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Saturday Jun 25, 2011 #
Event: Rogaine Ireland
12 PM
Orienteering race (Setanta Rogaine) 23:50:44 [5] *** 143.25 km (9:59 / km) +6600m 8:07 / km
38c shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280 #1
The Irish Rogaine in the Wiclow Mountains near Dublin with Ryno.
1:30'000
Results
Control Sequence
17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 12, 26, 25, 24, 29, 28, 27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 33, 32, 31, 30, 23, 22, 21, 8, 4, 3, 5, 2, 1, 6, 7, 10, 9, 18, 20, 19.
The South African duo of Nicholas Mulder and Ryno Griesel had an impressive run in this year's Setanta Rogaine Ireland, collecting all controls with less than 10 minutes to spare to become the Setanta Rogaine Ireland 2011 Champions. Here is their technical analysis of their route choices and experiences along the way.
They have also provided the data file from their iGotU GPS logger (it's doesn't have a screen or audio signal, it just logs the data of where you've been), for anyone that's interested. You can download the gpx file here.
The Technical Report
Time: 23 hours, 50 minutes, 40 seconds
Check points: 38 / 38
Distance: 143 km
Altitude gain: about 6600 m
The start
Arrived early, so we got a good parking spot. Did a very short warm-up, took some photos, packed our backpacks. We didn’t fully fill our bladders with water, as we realized that the numerous mountain streams would give us plenty of opportunities to refill on the way. However, this just meant we had more space for food, so we didn’t go any lighter.
Plotting
This was the first time we’ve had to plot in a rogaine (although we’ve done it in a few adventure races), as every race we’ve done before had the points pre-plotted on the map. We were pre-warned however, so we spent a bit of time a few days before getting to understand how the co-ordinate system worked. In the end it worked out easier than expected, but we were still frustrated with taking 20 minutes, especially with a constant stream of team leaving whilst we were still discussing routes.
The General Plan
We didn’t know if it was possible to collect all points within 24-hours (23.6 and counting down). However, we were fairly optimistic and so we designed a route that would take in all the points. As usual we made sure that towards the end of this route we had multiple ‘short cuts’ back to the finish if we started running out of time. We also left the majority of the low pointers near the start / finish for the very end.
We also took weather and terrain into account. Arriving early in Ireland meant we had a decent understanding of the local weather. The plan was to be off the high mountains and night as much as possible, making use of the valleys and lowlands. Not only did this mean that we would avoid the possibility of navigating through thick mist at night on the mountain tops, but the lowlands would also be warmer and easier to navigate due to the better path networks in them. The general layout of the map suggested that we should thus be on the eastern, lower side of the map during the approximate 8 hours of darkness.
The final plan was therefore to first head up onto the highest peaks, heading out west from the start, the moving onto the south-west corner of the map. Hopefully by this time we would have a better understanding of what distance we would be able to cover in 24-hours. We could then make a call as to visit the far southern check points or not (#38 would be the first to fall away). From the south end, we would head back north on the lower altitude eastern side of the map, taking up most of the night time. Time permitting, we would then be able to visit as many of the northern points as possible on the Sunday morning (specifically #1, #2, #6). We would leave #s 10, 9, 18, 20 and 19 till last. Depending on time, we could start dropping some or all of these on the way to the finish.
The first few hours
We jogged out towards the military road and onto #17, easy enough. Then the firebreak to #16. Very muddy, so I was able to introduce Ryno to the term ‘bog trotting’. Then our first mistake. We decided to ‘tiger line’ it to #15. This meant going straight through the forest, a decision we almost immediately regretted. After less than 500m (and about 10 mins of time loss), we changed direction and bashed our way up to the open moor. This was our first mistake on the ‘learning curve’ and we planned to make it our last.
Next to #14. We hit cloud as we went over the East Top and were completely blind going into the control. We had a big confidence boost when we hit it spot on. From here we contoured to #13, then across to #11 before returning the same direction to #12. To a large degree, we tried to minimize climb as much as possible during the race, taking routes that allowed us to contour and save any un-necessary climb. At this time, we were also trying to work out which slopes had better runability, north or south-facing, as it would sometimes affect route choice. So far, we were in unanimous agreement that the higher altitude moors were superb for running.
From #12, we headed for #26, then #25. Whilst running, we were still reanalyzing our route choice and at this stage we decided to go fetch #24, which we had originally intended to leave for last, but which would have then been a bit out of the way. We then returned to our route and went to #29, #28 (beautiful lake!) and #27. We almost certainly took a non-optimum route to #27 by going too straight and we should have aimed off a bit further northwards.
