The Great Forest Rogaine is an orienteering race on bikes, held in the Redwoods. It's different from standard orienteering in that you don't have to collect checkpoints in any particular order, so deciding on the most 'valuable' route to collect maximum points in minimum effort and time adds a lovely balance of brains to the brawn.
I have another new partner for this one (just call me an event-slapper) in Christine...... who I'm a little bit in awe of as she became an NZ MTB orienteering champion while riding what's generally accepted as being a rhinocerous of a bike, then went to Hungary and competed in the WORLD champs. So - I've begged her to race with me so I can soak up some Navigation skills by Osmosis. I also admit to her that my current goal is to get good enough to beat her - there goes my over-honesty again........
In a 6 hour event, it's a really big map and so hard to decide where to start. And I'm trying to write this blog five months later so I can't really remember! I know we rode 55kms, extending around Green Lake and right through to the internal Whakarewarewa MTB tracks. I was pleased that I could nearly match Christine in nav using the roads and key features, and it was really good to hear her using the contours of the surrounding land to support her nav. That's what I need to work on now.
Nav tips picked up:
*Get a magnet for my mapboard so I can see where I am!
*Think of intersections as Y, X, or T, as on the map it sometimes looks like a left turn, but actually it's a straight ahead and ignore the right turn.
*Go up the roads and down the single tracks
*When selecting routes use the contours to compare climbing (it'll help when I can work out what's up and what's down!!)
Those ladies that beat us are all names I recognise, talented athletes, an extremely talented navigator amongst them, I see their top results in lots of events. I guess they didn't beat us by heaps - but it's probably a good 30 riding time for us to catch up - I'm in awe, and I want to BE them.
