Training Log Archive: nmulder

Event: World Rogaining Champs 2016
 

World Rogaining Champs at Ross River, near Alice Springs, Australia.

Map 1:25'000 with 5m contours.

I joined up with Shane Thrower from New Zealand at two weeks notice after confirmed that he wouldn't be able to race due to injury. Shane proved to be a great last minute find. He was strong over technical terrain and managed himself well.

We had 3 hours to plan our route before the start, of which we used 2. We decided to try and limit our time in the Spinifex regions as much as possible. We would head out N and then NE to cover the most intricately contoured region in the daylight, before looping back around the south side on onto the SW. Our aim was to do over 100km, preferably closer to 120km, but even our downward revised estimates proved to be overestimates in the end.

We had a good start, heading north and picking up a few highpointers. In hind sight, we should probably have cleared the 5 controls in the NW first as did Rob and Kathryn, as this was more runnable and would have increased our points/km average.

There were only a few water points out on the course and we needed to specifically exit some of the larger inaccessible areas early to ensure we didn't run out of water. Our first loop took us into WP5 after about 3 hours, perfect timing (only 1 small mistake of about 3 mins among the first 7 controls). We then focused on the N and NE section. There was a large section of 'mild' spinifex here and we soon realized we needed to start changing route to avoid this area even more than originally planned. The reduced speed in this terrain also meant the need to cut out sections to ensure that we still got to a water point sooner as well. This meant we got into WP1 at 9.30pm. I further revised the route to include more time on the flat plains. With the slower than expected pace in the mountains, I felt that we could pick up more points on the flatter, runnable sections, even if we did significantly more distance. We then did a nearby loop to pick up 3 x 100+ pointers, including one that we hadn't originally planned on as it had felt too far away at the time. We got to this 106 just before midnight, having covered 45.3km of our final 79.8km (straight line) and got 2120 of our final 3650 points. So we did end up slowing down a lot in the 2nd half of the race.

We got into the WP8 / All night Camp at about 3.30am picked up a 70-pointer and retuned that way again before heading out at 4am on the southern leg. We'd only see water again at about 11am, so another dry section. This southern section was the most mountainous, but there were lots of big pointers here. We had one mistake at 104, where it took us 5+ minutes to find the control. Our pace dropped notably after first light though, but we stayed on time to just finish off the sweep through the mountains. It was quite lonely out here with us obviously being the last team out on this section. We didn't see any lights or sight any teams from about 6am until 11am.

We picked up speed again towards the end as we got off the mountains. Found that we just had enough time to get 1 last 70-pointed just before the end, finishing with 66 secs to spare (and last team in before cut-off!).

We got a total of 3650 points. This put us 2nd in Men Open category and 3rd overall behind Chris and Greig (4400), and Rob and Kathryn (3880). Beat Kalinin and Shvedov into 4th (3570).

GPS logger gave up about 2h from the finish. The logged track looks a bit inaccurate. Measured subsequent distance to finish as 11.8km. Our straight line distance is 79.8km, but I think we did closer to 100km on the ground.

Anaylsis
3 hour split / Controls / Points / Kms
0-3h 8c 490p 14.5k
3-6h 7c 610p 11.5k
6-9h 6c 490p 9.0k
9-12h 7c 530p 10.5k
12-15h 5c 450p 9.0k
15-18h 5c 370p 8.0k
18-21h 4c 380p 7.5k
21-24h 4c 330p 9.8k

With my WRC team mate, Shane Thrower for the first time. Went around a shorter section of the WRC Model area just so that we could get a feel for each other. He's good on his feet and otherwise seems like we'll get along fine.

WRC Model Area

Went around a few controls in the WRC model area with Cobus and Janneke. Hills are quite rocky and difficult to contour on. Tested a small patch of Spinifex to see if it as bad as they make out. Ran a few controls fast for a bit of cardio.

Telegraph Station - 1:15'000. 5m contours.

A score event on the Alice Springs Telegraph Station map. Decided to take it as a leisurely stroll with Steph. Got 10 CPs well within the 3 hour time limit. One CP badly out of place due to a change in a MTB trail.

Larapinta - 1:10'000, 5m contours (drawn as MTBO map)
Long Course

Orienteering event held in conjunction with the upcoming WRC. This was an event on the edge of one of the Alice Springs suburbs. Nice to get a feel for central Australian terrain. Quite undulating and rocky, but otherwise easy going.

Survived to rocky areas, but then took a dive on a flat dirt track. Some nice grazes and blood on the right knee and elbow.

Took it easy and didn't always go for the ideal route, but still got 1st, although no other serious competitors on the Long.