We then headed to #34, via the Wicklow Gap parking lot. This meant we could use a portion of the tar road leading up to the reservoir, getting us up the steepest part of the climb. Next was #35 and then a beautiful and fast downhill run to #36. En route we came across a mixed pair going the other way. It would be our last sighting of anyone for about 5 or 6 hours!
At #36 we stopped and opened the map fully, pulled out a piece of string and did some rough calculations. It showed that our current speed would be good enough to get us fully around the planned course, with even 3 or 4 hours to spare (but not counting any slow down in speed going into the 2nd day). This was good enough for us, so we headed off for #38. We used a lot of hiking paths on this leg, which was especially nice as it was on wooden boardwalk and thus very runnable.
We turned north for the first time and headed for #37, via the National Park office. On the way down, we stopped to refill our water bladders for the first time. However, whilst worrying about this, I forgot to keep eating regularly on this leg and blew spectacularly on the uphill to #37. Luckily I saw the problem early and quickly downed some food.
By now it was starting to get very gloomy. As usual, this seems to be the time when you push the hardest, trying to cover as much ground as possible before you finally loose all light. We got down to #33 and then crossed the Wicklow Gap road once again heading for #32. We got over Brockagh Mountain at last light, which meant that at least we had a quick view of Scarr, the next peak that we would climb. We had a bit of a problem finding #32, the fence corner, when we hit the fence too far to the left in the dark. After about 3 minutes we found it and headed for #31. This was one of the first real route choice dilemmas for the race, as there was no clear route down the mountain to the Miltary Road below (at least not a direct one). We decided to go a bit further north and come down an open strip next to a stream (and a few waterfalls). It worked out superbly and we were soon on the Military road about to climb a zig-zag track up to #31. We were a bit hesitant here, as there was a house nearby. Sure enough, only 10 metres onto this land, we were apprehended by the landowner and politely asked to leave. Despite a charm offensive and the best look of innocence, we got nowhere with our attempts for a special dispensation. At least he volunteered the information that the next track down the valley would also zig-zag up to the top of the hill. This plan was followed and it worked out rather well. We also met up with two teams; nice to see a few friendly faces!
From #31, we headed for #30 and then #23. On both occasions and despite the darkness, we decided to go for the riskier contouring route choice. They both worked out very well, in part thanks to some heavy duty Petzl headlamps that we were carrying. From #23, we had a thrilling downhill run to #22 through some thick ferns. At #22 we were really hoping for a bridge over the river. No luck, but some very (very) friendly locals who were having a good party down at the river showed us where the shallowest crossing point was in the river. After politely declining some beverages, we crossed holding out backpacks over our heads, only going about waist deep.
The next section of the course would be slightly easier as we’d follow a sequence of tracks and paths for long distances. We’d hoped to pick up speed again here, but the accumulated 12 hours of jogging had taken it’s toll and all we could manage was to maintain the current pace. So we ticked off #21 and #8. Then it was across off the mountain again to #4, which we reached just at first light and then #3. Here we spent a short time searching for the flag on the cliff, with there being more cliffs than the one on the map.
The heather had been quite deep and tough going for this last section, so we happily went over the top of the Tonduff North Mountain to #5, where the boggy land actually made it more runnable. I let my concentration slip however approaching #5 and we ended up off course, finishing about 500m to far to the south-east before correcting. Oops.
We were so fed up with deep heather by this stage that we decided to take the easy option to @2 and cross the Liffey to get to the service road up to the Kippure mast. It was nice to be on a solid surface, but it also showed us how sore our legs were. We followed the nice flags into the control point that had been put up by the emergency personnel. Even then, Ryno still managed to step into a bog pit well above his knees. From there is was off to #1 and then to #6. We were a bit hesitant about running into more landowners, so we were a bit circumspect when crossing the fields near the River Liffey. In the end we put our head down and crossed as quickly as possible.
We had been dreading the northern section of the map, mainly because there were some very long distances between check points. The walk from #6 to #7 was by far the worst, taking us well over 1 hour to cover the 4 km. All this while, time was still ticking. Our speed had dropped overnight and on the second morning as expected and our 4 hour cushion had now been reduced to about 1 hour. This was eating into it further, but it did force us to push the pace on the downhill to #10.
