The second of the Shoe
Science Rogaine Series was held on Saturday 8th July at the
southern end of the Waitakere Ranges in Auckland. 320 people
making up 114 teams competed in either the 3 or 6 hour
rogaine organised by Lactic Turkey Events.
A new start venue compared
to past visits to Huia, the
Cornwallis Beach created a stunning backdrop to the 6-hour
start in between the stormy showers. The layout of the
course offered half a dozen checkpoints close to the event
centre on a special enlarged section of the map with
normally unmapped tracks zig zagging through the regional
park’s beach front.
A lot of teams started with a loop amongst these closer
checkpoints before heading out into the muddier and hillier
tracks of the Huia/Cornwallis area. The route choice in this
area is a bit easier than the Piha rogaine last month, as
the track network is not as dense but this makes choosing
the right loops to take harder because once you start a loop
– you may be committed to it for a significant amount of
precious time. For this reason, teams seemed to use all of
the available hour of planning time.
It was an extremely close race in the 6 hour event with the
top two teams ending up with the same score of 1570 points.
However open mens team “Team Bikesmith AR” (Tim Cochrane,
Dave Blundell and Rob Goddard) took the line honours as they
finished with 4 minutes to spare compared to the mixed open
team “Gee I Don’t Know” (Wayne Hodgetts and Amanda Peake)
who finished with 40 seconds to spare.
Both teams took similar routes but probably the winning
strategy was Team BikeSmith AR not doing all of the closer
checkpoints at the start and saving some for when they came
back to the finish area early. The next three teams also
tied with a score of 1420 points.
The winner of this tie was veteran men “Horleys Hare and
Tortise” (Dan Bradley and Brent
Rayner) who finished 24 minutes before the 6 hour deadline
compared to the mixed open team “Reb and Da” (Rebecca Smith
and Darren Ashmore) who only had 8 minutes to spare and
mixed veteran team “Geoff and Anne” (Geoff Parkin and Anne
Mortimer) who finished 5 minutes early.
The 3 hour event was the same close racing with the top two
teams tied on 980 points, but this time the time separating
the teams was even less. Both open mens teams were penalised
10 points for coming in within a minute after the 3 hour
deadline, but “Ya Muppet” (Mike Clay and Glen Cornelius)
came in 14 seconds ahead of “2 legs good, 4 legs better”
(Michael Hale and Todd Calkin). Third in the 3 hour event
was mixed veteran team “Aspins” (Wayne and Trish Aspin) who
caught the Manukau Harbour water taxi from their Awhitu
property to the start line at Cornwallis Beach (saving a 2
hour drive). These NZ rep orienteers scored 880 points.
All teams made it back in one piece to enjoy the post event
meal (including 90 pizzas) and
prize giving where lots of spot prizes were given away
including 5 pairs of shoes from Shoe Science.
Full results are available on the website at
www.lacticturkey.co.nz, including 3D RaceReviewer.
This software allows you to see the routes taken by all the
teams for both the 3-hour and 6-hour on an aerial photo or
the race map in two dimensions or three. The animated dots
making their way around the course showing teams zig-zagging
around the course, and it shows just how far these top teams
can go in the time allowed.
Thanks to our sponsors:
- SHOE SCIENCE,
personalised service from a trained staff member who
knows what they are talking about.
www.shoescience.co.nz
- LEPPIN SPORT,
for sports nutrition.
www.leppinsport.com
- POLAR, Measures
everything but guts -
www.polarheart.co.nz
- TERRALINK,
raising geographic IQ.
www.terralink.co.nz
- WILD TURKEY BOURBON,
mmmmmmmmmmmm treat yourself after a hard day in the
hills!
- CADBURY MORO -
the yummiest way to 'get more go'
- AUCKLAND REGIONAL
COUNCIL, provider of beautiful environments!
