly matched for fitness I think, and navigate in a similar style, so I'm happy with the partnership.
Actually had some food left over at the end which puzzled me a bit till I remembered that I ate a banana at each of 4 water stops...Should have taken more thermals and less food but despite anticipating frost, I had no expectation that it would be quite so cold. It was a really well-set rogaine, I like this sort of terrain, the views were great from the hill tops, & my feet didn't blister, so it's all good!