At #10, our self-imposed cut-off was calculated at 2 hours to go, if we wanted to visit the remaining 4 check points. We got there with 20 minutes to spare and so set off. This section had us constantly taking split times to calculate pace and re-measuring remaining distances. With nothing better to do, we had a whole list of precise time calculations to meet, which at least gave us a mental and psychological boost. We got to #9 two minutes faster than planned, but then took 5 minutes longer for the leg down to #18 (horrible thick heather). We clawed this back however to #20, despite the climb. At this stage we finally knew we’d reach our target of getting all the points and cruised into #19 with a ½ hour cushion, meaning we expected to arrive at the finish 30 minutes early. I had even given ourselves a luxurious 30 minutes to cover the 1.5km of this last leg, fully aware that it was through the same plantation forest that had caught us unaware just after the start. True to form however, the 1.5km of forest to the finish turned out to be the sting in the tail as we just couldn’t find an easy line or track going in more or less the right direction. In the end we just put our heads down and popped out on the main forest track about 500m downhill from the finish. We got into the finish, having seen our buffer reduced from 30 minutes to 10.
Conclusion
Overall this was a wonderful event. We thoroughly enjoyed it and hats off to the organizers, particularly the people who got out there to place the control markers in the terrain (and collect them again!). Looking back at our race, there isn’t anything that I’d change in the route plan, so it would be interesting to see if anyone has got thoughts on a faster or shorter route. We were pretty happy with our performance, which we think was actually a step up from our race at the World Champs in New Zealand. We still have a bit to improve on physically for the next Champs, so the Setanta Rogaine has been a good test for us. Thank you once again to the organizers for a great experience!
Nicholas Mulder and Ryno Griesel.
1:30'000
Results
Control Sequence
17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 12, 26, 25, 24, 29, 28, 27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 33, 32, 31, 30, 23, 22, 21, 8, 4, 3, 5, 2, 1, 6, 7, 10, 9, 18, 20, 19.
The South African duo of Nicholas Mulder and Ryno Griesel had an impressive run in this year's Setanta Rogaine Ireland, collecting all controls with less than 10 minutes to spare to become the Setanta Rogaine Ireland 2011 Champions. Here is their technical analysis of their route choices and experiences along the way.
They have also provided the data file from their iGotU GPS logger (it's doesn't have a screen or audio signal, it just logs the data of where you've been), for anyone that's interested. You can download the gpx file here.
The Technical Report
Time: 23 hours, 50 minutes, 40 seconds
Check points: 38 / 38
Distance: 143 km
Altitude gain: about 6600 m
The start
Arrived early, so we got a good parking spot. Did a very short warm-up, took some photos, packed our backpacks. We didn’t fully fill our bladders with water, as we realized that the numerous mountain streams would give us plenty of opportunities to refill on the way. However, this just meant we had more space for food, so we didn’t go any lighter.
Plotting
This was the first time we’ve had to plot in a rogaine (although we’ve done it in a few adventure races), as every race we’ve done before had the points pre-plotted on the map. We were pre-warned however, so we spent a bit of time a few days before getting to understand how the co-ordinate system worked. In the end it worked out easier than expected, but we were still frustrated with taking 20 minutes, especially with a constant stream of team leaving whilst we were still discussing routes.
The General Plan
We didn’t know if it was possible to collect all points within 24-hours (23.6 and counting down). However, we were fairly optimistic and so we designed a route that would take in all the points. As usual we made sure that towards the end of this route we had multiple ‘short cuts’ back to the finish if we started running out of time. We also left the majority of the low pointers near the start / finish for the very end.
We also took weather and terrain into account. Arriving early in Ireland meant we had a decent understanding of the local weather. The plan was to be off the high mountains and night as much as possible, making use of the valleys and lowlands. Not only did this mean that we would avoid the possibility of navigating through thick mist at night on the mountain tops, but the lowlands would also be warmer and easier to navigate due to the better path networks in them. The general layout of the map suggested that we should thus be on the eastern, lower side of the map during the approximate 8 hours of darkness.
The final plan was therefore to first head up onto the highest peaks, heading out west from the start, the moving onto the south-west corner of the map. Hopefully by this time we would have a better understanding of what distance we would be able to cover in 24-hours. We could then make a call as to visit the far southern check points or not (#38 would be the first to fall away). From the south end, we would head back north on the lower altitude eastern side of the map, taking up most of the night time. Time permitting, we would then be able to visit as many of the northern points as possible on the Sunday morning (specifically #1, #2, #6). We would leave #s 10, 9, 18, 20 and 19 till last. Depending on time, we could start dropping some or all of these on the way to the finish.
