Metrogaine: Nathan cleans up

At last night’s metrogaine, held in celebration of www.AR.co.za’s 10th birthday, Nathan Thompson ran a phenomenal course to collect 880 points. He covered just over 22 kilometres in 90 minutes!

It’s the first time that a metrogaine has been held in SA and many participants were absolute newcomers to the rogaining concept. A metrogaine, unlike a traditional off-road rogaine, is an urban event. Both are navigational point-score events. Participants are provided with a street map from which all street names and significant features – like names of hotels, petrol stations and the like – have been removed.

Many numbered circles on the map indicate control locations and they’re points-ranked according to distance and/or difficulty to locate. In this case, there was no physical event marker at the control location. Instead, runners had to select a multiple choice answer from a clue corresponding to the control number as proof of locating the control.

It is fun but also challenging to plan this kind of event – looking for variety in clue questions and answers, distribution and points-ranking of controls, ensuring sufficient distance on the course and route -choice options and updating the map to indicate road closures, boom access and any pedestrian accesses.

When I measured a long, high-scoring route that appealed to me, which didn’t get all the controls, I came up with just over 20 kilometres and I thought my planning was safe. I mean, who can run 20km, at night, while navigating and choosing routes, in only 90 minutes. I’ll tell you who can. Nathan Thompson. Although he didn’t get all of the controls, he did get most of them. Nathan recorded his distance at just over 22km!

Special thanks go to my mom, Liz, for helping to bake and ice some 70-odd cupcakes and for handling registration. Also to Heidi and Stephan for kindly hosting the metrogaine from Kinetic Gear.

The map below shows the routes run by Nathan (880 pts, 1st), Nic & Jane (610, 2nd) and Steven & Tony (580, 4th) (click on image for bigger one).

And below is Roland & Ben’s one-hour course route (340 points, 3rd place) on Google Earth.

Stats

  • 54 participants (9 solo runners, 21 pairs, 1 trio)
  • 16 entries for the one hour course
  • 14 entries for the 90-minute course
  • Highest points on the 90-minute course: 880 (Nathan Thompson, solo)
  • Longest distance covered on the 90-minute course: just over 22km (Nathan Thompson)
  • Highest points on the one-hour course: 450 (Motlatsi Mutlanyane, solo)
  • First pair on 90-minute course: Nicholas Mulder and Jane Swarbreck (610 points)
  • First pair on one-hour course: Alex Pope and Magi (360 points)

Results

90-minute course Run time Points Minutes late Penalty points TOTAL NOTES
Nathan  1:34:09 880 5 5 875  
Nicholas & Jane 1:29:13 610     610 +10 for #13 (Lesley)
Ant & Wes 1:26:40 600     600  
Steven & Tony 1:27:52 580     580 +10 for #11 (Moon/Wood) 
Robert & Stuart 1:27:32 570     570  
Brian 1:26:20 550     550 #27 incorrect answer
Lobby & Pam 1:25:53 490     490  
Wiehan & Lizelle 1:25:05 460     460  
Andrew W. & Caroline 1:25:12 420     420  
Louise & Jackie 1:28:03 320     320 +10 for #13 (Lesley) and +10 for #11 (Moon/Wood) 
Jonathan & Pauline 1:19:46 210     210  
Blue Sky 1 (Susette) 1:31:05 310 2 2 308  
Blue Sky 2 1:31:05 310 2 2 308 #28 & #38 incorrect answer
Dino 1:39:50 260 10 (5+10) = 15 245 #10 & #38 incorrect answer
             
One hour course Run time Points Minutes late Penalty points TOTAL NOTES
Motlatsi 1:03:20 450 4 4 446 #17 incorrect answer
Alex & Magi 1:01:10 360 2 2 358  
Roland & Ben 0:59:31 340     340  
Kim 1:11:06 350 11 (5+10+5) = 20 330  
Hazel 1:11:06 350 11 (5+10+5) = 20 330  
Andrew W. 0:58:45 300     300  
Katharine & Mark 0:58:45 300     300  
Ildiko & Graeme 0:54:15 230     230  
Gareth & Monique 0:56:20 170     170  
Heidi 0:54:00 150     160 +10 for #17 (Spiky)
Tommy & Izaan 0:53:40 130     130 #13 incorrect answer (Lesley)
Ronelle & Yaseen 1:06:52 130 7 (5+4) = 9 121 #38 incorrect answer
Ray & Liz 1:08:02 130 9 (5+8) = 12 118 +10 for #11 (Moon/Wood) and +10 for #13 (Lesley)
Caron & Patsy 1:04:21 100 5 5 95 #13 incorrect answer (Lesley)
Damon & co 1:01:10 50 2 2 48 #33 incorrect answer
Andrew R.  20:45 40     40 Had to leave early.