Discussion: National Rogaine Championship Idea

Hello,

I am writing with a question regarding Rogaine competition. I have competed doing Orienteering and different Rogaine competitions for several years. What I have noticed with the National Championships is the several different competitions you offer under the Orienteering format. This includes different lengths, time formats and daily/nightly options.

As someone who has competed in 24 hour Rogaine competitions all over the world I have always wondered about the Rogaine competitions provided at the National Championship level. For the past three years there hasn't been a Rogaine Championship. Is it due to a lack of participants or a lack of wanting to organize it?

As I have looked at the Rogainning schedule of events around our country I have noticed more than a dozen of events with shorter time frames with 4, 8 and 12 hour limits.

The reason I am writing is I would love to start the conversation of including a six and a 12 hour Rogaine Championship at the National level. It is much easier to organize a competition at this level and I believe it would bring in a lot of interest and excitement that the extreme conditions of 24 hours of Orienteering didn't.

I have designed courses all over for several years and I have already designed a course in the Ozarks Mountains that would be perfect for the 6 to 12 hour format.

Let's get this in the National Championship schedule!

Mike Shifman
ShifmanMike@gmail.com

I suspect lack of organizers and/or problems with permitting for 24-hour events.

OUSA rules, B.13, addresses what's considered a championship. To get a change to the rules, you should bring this up with the Rogaine committee chair, Bud Laird. See OUSA committees and task forces.

There are some Rogainers on Attackpoint, but probably more who are not.

Great idea Mike. I think one issue is that the World Championships are 24 hours only. And teams only (no solos). There are many who feel that OUSA has too many championships and want to cut the number rather than add new ones. So there certainly will be some resistance to creating a new championship that doesn't have an international standard counterpart.

But I think you have a great idea for increasing participation in rogaining and making it easier for more groups to host a national level championship. My best guess is that it should probably go first to the rogaine committee which would then propose it to the rules committee.

I agree that the requirements for a 24hr rogaine are high, and around here we've had to skip national championships too. The dedicated rogaine enthusiasts are holding out for champs to only be 24hr events. But there aren't enough of these enthusiasts. The rest of the nav community runs what it can - 12's, 6's, and loads of close-to-home 3's. Even totally urban rogaines. Those participants looking for total exhaustion can find it in adventure racing.

There are indeed a lot of US Championships in orienteering, but rogaine can be quite distinct from our current US champs formats. Rogaine champs could conceivably rotate. ..6 hrs one year, 12 the next, 24 the next.

By the way, Goats seem to be popular as a format without a national championship, so rogaine could continue to exist quite successfully without a US champs, as one very viable alternative. Maybe it's as important to have North American championships or regional regular events, or just a good schedule of events. I see that the High Sierra rogaine got sanctioned as the North American champs. Just an aside.

I think that a 24 hour rogaine is an entirely different beast than a 3 or 6 hour one- a bigger difference than between middle and long orienteering events.

I agree. But in terms of organisational effort, it may be an expensive luxury.

Gruver, funnily enough we have no 3hr rogaines in WA and our 6hr format is our least popular in terms of participation, probably because we don't provide food at that one. We used to get more at 12hr events than 24hr ones but that trend seems to have reversed in recent years. We have no requirement that you need to stay out for 24hrs and very few teams do but they come along anyway, more because we've heavily promoted the social aspect - a bonfire always brings in a crowd! Also unlike AR where you're pretty much committed to staying out for the duration and completing the course, with rogaining you don't have to.

although the wrc regs require 24 hr. format for wrc championships and for national/regional championships that serve to prequalify wrc entrants, there is nothing against having championships aside from those. there have been three Dakota championships, which were 24 hr. but nothing required that. essentially, anybody can put on a championship at any time in any format, but it will not serve as a prequalifier for wrc unless it is in line with the regs.
given the increasing popularity of the shorter events in USA, i have proposed discussion of additional championship possibilitites for discussion at next month's OUSA rogaining committee meeting. Mshifman's suggestion may be the next step in bringing more involvement to the sport in the USA.

Just get people to show up and then they'll figure out the rest.

First of all, thank you all for responding to my post. It Is great to get so much feedback.

Hopefully in the upcoming OUSA committee meeting this will get brought up for discussion.

Thanks again to all!

Mike

Unfortunately, there are few 24-hr rogaines in North America and there is some extra work involved to seek sanctioning so not everyone does it. Buzzard's point about WRC qualification is important. If a 24-hr rogaine organizer *does* seek sanctioning, it is more useful to North Americans to be able to attend a North American Rogaining Championship (NARC) than a U.S. championship because a NARC qualifies more teams for the world championship.