Team Macpac Girls on Top take on the West Coast rogaine - February 19

These events always sound exotic and attractive when you hear about them in the comfort of your office or on the couch. "Wow that sounds like fun, a 12 hour Rogaine on the West Coast of Auckland starting at 7.30pm on a Friday night, yes count me in. woohoo how cool will that be ..can't wait for that .." and on it goes ..... HOWEVER I can certainly tell you that come Friday February 19 at 3pm sitting in my office after a long and stressful week at work I wasn't really having the same thoughts and my enthusiasm had somewhat waned .. mmmm

But because I am dedicated to my team and didn't want to let my teammates Cath and Anne down, I put on a brave face, changed out of my work clothes and into my running gear and headed to Cath's house for a quick bite to eat before driving out to Muriwai. (Thanx for the lovely quiche and salad guys)

We arrived at the start, got our maps, planned our route and then bang we were off .. no time to dwell on the fact that we were about to spend the next 12 hours running madly through the bush.

Our strategy was to head to the North of the start area which took us up into Woodhill forest, we decided to go this way as there was quite a bit of off-track navigation and we wanted to do as much of this in the daytime as possible. We managed quite a smooth run in this section with some great navigation work by Anne and apart from wasting a bit of time dealing to my wasp stings and hunting around for the checkpoints we were happy with the way things went.

We then passed back through transition and grabbed a snack to eat from the car before heading out to Muriwai and up to Goldies Bush. We had intended to get alot further on this section but a nav blunder by Debbie and the slowness of the track in goldies bush coupled with the fact the none of us were particulary keen to swim in a swamp, meant that we ended up doing an out and back leg rather than the circuit we had initially planned. Boy were we glad we made the call to turn around as it was a hell of a lot further than we thought. We finshed with twenty minutes to spare and our dignity still intact ..

Overall, we had an awesome time out there and were very pleased with our route choice and performance. My wasp stings gave me grief for the rest of the week with a completely swollen face and eye and I ended up on antibiotics, antihistamine and antiinflamitory pills .... but hey that is all part of it

Thnx to Tony for putting the event on...


Results
1) Demon Monkeys 2880 (time 11hr 57 min)
2) Team Macpac Girls on top 2770 (11.38)
3) 7in7 2580 (11.40)
4) Nga Rakau A 2410 (11.54)
5) Nga Rakau B 2240(10.37)
6) Team Panda 1950 (11.36)
7) Craven Morebush 1880 (11.36)
8) Fisher and Paykel Healthcare 1780 (11.11)
9) Team Contours Manukau 1520 (11.41)
10) The Mint Chicks 1510 (11.25)
11) 3 blind mice 1470 (9.27)
12 Sue'n'Rob 1380 (9.55)
13) Two kids and a criple 1010 (11.37)
14) When will I see you again? 680 (10.10)
15=) Allan Janes 660 (6hrs)
15=) Will be walkers 660 (6hrs)
Team Liability No sheet handed in....but awesome finish! All be it a bit late (12.15)
Ken and Barbie Timed out, swamp casualty! (12.42)
Kris Jones DNF but was still out there for 9 and a half hours. Gutted for you mate....