So your season has culminated with the Nationals - What next? The Eco City Challenge!

runningbeast Posted: 8 April 2009, 6:39 AM   So all your hard work and training to peak for the Nationals is due to come to fruition, so what next??? Why not try the Waitakere Eco City Challenge on Sunday the 19th April The Waitakere Eco City Challenge is a 4 hour urban navigation challenge (rogaine) exploring the extensive track network joining the parks and other green spaces of Waitakere city. Teams of 2 to 5 people navigate their way (staying together as a team), using the provided map, to as many checkpoints as they can by either walking, running, or travelling by bus. Checkpoints may be visited in any order, with checkpoints being allocated differing points. This event is open to teams of every type - business teams, social teams, family teams, schools and sports clubs. We're setting up the event centre in Henderson Park and offering tent sites to those that want to set up for the day. Last year participants were impressed with the network of tracks and parks and even locals were amazed at how much off-road running they were doing, that they didnt know about previously. Buses, although limited on a Sunday did prove popular with the best story coming from a bus at the end of the day racing back from Te Atatu towards the event centre with 30 participants on it. Upon seeing a couple of guys running to a bus stop trying to hail the bus, the whole bus yelling to the driver dont stop!. Apparently the bus driver pulled into the bus stop and then quickly pulling out (to a cheering busload of participants), leaving the two runners having to continue running back to the event centre, trying to beat the four hour deadline. Participants were given an all day bus pass from Go West buses and a complete set of timetables. This made the one hour planning time for the event a challenge with teams sprawled around the event centre, with maps and timetables laid out around them as they planned their route. Passers by must have wondered what they had come across. Registration from 9am and start at 10am Check out the Waitakere Eco City Challenge website www.ecocitychallenge.co.nz for information and to enter on-line.   Michael Posted: 8 April 2009, 1:16 PM   Best wishes from the original City Safari! Actually if there are limited services on a Sunday the route-planning strategy becomes far more interesting! Down here we would never consider giving out all the timetables, we would have to log all our orienteering forests for the paper... You guys got broadband up there?