The President's Report ~
October 2004
The next event is the NSW Rogaining Championships. It’s a traditional 24 hour event.
What was your first rogaining event? Perhaps you are new to rogaining and you have recently started with one of our 12 or 6 hour events. My first event was back in 1991, and it was a 24 hour event. I went straight in at the deep end. Why not? After all, you choose how long you stay out for. With a noon start time, there are many ways to enjoy a 24 hour event. If you’re not so confident with night navigation, return to the hashhouse before dark (take a torch just in case!), have a good feed, relax, sleep, and then go out again in the morning. Or if you feel you need your beauty sleep, as most rogainers do, you might take sleeping bags out with you, have a nap on the course, perhaps at the ‘All Night Café’. The choice is yours. Hope to see you there!
Sadly I couldn’t make it to the Lake Macquarie rogaine this year. However I saw the photos on the website. Couldn’t see any evidence of the usual rain and mud that has made that event so memorable over the years. I just hope you were able to enjoy yourselves all the same.
Should we / shouldn’t we go for that one last control? Could it make the difference between winning and second place? Or if we go for it, will we just end up late and lose more in penalty points? Such are the agonising questions that frequently exercise the minds of competitive rogainers, as they find themselves on the home straight at the end of a rogaine.
A couple of weeks ago I did the ACT Cyclegaine. A 6 hour event on mountain bikes, in pine forest just outside Canberra. With less than 15 minutes left on the clock, my partners were keen to go for just one more. I steadfastly refused to consider a quick dash for this 30-pointer way off our route to one side. I was worn out, happy to finish with a few minutes to spare.
My worst fear was realised when the results came up. In Mens Vets, we were in second place on 2020 points, beaten by a margin of just 20 points!
Quote of the month: From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to”, said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where--”, said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go”, said the Cat
“So long as I get somewhere”, Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that”, said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
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