NSW Rogaining Championship race report by Pierre Francois, Team No Detour 87. October 19th-20th 2013 https://www.facebook.

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The story or how small things can turn badly Last week end was the NSW Rogaining Championship, held at the top of Howes Valley on Putty Road, about 2 hours drive from Sydney. To me that race appears to be a good challenge, especially because Ive always been interested to see how I go on a 24hours Rogaine. Among the usual team mates I race with, none of them were keen or available that weekend but at the last minute, Glenn Disalvia, a nice guy Ive met from Christophe Capel called me he was keen to give it a go. Great! Ive heard from Chr is this guy is a machine and I know I wont have to bother he will drag me up the hills What I dont know is his rogaining skills, since this event will be his first rogaine ever (apart the mini rogaine we do in adventure racing) but he has done a lot of adventure races like the Webber Challenge and plenty of hikes so well see, it will be fun. The few days before the race were epic. First Glenn called me two days before the race saying his has twisted his ankle (badly) on a basic training run. He is not sure to be able to compete and according to his physiotherapist, he shouldnt (a classic answer from a physio ) On top of that I managed to have a blister on a my 5th toe at the Sydney Summer Series on Wednesday, and that one is a painful one. Infected? I am not so sure but painful enough that I was not able to put shoes on to go to work on Friday. I am a stubborn guy, I wont miss the championship. I am thinking with the compeed blister tape, that will do. With the both of us not at 100%, our escape door could have been the bush fires around Sydney. If you havent read the news (or if you have slept for the last days) you may not know that NSW firefighters have a busy time to control the bushfires in the Blue Mountains and central coast areas But none of them are in the area of the rogaine. After few warnings by the authorities, it looks like there is no danger in the Howes Valley, the championship is maintained. Glenn, coming from the North, and myself coming from Sydney we both met at the start area. Before getting into the mapping we had a chat with David Barlow and Dean Grasselli from Blue Mountains based Team Rubicon. Very inspiring people who have already completed a numerous adventure races,

and more recently XPD in the Flinders Range. If you havent read about their report, give it a go and enjoy the fantastic pictures made by David on Lake Froome.

9.30am on Saturday, we receive our welcome pack, including the map. The map is on A1 format, 1:25000 scale with 20 meters contours.

At the first look, it doesnt seem to be impressive in size, but we are pretty disappointed to see the location of the water drops. Usually we can expect to have them far away from the hash house so it doesnt force you to come back to the hash house for a refill but this time, the settlers decided to put them closer and not in a strategic point (in our opinions). It means we have two options: either we race hard, do a big loop clockwise or anti-clockwise to collect all the valuable checkpoints but it requires to carry enormous quantity of water (5 to 10 liters) and food for 20hours+, or we play wisely and plan a route which is not ideal in distance, but where well hit a water drop at some point. We pick up the second option. So our plan is to go up north, then follow the ridge to the western side of the map around checkpoint 90 and then shortcut to the water drop nearby checkpoint 64. It looks like a 20km loop, should be feasible, I think, with 3.5liters of electrolyte/water/liquid food.

Midday, the race is ON. We are heading to the first checkpoints on the list with a fair number of other teams, obviously racing too. During the first two hours, our plan goes pretty well and we dont lose any minutes in finding a checkpoint (in order: 25-45-34-52-53-62 all between 5 to 15 minutes).

Checkpoint 34

Checkpoint 52

You dont want to put your hands in that wombat burrow

Our first mistake is at CP76, the knoll. From the main river, we hit a knoll but obviously not the right one. Dont know how we deviated from the bearing but we spent half an hour to check the knolls around and ending up finding the checkpoint. Then CP78 is in a nice gully, well hidden.

The next checkpoint is a must do, because worst 90 points, the highest number of points possible. From the top of the ridge, it is described the watercourse head but when we are in that gully the more we are going down, the more we think something is not right. Are we in the right gully here? Is this really watercourse head? There is a party down here with 7-8 teams looking for the checkpoint. After few hesitations we finally decide to see 50m further down and here it is Bugger! We quickly head up to the ridge and have a well deserve 15minutes rest. The view is just amazing.

Personally I am feeling pretty good, but my 2L bladder is going down quickly, too quickly. I am a heavy drinker but the temperatures are close to 30degres Glenn is also feeling ok, no concern with his ankle which is surprising him (and me). Just one thing, he says the rash bush is slowing him down because he didnt go with cover legs option. So no matter for the estheticism, Glenn decides to cover his knees with crepe bandages. For the end of the story it will get him to answer few interrogations by other racers getting worried for what happened to him ahaha.

My toe starts to be painful and even though I can still climb, it is not pleasant to walk on flat terrain or down the hills. We manage to get the big points 84-74-81-90. But by the look at the average time for each checkpoint (40 minutes), our pace has dropped a lot. On top of that pain, I am also facing a big concern that I am running out of water. At checkpoint 75 (the watercourse), we have been racing for just more than 6 hours, and my 3.5L are gone with still a long way to the water drop. Glenn is a camel and still has half a liter or a little bit more but would that be enough? It has too.

We hit checkpoint 82, top of the cliffs, right on the sunset. Perfect for a picture taken by another team sharing the panorama.