The first few hours
We jogged out towards the military road and onto #17, easy enough. Then the firebreak to #16. Very muddy, so I was able to introduce Ryno to the term ‘bog trotting’. Then our first mistake. We decided to ‘tiger line’ it to #15. This meant going straight through the forest, a decision we almost immediately regretted. After less than 500m (and about 10 mins of time loss), we changed direction and bashed our way up to the open moor. This was our first mistake on the ‘learning curve’ and we planned to make it our last.
Next to #14. We hit cloud as we went over the East Top and were completely blind going into the control. We had a big confidence boost when we hit it spot on. From here we contoured to #13, then across to #11 before returning the same direction to #12. To a large degree, we tried to minimize climb as much as possible during the race, taking routes that allowed us to contour and save any un-necessary climb. At this time, we were also trying to work out which slopes had better runability, north or south-facing, as it would sometimes affect route choice. So far, we were in unanimous agreement that the higher altitude moors were superb for running.
From #12, we headed for #26, then #25. Whilst running, we were still reanalyzing our route choice and at this stage we decided to go fetch #24, which we had originally intended to leave for last, but which would have then been a bit out of the way. We then returned to our route and went to #29, #28 (beautiful lake!) and #27. We almost certainly took a non-optimum route to #27 by going too straight and we should have aimed off a bit further northwards.
We then headed to #34, via the Wicklow Gap parking lot. This meant we could use a portion of the tar road leading up to the reservoir, getting us up the steepest part of the climb. Next was #35 and then a beautiful and fast downhill run to #36. En route we came across a mixed pair going the other way. It would be our last sighting of anyone for about 5 or 6 hours!
At #36 we stopped and opened the map fully, pulled out a piece of string and did some rough calculations. It showed that our current speed would be good enough to get us fully around the planned course, with even 3 or 4 hours to spare (but not counting any slow down in speed going into the 2nd day). This was good enough for us, so we headed off for #38. We used a lot of hiking paths on this leg, which was especially nice as it was on wooden boardwalk and thus very runnable.
We turned north for the first time and headed for #37, via the National Park office. On the way down, we stopped to refill our water bladders for the first time. However, whilst worrying about this, I forgot to keep eating regularly on this leg and blew spectacularly on the uphill to #37. Luckily I saw the problem early and quickly downed some food.
By now it was starting to get very gloomy. As usual, this seems to be the time when you push the hardest, trying to cover as much ground as possible before you finally loose all light. We got down to #33 and then crossed the Wicklow Gap road once again heading for #32. We got over Brockagh Mountain at last light, which meant that at least we had a quick view of Scarr, the next peak that we would climb. We had a bit of a problem finding #32, the fence corner, when we hit the fence too far to the left in the dark. After about 3 minutes we found it and headed for #31. This was one of the first real route choice dilemmas for the race, as there was no clear route down the mountain to the Miltary Road below (at least not a direct one). We decided to go a bit further north and come down an open strip next to a stream (and a few waterfalls). It worked out superbly and we were soon on the Military road about to climb a zig-zag track up to #31. We were a bit hesitant here, as there was a house nearby. Sure enough, only 10 metres onto this land, we were apprehended by the landowner and politely asked to leave. Despite a charm offensive and the best look of innocence, we got nowhere with our attempts for a special dispensation. At least he volunteered the information that the next track down the valley would also zig-zag up to the top of the hill. This plan was followed and it worked out rather well. We also met up with two teams; nice to see a few friendly faces!
From #31, we headed for #30 and then #23. On both occasions and despite the darkness, we decided to go for the riskier contouring route choice. They both worked out very well, in part thanks to some heavy duty Petzl headlamps that we were carrying. From #23, we had a thrilling downhill run to #22 through some thick ferns. At #22 we were really hoping for a bridge over the river. No luck, but some very (very) friendly locals who were having a good party down at the river showed us where the shallowest crossing point was in the river. After politely declining some beverages, we crossed holding out backpacks over our heads, only going about waist deep.
The next section of the course would be slightly easier as we’d follow a sequence of tracks and paths for long distances. We’d hoped to pick up speed again here, but the accumulated 12 hours of jogging had taken it’s toll and all we could manage was to maintain the current pace. So we ticked off #21 and #8. Then it was across off the mountain again to #4, which we reached just at first light and then #3. Here we spent a short time searching for the flag on the cliff, with there being more cliffs than the one on the map.
