Race 10-112 Get Lost in Henry Coe 4 Hour Rogaine

December 11th, 2010
13.12mi. - 3:55:57 - 15th/34
Garmin Tracking here.

On Saturday I went with several friends to my 4th orienteering event. This was my first Rogaine, which is a type of orienteering where there are a number of controls spread out on the course and each participant has a given time to get to as many of them as possible. Each control is worth a different number of points, from 20-90, which further added to the strategy. The group consisted of me (4th orienteering race), Chikara Omine (2nd), Erika Kikuchi (2nd), Evan Sparling (1st), and Evan's girlfriend .There was a 4 hour event and an hour event - we all competed in the 4 hour event. The weather was sunny and warm - perfect for wandering around a huge dry state park.

We had to park at a dirt lot a ways down the road from the start and take a shuttle van to the start. We had plenty of time at the start which was good because we are all novices at orienteering and needed the time to study the map. There were about a few dozen people at the start, although people were allowed to be on teams up to 4 people so we didn't know how many teams there would be (who run together and get a single place of finish). The 5 of us ran individually.

As we started Chikara, Evan, and I all headed out on the same trail. It appeared the women went in another direction and I didn't see them again until the finish. We ran together for a mile on a wide fire road and then hit some single track. We meandered up that trail, cutting some corners (allowed in orienteering) and began to look for the first control. I found it first because I couldn't help but notice some other people on the course who had just found it. Chikara found it the same way, because of me, and shortly after Evan got it.

Chikara and I ran together for a while toward the control we both decided to hit 2nd. Periodically we could see Evan behind us. When we started to climb a significant hill we split up - me opting for a more direct route and he taking a longer route trying to stay on less dense trail. I lost sight of Evan. Chikara got to the top quicker and I saw him get to the easily visible trail a few minutes before me.

From there were followed the ridge and eventually I lost sight of Chikara, who as it turned out spent the next 3 hours off course getting only 1 additional control on his way back to the start. I Got to where i thought the next control would be and spent 40 minutes looking for it but couldn't find it. I eventually learned Evan had the same experience around the time I was there although we didn't see each other.

Eventually I gave up on it and moved on having little difficulty getting a control next to a pond, one next to a thicket, one atop a hill, and one at some large loose rocks on the side of a hill. Coming back to a main trail from the rocks I saw Evan again going to the same control. We exchanged point totals and it sounded like we had about the same score. I figured there was time for only 2 more controls. There was a fairly easy one to get on the way back worth 20 points and 2 other viable options on the way to the 20 pointer - one worth 30 points and one a little more out of the way worth 40. I went to the 40 not sure if I'd still have time for the 20, thinking if i could pick up the 40 and 20 I'd pick up 10 points on Evan if he went for the 30 then 20. In the end the decision worked out as I got both 40 and 0, Evan went for 30 and 20, and I edged his final score 360 to 350 (not that I was really concerned with beating anyone in particular). It also got me another place higher because the extra 10 pushed me into a tie with another person with whom I won the tiebreaker (first person back wins).

I ended up in 16th place (360 points), Evan finished in 18th (350 points), Kara in 20th (300 points - and found the control neither Evan nor I could find), Chikara in 28th (140 points), and Erika in 30th (190 points minus 140 penalty for finish 14 minutes late = 50 points). There were 32 official finishers plus 3 teams DQed for finishing more than 15 minutes over 4 hours. Chikara was sweating out Erika's finish because of their developing rivalry, knowing his point total was lower than it should have been and not knowing how many points she had gotten. It turned out Erika also only hit 3 controls due to trying to go to a control too far from the start/finish for the allotted time. Everyone was happy with the event as it was run well and they had good food at the finish.