We look fresh, but I can tell you the guy on the right is dying!!

On the way to checkpoint 85, we are following the creek. Well, Glenn is doing all the orienteering (for a while now) and I am useless and only concentrate on my foot. It is getting worst and every step is a pain. We are in the middle of nowhere, with no phone coverage. So no matter what I have to keep going. Glenn is doing remarkably well with the orienteering and we hit CP85 mistake less, just slow. Then it starts to be annoying. We are going up to reach the track leading to checkpoint 54 but we find that hill is endless. We have to climb rock faces, fight with rash bush etc and still without water for me. This is hard, this is hell. I am not at my best at all, physically and mentally. I am stopping at any occasion. Glenn doesnt complain about my attitude, I think he understands this is not a joke going on here Finally at the top, I manage to help a little bit to point out the right direction of the truck wreck, where CP54 is. Still one more checkpoint and we will have reached the bl**** water drop. On the map, it sounds easy. We have to follow the track to its east end until we reach a clearing, and then get down into a gully (description of the checkpoint 64). I can tell it was not that easy on terrain. We are following a track, well distinct but something is not right because it doesnt follow the right direction on the compass. I am in such a pain and dehydration stage that I cant argue with Glenn about map/terrain mismatch. To my opinion we have to follow the track and go to the water drop whatever we find the checkpoint or not. That is all I care. But Glenn (as well as another team around) is not that random and decide to rank that track as an unmapped track. We head back to the top of the hill and follow the compass to the east. We are on something which looks like a track, indistinct sometimes but couldnt find any clearing. At one stage, we are screwed and decide to play the lottery. Lets go down to whatever looks like a gully and well see. Bingo! After few minutes going down the gully, by miracle we found checkpoint 64. Cant be luckier than that I reckon. I am glad that Glenn took the right decision too. So happy, so dehydrated, such in a pain for me, each step is one step closer to the water drop, our next stop on the list. I have been without any sip of water for more than 3hours, and I can tell I drank as much as I could when I found the plastic containers. Definitely the best time of the rogaine for me. We stop there for half an hour I think, refueling our sore bodies. But while I am dying, Glenn looks fresh! He is a machine I should remember that! We could have short cut to the end from there but this doesnt even crossed my mind. Dont tell me why I dont know. Maybe drinking water was such a relief than I felt I could run over the pain again. Stupid thinking of course but anyway, lets stick to our plan. CP65 is on a dam, easy, but we are now looking for a creek to follow to reach CP35, the knoll. We find one, but none of us are so sure this is the one but we give it a chance. At the top, by evidence there is no knoll and we have no idea where we are on the map. With Glenn being disoriented and me being useless, we are not in good spirit here. We tried to follow what looks like an indistinct track and again I suggest we might try the top of a knoll nearby. Lucky again, checkpoint 35 is here and we managed to find it. It is rare to be that lucky twice in a rogaine Thats it for me, I tell Glenn that I am giving up and want to come back home by the shortest way, which is what in have in the schedule anyway. CP66 is at the gully, watercourse junction. Well roughly because we had to walk about 15 minutes from the end of the gully to find it

We have been racing for 14 hours, this has to end quickly. We do a detour to grab CP44 at the top of the knoll nearby the main track but whereas we are only 2km away from the hash house (and on one big track), we decide to take a shorter way. But this ends up badly and we spend 1h30 almost lost because the track we are on brings us to a dead end. Bugger! After 17h15 of racing (well, racing, then fighting and suffering), this is it, we have reached the hash house and I can stop the insanity. We had a nice and yummy dinner (thanks guys!) and jump on the back of the cars for few hours sleep. I would have loved to come back on race again but I just could not. Our race was not that bad because with 1400pts, we are 25th out of 52 teams, and there are not many teams in front of us with more points and less time. We did the first third part of our race with an average split of 15minutes, then more or less 35min and the last third with 1hour + between checkpoints. On the morning, I decide to check my toe and OMG this is awful! blue blisters around, with blood inside Looks I have operated a self-destruction of my toe and I can see an inflammation up to the knee. I start to freak out. Belinda from the NSW Rogaining Association as well a very nice bloke who I dont know his name (Bob Gilbert?) have been really nice and help me to clean this as much as we can in such a remote area. Thank you so much! My only escape is to drive to RNSH and get it checked by a doctor. In two hours drive, you have time to think of everything, even the worst. Once at the hospital the doctors didnt seem impressed even if they qualified it nasty. I had intravenous antibiotics and a good cleaning and I was back home. But things turned badly during the night. I started to have fever and a swollen ankle so I ended up to the emergency unit a second time in 24h hours. That time looked serious and when I saw the orthopedist surgeon, his face was not the best hope I have ever seen. Admitted into the hospital, I ended up on the theatre to clean what was an abscess and remove the dead tissues. It was only a matter of 10 minutes surgery. On top of everything, I am positive to bacteria cocci, and spent three nights at the hospital. Now I have a big bandage for few days and I think lesson has been learnt.

Before and after the first time to the emergency care

After the surgery I wont give up with rogaining, but I will probably wait until next year to come back on a more fun event