NSW Stingers 2nd in World 24hr Rogaining Championships
Monday, 23 October 2006
 Rob Preston and Damon Goerke (AR team mate) finished 2nd in a huge field of 306 teams. Here is their report:  The World Rogaining
Championships were held last weekend in the Warrumbungles National Park, about 500km NW of Sydney. It's not far
from Dubbo, scene of next years Junior Orienteering World Championships. Famous
for its clear skies for astronomy, and geological landmarks such as the
‘Breadknife’, international competitors were also treated with an abundance of
wildlife. The event was a certainly a worthy World Championships, with tough
hilly terrain, and temperatures high enough to fry an egg on your baseplate
compass. Many teams suffered from dehydration, and one American competitor was
unfortunate to suffer a brown snake bite (but fortunate to survive). The
quality of the map was fantastic, and with 62 controls and 3500points on offer
there were plenty of route choices to be made.
My
last 24hr Rogaine was about 5yrs ago, but I had been looking forward to the
World Championships for quite a while. Having done a few moderate length
Adventure Races recently I considered my sleep deprivation skills should have
improved. In previous 24hr’s our usual tactic of ‘go hard, sleep a little, go
hard again’ had worked ok since I usually struggle to make it through the whole
night without a sleep. My regular rogaining partner, Andrew Hill, was
unavailable due to competing in the Citychase World Champs in Chicago. I asked Damon Goerke (team member
from Geoquest AR this year) if he was interested. Since he
was about to run the Kokoda Track I suggested seeing how he recovered from that
before making a commitment. Damon ran the tough 96km track in 19hrs finishing 3rd,
and recovered well so he was pretty keen.
Not
leaving Sydney until 5pm wasn’t the ideal preparation as we arrived at the Hash
house at 11.30pm.I had been nervous for a few days about the hot weather, but I
felt more relaxed in the morning. There was plenty of pre-race sledging with
the New Zealanders who were sure to provide plenty of competition. We spent a
lot of time planning the course and I was very anxious as 12 o’clock approached
because I seemed to be getting less organised as time went on.
 The
course was made route planning very challenging. There didn’t seem to be many
easy areas that would be best left for night time. We thought the south section
looked the toughest so decided to leave that for later in the course. The NW
section had plenty of controls, but not many big points, and the navigation
looked like it would be tough at night. With the Hash house quite centrally
located we liked the idea of a route that returned to the HH 12-18hrs into the
race.
We
started off to the SE running with my fellow Stingers orienteers, Peter Preston
and Dave Meyer. 36, 93, 39 and 75 before refilling water at W6. I had already
gone through 2L in under 90mins. On the track to 92 we met Mike Hotchkis (the
course-setter) out checking teams were staying together. I asked what he
expected the winning team to score. 2000 was has reply. After 65, Pete and Dave
continued on their planned course (north to 64), while we dropped back into the
valley heading to 34. Damon was having trouble with cramping on the downhills
so we had to move cautiously. 21, 37, 74 will no problems. 64 was lot trickier
than I expected, and I was worried the heat was getting to me.
 W7.
Our plan was to collect 58 and 57 if we would get there before dark. It was
only 3.30pm so we stuck with the plan and got them. The traverse and climb to
58 was tough and I was happy to find the control. I enjoyed the leg to 82, but
missed the right gully. The creek at 46 was stunning, nice bare rock slaps,
shame there was no water. Sun was setting on route to 92. Back down the valley
to 35 then W8.
It
was now dark and it was time for the Princeton Tec Apex to come to life. 62,
56. We had seen very few teams all afternoon, but now it was dark there seemed
to be teams everywhere. Heading up the creek to 81 we became disorientated and
I was experiencing dejavu after a similar mistake
during Geoquest this year. After a few mins of circlework and staring at the
compass in disbelief, we saw a team head down the hill from the control. Lucky.
On the way out we ran into Dave and Pete who had also lost 25mins on this leg
after walking past the creek junction.
It
was good to have company again. 101 was difficult and I was relieved to find
it. 55, W9, 72. The long leg to 45 was quite nice, and the other boys lead the
never ending climb up to the control. DJ Dave was keeping us entertained with
iPOD and speakers stuck in the back of his pack. Faithless’ “I can’t get no
sleep” seemed slightly ironic as I stumbled down the scubby gully to 61. I
found it difficult knowing where to leave the gully to find the rocky knoll. We
found one bare rock slab, thought we knew where we were, and headed off on
bearing to the control. However we never found the correct knoll and started
walking in circles until we were totally disorientated. Every 10m I would check
my compass and it seemed to be pointing a different direction. Magnetic rocks?
I’m not sure what happened but we ended up ascending the same gully we’d come
down, and above a fence we had already crossed once! This leg took us 75mins so
I estimate we probably lost 30mins or more.
 Heading
to 100 we had collected a few other lost teams. I was very hesitant, and relieved
to find it. 71 was a tough leg, with a dangerous descent. Again we missed the
control and wasted another 15mins through a bad route choice. I couldn’t keep
in a straight line and climbed an unnecessary hill with the worst scrub yet. I
was getting the sh*ts big time now as I was doing all the nav and all the
trailblazing. Morale had dropped big time, and Dave and Pete headed back for a
sleep, not even bothering to collect the easy controls close to the track.
80,
41, 44 were all quite easy and we got back into a good rhythm heading into the
Hash house. I was feeling pretty good after a change of socks (Mmmm new Ultimax
socks!) a bacon and egg roll, cheese toasty and pancakes. It was 4.50am when we
headed off just before first
light into the tough southern section of the map. As it got light I turned into
a zombie and really struggled for about an hour. I was so tired I would have
killed just to sleep for 5mins. I kept stumbling on thinking every minute I
would tell Damon I needed to sleep (but fully knowing he wouldn't let me) but
somehow made it through.
At about 7am I
was feeling good again and we were picking up some big points. 22, 66, 83, 84.
The plateau on the way to 77 was very interesting, but much harder navigation
than I expected. 77, 69. 94. We were both feeling really good running to 94. I
was tempted to get 102 but eventually skipped it as time was running out.
76,85.W1. This was the only section in the race where we had to conserve our
water. It was great to get a good drink, but now we were faced with 8-9km of
bitumen.  It was getting very hot again,
the tar was melting off the road. We still had 1hr so I convinced Damon we had
time to collect 42 and 20. I was also hoping to get 52 on the way back. We got
them but it took a bit longer than expected. We had 25mins to run the 4.5kms
back. It looked flat on the map, but was actually uphill most of the way. We
were really pushing it near the end, but made it back with 20seconds to spare. It
was amazing to finish feeling like you had done everything possible.
After speaking
to a few teams and we realised some of the big guns had fallen apart. Results
were posted quite quickly due to the successful use of the Navlight electronic
scoring system. We scored 2430 points and were 2nd overall. It
didn’t surprise me that it was Chris Forne and his partner Dennis De Monchy who
had beaten us. Chris is an exceptional orienteer and Adventure Racer from Christchurch, New Zealand. Some of his other
results this year include NZ Orienteering Champion and 2nd at the
Primal Quest with Team Golite. The heat had taken its toll on a lot of teams,
and I think the reason we did so well was that we made sure to look after
ourselves from the start. We were pretty conservative with our pace, but that
meant I never felt like giving up.
Thanks to Damon for always keeping us moving, and Dave and Prong for keeping us
company (though you could have helped with the nav a bit more!!). And a special
thanks to Carboshotz for providing us with the best sports nutrition around.  Full results can be found here
Checkout the routes of many teams using Routegadget
Check out our route here
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