Post Daylesford

Blauck. Hmm, I am tired today. More than the normal gloomy Monday.
The rogaine was this past weekend, and it went Ok. An endurance story of a different sort.
Probably a bit more than I had planned to organise, but at least it was done well enough, and kind of fun along the way.

Saturday
The morning started a little rough. I couldn't even find my phone, let alone answer it. But eventually I fumbled around enough to answer and talk to the Admin Organiser KP to answer some panicky questions about such trivialities as "where are the maps?" Hmm, not a good start. Wasn't much use. A quick wander over to help put up some tents (it was cold), and meet a few people soon got the morning sorted. I even had time for a quick coffee in town. There were about 200 people on Saturday. I ran water and fruit to all the water-stops, then came back into the HH and relaxed a bit. I probably did about 6 loops all day, and picked up a couple in the morning who needed a ride (a mum and daughter, and the daughter had tonsillitis). Shayne came out for a few loops, and we practised on a few CPs to let him get the feel of rogaining.

We ended at the pub on Sat. which was a lot of fun (except the 'lost dog' problem a bit later). Haven't had as much fun in a long while.

Sunday
Not as cold this morning, but a lot more people with all the school kids arriving in their buses. Generally the event ran a lot smoother than the day before, except I was running with a lot less sleep. They didn't need me to help with teaching navigation, so I went and for a walk with Holly. Nice day. After an hour or so I swung by the HH to get something to eat, and then met KP and went out again with Holly.

It turned cold and wet after a while, and we headed back to the HH. A few kids teams got lost, and I went out to find them* (which I did). Then a few public teams were late and I went out again to find them* (I didn't). But they turned up anyway. I picked up a few CPs while I was out.

Mick and I helped take stuff down for a while, then headed out into the night to pick up checkpoints. A pretty thankless task. Somewhere we got lost in the Subaru on a dark 4WD track. We were going to pickup the CPs close to the road, because these are the ones most a risk of being nicked by Joe Public. In the end we got about 20 checkpoints, then I drove home in the rain with Sarah McLachlan turned up really loud (and Mick sleeping the whole way).

Some highlights:
Getting woken on Saturday morning with a panic phone call trying to find the maps. Ta KP.
Sat. night at the pub. Ditto.
Trying to find a black dog, in Daylesford Caravan Park, at night, in the cold. Ta Holly.
Walking Holly (the lost black dog) around Daylesford on Sunday.
Having 2 kids teams get lost, and then finding them.
Getting lost later at night trying to retrieve checkpoints in the dark.
Maybe another TW teammate?

Daylesford Dilly Dally rogaine

I have organised my first rogaine. It is located in Daylesford, about 90 minutes from Melbourne. The event information is here. It is on 16th and 17th June 2007. We expect 800 people all together, and we have set and checked the course already, so the only thing left to do is put out the checkpoints and see what happens.

In the end, it was a fair amount of work to get the premits, choose a course, get the map produced, then go and set the course. Of course things changes, places where we wanted the checkpoints were not suitable, the map had to be remade, the descriptions for the checkpoint locations were a bit vague, and so on.

But, I am happy with the final map. The course is a tough one for a 6hr event. The permits are all in, though there are a few things we still need to do. And of course we will be really busy on the day. But I am looking forward to it all.