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Terawhiti Rogaine

Show Profile  Bryan Posted: 4 November 2005, 7:57 AM  
I've just competed in my first rogaine for ages and piked a bit by competing only in the 3hr event when most tried the 6 hour. Overall the event was as I remembered: a real challenge.

Some comments:
- scale was funny at 1:33330 - not very standard.
- Contour interval and scale bar was not shown on the map.
- the map printing was poor - waterproof but not sweat or
crease proof. Some teams were lucky to see the map detail at the end of several hours.
- the start / finish was at the bottom of a large hill and away from most controls. This meant about 60minutes of dead running climbing/descending the hill at the start and finish of the event. This also meant that the rogaine was basically only a 2hr or 5hr event. The start could have been someplace else or we could have driven up the hill.
- it would have been nice to have more controls near the start/finish to cater for the less unfit and to have more options at the finish. This would make the event more pleasant - some teams had to run more than 30 minutes at the end without clipping a control.
- the electronic controls were great (although some points were incorrectly assigned to some controls). These were made by a Kiwi and we had to wear a watch to clip controls - can these be used in an ordinary Orienteering event? - I'm sure they would be a lot cheaper than the EMIT controls that Auckland has.
- the weighting of the controls I think was both disparate and unfair - points ranged from 10 to 100 and bascially meant that getting a control worth 100 points was 10 times better than getting a control worth only 10 points. This resulted in making the 10 pointer controls almost worthless. Because the controls were 1-2km apart and hard to get to, this caused slower teams to get too much of an advantage. I remember after having clipped 2 controls (one worth 10 points and the other 50points), another far slower team clipping the 50 pointer at the same time as us. A better weighting would have been from say 10 to 40.
- A control was in the wrong place (and at the time of writing this my team still hasn't been credited with the 30 points).

I'm sure the organisers will get things right for the Nationals in February. Thanks for the big effort in this event.

Show Profile  Martin Posted: 4 November 2005, 10:09 AM  
Auckland and NW have sportident not emit

Show Profile  Mike Sheridan Posted: 6 November 2005, 1:04 PM  
Thanks Bryan for the comments - Although I was not Evnet Director for this one ...I convinced Mark and Tony to use the electronic controls and the waterproof paper as a test for the Nationals. (Downside for them was it tripled their workload!)

And as you point out it was an excellent test.

To Address your issues:
* Scale was indeed unusual - And yes the key was omitted
* The waterproof paper was a bit of a disaster...it has worked before for us...the printer commented that he sent it through the printer too fast - We will certainly be doing some vigourous testing before we try that again.
* Its fair to say Mark had a few points of negotiation with the farm manager which ended up severly restricting the event, and you are right - it affected the three hour event.
* The electronic control system is great. We have worked hard with streamlining our manual systems over the years. There was a user error we made (lack of familiarity) which made getting the results out a bit of a challenge.
* Yes there was one control in the wrong place...Apologies if you never got credited with this.
* We received a lot of feedback after the event - all of it constructive. As a result we will certainly be changing a couple of things for the Nationals

Hope to see you there
Mike Sheridan



Show Profile  Old Timer Posted: 10 November 2005, 5:18 AM  
Bryan - I recall that you prepared the original maps for the '86 Mountain Marathon at Waiouru. Do you still have possession of those maps, and are they in, or could they be upgraded into, electronic files?

Thanks - this question is with a view to a future rogaine event. Not sure how to contact you otherwise.

Show Profile  Bryan Posted: 10 November 2005, 6:17 AM  
Actually, it was Bill who drew the maps - I don't have the artwork - I remember Bill spending long nights (sometimes all through the night) drawing the two maps. Jim Lewis might know more.



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