The heather had been quite deep and tough going for this last section, so we happily went over the top of the Tonduff North Mountain to #5, where the boggy land actually made it more runnable. I let my concentration slip however approaching #5 and we ended up off course, finishing about 500m to far to the south-east before correcting. Oops.
We were so fed up with deep heather by this stage that we decided to take the easy option to @2 and cross the Liffey to get to the service road up to the Kippure mast. It was nice to be on a solid surface, but it also showed us how sore our legs were. We followed the nice flags into the control point that had been put up by the emergency personnel. Even then, Ryno still managed to step into a bog pit well above his knees. From there is was off to #1 and then to #6. We were a bit hesitant about running into more landowners, so we were a bit circumspect when crossing the fields near the River Liffey. In the end we put our head down and crossed as quickly as possible.
We had been dreading the northern section of the map, mainly because there were some very long distances between check points. The walk from #6 to #7 was by far the worst, taking us well over 1 hour to cover the 4 km. All this while, time was still ticking. Our speed had dropped overnight and on the second morning as expected and our 4 hour cushion had now been reduced to about 1 hour. This was eating into it further, but it did force us to push the pace on the downhill to #10.
At #10, our self-imposed cut-off was calculated at 2 hours to go, if we wanted to visit the remaining 4 check points. We got there with 20 minutes to spare and so set off. This section had us constantly taking split times to calculate pace and re-measuring remaining distances. With nothing better to do, we had a whole list of precise time calculations to meet, which at least gave us a mental and psychological boost. We got to #9 two minutes faster than planned, but then took 5 minutes longer for the leg down to #18 (horrible thick heather). We clawed this back however to #20, despite the climb. At this stage we finally knew we’d reach our target of getting all the points and cruised into #19 with a ½ hour cushion, meaning we expected to arrive at the finish 30 minutes early. I had even given ourselves a luxurious 30 minutes to cover the 1.5km of this last leg, fully aware that it was through the same plantation forest that had caught us unaware just after the start. True to form however, the 1.5km of forest to the finish turned out to be the sting in the tail as we just couldn’t find an easy line or track going in more or less the right direction. In the end we just put our heads down and popped out on the main forest track about 500m downhill from the finish. We got into the finish, having seen our buffer reduced from 30 minutes to 10.
Conclusion
Overall this was a wonderful event. We thoroughly enjoyed it and hats off to the organizers, particularly the people who got out there to place the control markers in the terrain (and collect them again!). Looking back at our race, there isn’t anything that I’d change in the route plan, so it would be interesting to see if anyone has got thoughts on a faster or shorter route. We were pretty happy with our performance, which we think was actually a step up from our race at the World Champs in New Zealand. We still have a bit to improve on physically for the next Champs, so the Setanta Rogaine has been a good test for us. Thank you once again to the organizers for a great experience!
Nicholas Mulder and Ryno Griesel.
Thursday Jun 23, 2011 #
7 AM
Road Running 42:13 [3] 9.0 km (4:41 / km) +116m 4:24 / km
shoes: Salomon 3D S-Lab Red/Yel #2
Training run with Ryno from our accommodation loop down to Avoca village and back.
Wednesday Jun 22, 2011 #
7 AM
Road Running 53:04 [3] 10.0 km (5:18 / km) +226m 4:46 / km
shoes: Salomon 3D S-Lab Red/Yel #2
Training run with Ryno from our accommodation. A loop over the quarry facing the Avoca valley.
Tuesday Jun 21, 2011 #
Note
Flew to Ireland to meet up with Ryno for the Setanta Rogaine.
Monday Jun 20, 2011 #
5 PM
Orienteering race (Weisslingen-Kyburg) 1:12:29 [5] *** 7.9 km (9:11 / km) +265m 7:51 / km
ahr:163 max:180 26c shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280 #1
Day 1 of 6 of the Zurich-Oberland 6-day evening races.
Since not running all 6 days, had to run Open1, which was the same as the top category.
Pos 3 of 4. Lots of path running, but still fun. Results
TE 5.0, Epoc 272, 749 kcal
Since not running all 6 days, had to run Open1, which was the same as the top category.
Pos 3 of 4. Lots of path running, but still fun. Results
TE 5.0, Epoc 272, 749 kcal
Orienteering warm up/down 7:00 [1] 10.09 km (42 / km)
shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280 #1