Neil Hawthorne and Warwick Selby set our Socialgaine in 2011, in Garigal NP around Middle Harbour Creek. It was a great event, with lots of interesting route choices (I think it catered well for all types of rogainers) and some nice areas to explore. I thought I knew pretty well all the tracks around Middle Harbour Creek, but clearly I was wrong!
We got some very HOT weather on Sunday (according to BOM it got to 34.5 at Terrey Hills – not much you can do about that!) and this slowed everyone’s pace a bit. In the heat the creek looked more tempting than usual, despite its murky tidal flows, and I think quite a few teams enjoyed a quick dip to cool off.
My team mate had a nasty fall about 2 hrs in and we limped back and pulled out early (glad St Johns were there with a supply of ice!), so unfortunately we didn’t get to make the most of it… therefore I’ll be doubly interested to hear what everyone else thought! Where did you go? How did you handle the heat? How did you enjoy this rogaine?
Very enjoyable event despite the heat. It’s a really pretty area and despite having been through much of it a number of times previously it was still great. This is the second time I have ventured down from Queensland for this event and I like the format. I would suggest that the organisers made way too much work for themselves by making the course nearly twice as big as was required, but I guess it did create decisions and options for everyone which isn’t a bad thing. The use of CP clues that were not always obvious was of some concern, I think rogaining is a game of; planning, navigation and endurance and should not be a treasure hunt. Just a personal view. However, I suggest it could be regarded as a sad reflection on the state of NSW rogaining when a SuperVet who does most of his training with a glass of red can be 2nd outright in an event!!! My sincere thanks to NSWRA and the organising team
Rather than being a sad reflection on the state of NSW rogaining, that fact that a supervet can almost top the field demonstrates that the skill-set needed for rogaining is not the exclusive domain of youth! (or or men, for that matter). Which is a big part of the appeal of the sport.
Re the event itself – maybe the area was a little tough for a socialgaine, but the high-tide river crossing from 87 was a refreshing and exciting finale to a solid day’s exercise! Definitely worth the trip up from Canberra and thanks to all concerned.
We had some trouble determining answers for a couple of the questions (they weren’t that obvious even though we were at the spot). And seeing now the score which has been published for my team I can only assume we have had points deducted for getting something wrong… which is really disappointing for us cause we worked really hard to get to the few controls we got to. The answers should really be obvious once you get to the spot.
We were one of the teams who enjoyed the ‘murky water swim’; by that stage in the day (#65 was our fourth-last checkpoint) we were very hot. I had been telling Mike that I wanted to have a swim for a few hours, as we had followed that very tempting creek for much of our route. It was great to get in!
The rogaine was great, good course selection, good control descriptions & questions and a great location. It’s amazing that despite the fact that we followed a very popular route we still only met perhaps 20 groups while out! Looking forward to the next one!
Excellent event. An area I thought I knew like the back of my hand yet there were new tracks & lookouts astounding me from start to finish. I agree that the setters probably did make work for themselves by setting such a big course but on a cooler day, I would have hoped to cover at least 50% more than we did so better than safe but sorry. As Colleen says above, Richard, you should be congratulating yourself on your route-choice/strategy/endurance as you only just finished behind my team and we are both under-40 3-hour marathon runners. We slowed massively in the 2nd half as heat got the better of us so maybe you had a much more sensible tactic.
We had a great day, enjoyed the event very much. This is one of the few events where planning played a greater part than usual. I think the setters used the area well in creating a course that needs a deal of thinking through. Judging from the high proportion of teams returning late, that great divide down the middle must have caught a few teams out.
There is a bit of treasure hunt in some of the control points. But I think this is the nature of the Q&A beast, and what sets the socialgaine apart from the classic events. It’s difficult when you can’t just hang a control at the point you want, and at the same time trying not to be long winded in the question. Perhaps in keeping with the social theme, answer checking need not be too rigorous? After all, there are no prizes or trophies at stake, just good clean fun.
After doing a few rogaines of 12 and 24hr with my brother I decided to introduce my wife and young children (7 &
to the sport by doing this event. Was a little worried that the heat would put them off however theys soldiered on and had a great day. Spent the first half in the bush and the second half in the streets. Am very excited that they managed to make over 14km’s and the kids had a ball being in charge of what directions we would go and what the answers were to the questions.
I will admit that we did sneak an ice cream in the air conditioning at one of the shopping centres but what an incentive to keep going!
