Team No Detour Lake Macquarie Rogaine 6hrs Report

7/27/2019 Team No Detour Lake Macquarie Rogaine 6hrs Report

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Lake Macquarie race report by Pierre Francois, Team No Detour 74.

August 18th

2013

https://www.facebook.com/NoDetourAdventureTeam

The story

Last weekend was the annual Lake Macquarie Rogaine, edition 22. Personally I'd never done that one in

the past because it is always held in August, and overlapped with summer time in France (and this is

where I was last year). But not this year.

So after a good result at the last paddy pallin 6hrs rogaine :

(Finished 4th in the Men category, 6th Overall:

http://www.nswrogaining.org/AboutEvents/Events/13PP/Results/13PPbyScore.htm

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.647826445227404.1073741828.576587325684650&type

=1,

I've decided to give it a go and asked my usual mate Ross if he was keen too. As usual, he was!

This Rogaine has two major events sharing the same map: a 6hrs and 12hrs both starting at midday. I

had special family commitments on Saturday night and had to be home at 7pm sharp... So we decide to

create a special category for the both of us: 5hrs in 6 hours event :-) At least it will be a good test to see

how we perform on 5 hours race compare those who will use the full 6 hours.

After a smooth drive up to the central coast area, we arrive at the HH (Hash House, the start and finish

headquarter of a Rogaine) with 2.5 hours spare time, enough to prepare a route. Like any 12hrs/6hrs

event I've done, the setters have put an area nearby the HH which is meant to attract 6hours racers and

a second one far away which is likely to be covered by the teams racing into the 12 hours format (either

on daylight or at night). I think in the 12 hours race, the key is how teams will make the junction

between the two areas... Personal thinking.

Anyway the map has a classic scale 1:25000 and shows a lot of 10m contour, and it looks like we will

have few climbs to keep our legs warm


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Full map


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We decide to take an easy start in order to get confidence. Rogaining is a sport which attracts newbie at

each event and it is common that the organisers suggest a route for beginners. Let's do the start of it

and we'll see when we will be at the T&D "first water drop" point.... Our planned route is: 12-27-54-44-

35-53-43-72 and up to T&D through a vertical climb. After a water refill, we'll do the loop to collect 64-

34-52 and from there to see if we'll have time to go into the canyon and collect either 81-62 and back up

to the main firetrail or push a little bit more and do 81-62-82-51 and back up to the main firetrail.... Then

back to finish. Call it a plan.

Map where we will be racing for 5 hours


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Ross preparing the map


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Team No Detour ready !

At midday the siren signifying the start is ON and I am leading the pack heading to CP12. Ohohoh !! the

pressure is on me :-))) Quickly we find 12 then 27 and were moving fast down to the first creek. In 25

minutes we are at CP35, way faster than my best expectations. We keep going to 53-43 and then 72...

The creek down here is beautiful. It looks like a sub tropical area with lots of thorns/vines which I

consider like traps (almost fell over hundred times due to them)


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Both Ross and I are thinking that our pace is great so we stop to take few funny pictures:

Pierro

Ross


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That was until we saw a couple of blokes moving as fast as us whereas they are just walking! Damn

those guys have a good technique to move forward in a creek! Anyway we hit the T&D first in the pack.

The ladies/girls up here are almost settled, and they are saying they forgot the water tank... It is 1 pm

and our only chance to get a water refill in the course is gone... OUPS ! We'll have to be self-sufficient

for the next 4 hours. That made Ross worries, because he is a big drinker


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After a banana, few lollies we keep going on our (good) rhythm and tackle 24-64-34 after a nice vertical

climb which we do with two guys chasing us (I don't know them, but I think those guys could have done

a big score).... From CP34, we know the next CP (52) would be our first challenging one. We have to go

down to a creek and reach a creek junction, but the shortest path is a "no go" one, showing dark green

on the map (which means "fight", which means bloody hard yakka to move forward :-)))) ... ) So we

follow the contour lines to the north and hit east to find that creek before the creeks junction.... The

cliffs here are damn dangerous so that explains why we had few attempts to go down into that creek ...

CP52 found! Good stuff... At this point, we've been racing for two hours, let's go into that canyon and

stick to our longest plan (means 81-62-82 then 51)!!!

From our measurement, the next CP81 (which is worth 80 points, the maximum possible today) is about

500m from the junction track/canyon, second creek on the left. We start our move by jumping on

slippery rocks, doing lots of in/out the canyon, jumping over 20meters long / 1 meter diameter logs etc

... very very very slow moving. Ok the landscape is amazing but it consumes time and energy...

In the canyon, on the way to CP81


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That was before Ross fell over a slippery boulder and finished his acrobatics into a 1.50m deep water

hole! Was it cold I asked him? Damn cold he replied :-))))) but he gave his approval for me to take a

picture of him :-) Good bloke


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After that we hit a big creek, heading north... Is this one the first creek? Or the second? Or the third?

mmmmmh none of us have spotted another creek before, and from my "short" experience in rogaining

we never move as fast as we think we do... Ok, even though there is a white and red tape on a tree

(which can indicates this is the creek to reach 81... but why the hell would the organisers do that???) we

keep moving forward... From that point we decide to change our canyon approach and decide to be on

the edge of the canyon, probably 10 to 20 meters from it. That is a bit risky because we can miss creek s

junction on the other side but our pace became much more acceptable... Great idea !

After minutes of "quite fast" moving Ross spots another creek, but on the other side of the canyon.

Putain ! it means the creek where we hesitated before was the one heading to 81 :-(((( We won't see

that bloody 81, worth 80 points ! Not enough time to come back. Anyway we continue and get 62. We

have spent 1h25min since last CP! Not good That made me worried about the next CP. Should we head

back to the main firetrail straight away? Or should we continue to collect 82-51 and back up then? Ross

convinced me that was worth it and not that long so we've continued into the canyon.


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Quite easily we found 82 then 51 (in less than 40 minutes). It was time to head off the canyon and go

back up to the firetrail. Vertical climb! We both like that! We hit the top in 20 minutes.

It is 4:20pm; we are on track to finish at 5pm. On our way back to the HH, we do a small detour to grab

42 then 26 and finished it a 5:02pm with 720 points. At that point we have no idea if that is a good score

or not, but at least we had good fun!

Our route


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Our route on the full map


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When the results were published we were amazed to see that we finished 3rd in the Men category, and

6th Overall! Great score! The winners have 910 points, and I don't think we will have get that total is we

had raced for 6 hours. I think we will have got 65-25-11 and maybe 45 which would have meant a total

of 840points (so possibly second overall). The difference is our mistake for CP81... So congrats to all

teams who have competed in the event and a big thanks to the organisers! We love rogaining and

maybe we'll have a go to the NSW championship in October...

http://www.nswrogaining.org/AboutEvents/Events/13LM/Results/13LMbyScore.htm

Documents

Team No Detour Lake Macquarie Rogaine 6hrs Report