Collection of thoughts after few rogaines
This European summer I took an opportunity to visit parents and to do few races, including three rogaines. One of them - 10 hour “Dusk till dawn” – as the same suggests- was overnight race we finished 1st, then 6 hour Solo –in pretty tough conditions- 30+ degrees, with detailed map- I came second. Finale was 18 hour Russian Championships on mountain bike we made couple of serious mistakes and came 4th.
I had a bit of re-thinking afterwards how it could be done better and here is a collection of thoughts which can be helpful for beginner-intermediate rogainers/adventure racers.
- Map preparation bag is always ready and just getting into the car when heading to a nav based race: different colour pins, sharpie, bright texters, map measurer, string of different length, contact, transparent tape.
- During planning take into account your strong sides, whether you are running or walking - straight off road/ longer road options. It could be practical to mix it up and have some walking checkpoints in the middle or closer to the end, when you maybe not running that much.
- By the time map is given, backpack should be 100% ready to go with food and water in, you are in your racing gear. 2-3 hours is what usually you have got at rogaine for planning. It seems to be a lot of time but let’s face it - every extra minute you spend thinking about your route choice will then contribute to minimization of time you stop or slow down to look into details and make a decision.
- When checking the route between CPs just for a moment consider other options, even when only one option seems to be right from the first glance. You might see a better opportunity if to look a little bit longer.
- Impassible obstacles. Tiny patches of thick vegetation, water bodies, cliffs, build up areas. So much time can be lost within few hundred meters. Choosing 100% reliable option guarantees result. Look well into details. Some stuff is not always given on the rogaining/AR map but you can expect hard to pass river banks, just looking into it a little bit more closely. This is where I lost the most twice actually.
- Food intake. When navigating it is very easy to forget eating, which ultimately affects performance both physically and mentally. By the time I realised I should have eaten much more by then I had already slowed down and made wrong turns.
- Expect yourself to slow down closer to the end unless you are amazing pacer and can accelerate on the second part. We had a feeling the second part was too short but reality was different.
- If you are on a bike it is highly unlikely you will get an advantage to go off-road. Most likely you will lose a lot of time. Consider either skipping this CP if possible, do return trip on foot or go around. Getting through unpredictable even short bush section with a bike is extremely risky business and chances to get advantage going off-road tend to zero, especially at night.
It is all about fun, enjoy every minute of it :)
