The Course Setter / Organiser reports ....
Another day, another flurry of sun-frazzled rogainers.
Everyone appeared to enjoy (most of) their day in Wentworth.
Though some may disagree, I think we got lucky with the
weather at the 2009 Metrogaine in the Eastern Suburbs of
Sydney. On a final fact-finding mission the Sunday before
the event, it rained as much as it could and every other
time we went course-setting, we got sunburnt so I think the
day itself was a good middle-point.
Though I haven’t done a full analysis of who went where,
it appears that most teams headed up for the big points on
South Head, presumably up & back via the harbourside &
coastal walkways that give a nice largely off-road circuit
for a suburban area. The 2 walkways and their lovely views,
together with the incomparable South Head, were why there
was the unusual feature of 2 high point controls within 50m
of each other. From the feedback on Sunday, most people
enjoyed this part of the course and for some (including
Sydneysiders) it was a pleasant learning experience.
After doing the loop up to South Head, teams then had to
decide whether they were going to keep jinking inland for
all the non-coastal controls, which obviously most leading
teams had to do. It was then a question of how far south
(towards Bondi) and then how far west (towards Bellevue Hill
or further) teams wanted or were able to go. Hopefully a lot
of teams got to play on the slippery dip near Bondi & also
go for a dip at the lovely Redcliffe Pool in Double Bay. For
a number of teams, Redcliffe Pool may have come at an
opportune time as the day heated up considerably in the last
90 minutes, when they may have been there.
After spending most of the day worrying that a number of
teams would clear the course in well under 6 hours, only a
few teams got close which is the way it should be and the
feedback was generally positive about the views & locations.
I must acknowledge (with the wonderful benefit of
hindsight) that a couple of the answers were not cut & dry
and apologise that at least 2 controls (though I have heard
non-specific references to 4) were marked slightly wrong on
the map. Slightly wrong meaning just plain wrong, so
apologies for the time lost (& the annoyance gained) in
finding them. In both cases, as the marking at the end was
DIY, you could have given yourself those points if you were
confident in having been there. We only got the opportunity
on Sunday to counter-mark a few of the leading teams and in
1 or 2 cases, points were deducted which I may yet add back
as I have the benefit of knowing the dubious answers. At the
same time, in a couple of cases, we did deduct points for
answers that were downright wrong (even if only by accident)
and they will remain that way. Where we do change a team’s
score (down), we will contact you to confirm which ones so
you know why.
I have heard of lots of teams being seen taking photos so
feel free to send them in as I’d like to put some on the
website. Any other feedback gratefully received. Updated
results should be on the web by next Monday at the latest.
Thanks again to :-
- the Waitara Scouts for catering with great
efficiency;
- to Nihal & Richard (& their team) for efficient
(no-nonsense) administration which allowed prompt
publication of the draft results;
- to John & David for vetting the course (I note that
they were not able to vet the few checkpoints that were
wrong as I hadn’t locked those points in so a lesson for
me for future course setting);
- Ian Cable for coping with 8 drafts of the map; and
- Peter McConaghy doing all the printing whilst
childminding.
Cue Kate Winslet to start crying (again) and Hugh Jackman
to drown out the rest of my thank you speech.
Richard Green
For results related matters and general information about this event, contact ...
Richard Green
email: metrogaine2009@gmail.com
For entry related matters contact ... Nihal Danis
phone: 02 9564 2126
email:
nihaldanis |