Thankyou very much to the organisers of the event and it looks like you’ll have at least two more newcomers to future events (not sure if we fully convinced the wife).
I thought I would chip in with a little info about one of our recent committee discussions – as some of these comments touch on issues we’ve been talking about lately.
We’ve had a few events with a really large number of controls (the 2011 Metrogaine was notable for having a control “book” instead of a clue sheet!) and like Colleen says, ambiguous questions are always an issue to some extent at Q&A events. So we thought we should provide some better guidance to course setters and vetters of Q&A style rogaines. Joel has written up this document which is a good start!
We’ve also been actively recommending to course setters that they limit the number of controls, to keep the workload down for themselves, vetters and admin. But I note that it was really nice to have lots of route choice in this year’s socialgaine and people appreciated this aspect of the event. Warwick and Neil had obviously thought carefully about the route options and they explained that one of the reasons the course was so big was in case it was really wet – high river levels would have taken out at least one key river crossing and made our route choices quite different.
More feedback is always welcome – thanks for your comments so far!
Aah, for the record, Colleen did not say anything about questions being ambiguous, nor did she suggest that anyone should be congratulating themselves! Not that they shouldn’t, but that wasn’t the suggestion.
Sorry I meant Colin rather than Colleen!
Many thanks to everyone involved in organising this year’s Socialgaine. This was my 5th Socialgaine (and 18th rogaine) and I enjoyed it as much as I have done the others, which is to say: a lot! There’s nothing the organisers could have done about the oppressive heat – that’s the luck of the draw – but it was handy to have the creek to “trip into”! I like the large course format which offers plenty of options for participants. My team was able to change its plans at the halfway mark when we realised that the heat was sapping our energy and we would not be able to finish our intended route in the time available. As a result we were still able to finish within the allotted time as well as have an enjoyable if challenging day.
Noting some of the comments above I would be disappointed if the Socialgaine (and, for that matter, the Metrogaine) multiple choice Q&A format was abandoned or drastically altered. There are plenty of bush rogaining events on the calendar for those seeking to test their physical conditioning and hone offtrack navigation skills. I enjoy these too. However in my view the Socialgaine and the Metrogaine are great introductory events to the sport. They still present some planning, navigation and endurance challenges but at the same time offer the beginner, the less athletic, young families, the time poor, those unable to travel far etc a chance to take part and acquire or improve these skills. At least, that has been my experience: I organise participation in rogaines on behalf of my bushwalking club (3 teams entered in this event) and this is the feedback I receive.
Great to see so much passionate comment in the forum!
As the Socialgaine 2011 event organisers, Warwick and I have received a fair amount of correspondence through various channels and mediums, as one does these days. Most of the conversation is centred on the scoring, in particular point deductions. We will respond individually to each of the enquiries based on careful review of the score sheets this weekend. We will post our overall analysis on the forum when we have completed this task.
In summary, we had a terrific time planning the course and have no regrets in setting such a large challenging selection of controls. However, it is appropriate that we thank the vetters; Jason and Jonathan, and the admin team; Barbara, Jacqui, Neal, Emma and Graeme who had to work a little harder to support the event.
As always the social gaine was a great event and very social it was.Its great to get feedback from different groups and to hear the various comments as they do help future thinking.On the other hand as it was a social event and not some championship, i find Richards comment about the standard of the competition quite disparaging of fellow competitors.Well done to the organisers for a job well done.
I also want to say what a great event it was. I live on the Northern Beaches and regularly Kayak in Middle Harbour and walk in the area but I’d never walked down Middle Harbour Creek from from Frenches Forest and was amazed at how good it looked. I didn’t swim in it but really wanted to. We were also astounded to find a Red Rattler Train on the Northern Beaches!
Regarding confusing controls we the ones we had trouble with were 65 – How many man made walls? There were three bits of wall remaining but they would have made two walls both 2 and 3 were choices in the answer. We also had trouble with the Bamboo answer at 59 as there was also a small amount of Lantana in the same spot. Our team must have got the answers right as we are still listed with the score we thought. However we spent the event in the company of friends in other teams and they have been marked down.
Still it was a great event even in the heat.
Both Phil and I enjoyed the country which was quite new for us [we're from the Gong]. Particularly the introduction of the “Legends” category for the more senior “folks”. Should have gone harder and knocked over the winners – then it was a Sociogaine! We had enough debate in our pair about the meaning and interpretation of some control descriptions and ground reality – enough has been said above.
Thanks team.