Winter Metrogaine results

I could hardly believe that 72 runners would brave a navigation event, at night and in the dead of winter. But they did and within minutes of the start they were warmed up and running through the suburbs surrounding Zoo Lake.

Compared to the previous Metrogaine held in April in the Rivonia/Gallo Manor area, this course was wide open with only two road closures and no security boom access gates. This makes a huge difference to the freedom of movement of the runners and opens up the route choices dramatically.

My guess was that a clockwise route would be the most effective to give gradual climb up towards Westcliff, where the points were nicely stacked, and to descend the stairs – taking in a lovely view down below. Where there are lots of points available in an area, always remember that you are going to have to work for them! I also kept a good number of points reasonably close to the start/finish for walkers.

In terms of penalties applied… Many of the one hour course runners were late; few of the 90-minute course runners were late. Latecomers lost 10 points for every minute or part thereof that they were late. Wrong answers were heavily penalised to prevent runners from guessing answers. The penalty here was three times the points value of the control. It is very important to make sure that the correct box is checked as some wrong answers may have just been in error.

I only had two ‘funnies’ out on the course. At briefing I told runners that if they find funnies, to move on and not hunt for the answer (if they’re sure they’re in the right place, that is). Controls as indicated on the map are pretty accurate in terms of placement (how far down a road) and also which side of the road. All answers should be obvious, even at night, and I’m more than happy to give them the points if their explanation is sound. The date at ‘Glenshiel’ was one of them. I used the 1904 date on the round plaque (cement base), “Established in 1904…”. As it turns out, there’s another date of 1903 on top of the gate, which I hadn’t noticed. The other was the location with the answer ‘Freckles’. The sign was on the other side of the road.

Results take a while to get because of adding up points and scores. It is really challenging to work the totals with people coming and going and under time pressure; we also don’t want to keep people waiting for too long after the finish. I’ll be certain to pack calculators for the next one. A bunch of people jumped in to help and their assistance is greatly appreciated. Koki pen or highlighter marks on the answer sheets was definitely easier to check; light ballpoint pen marks can be missed in the rush.

We had a few bloopses with the points tally. I have checked every entry and they have been corrected on the results spreadsheet. But, it does mean that we had two errors in the overall results…

On the one-hour course, Piers Pirow beat Nathan Thompson. Piers had 660 points but lost 50 for being late; Nathan had 620 points but lost 120 for an incorrect answer. Andrew Wiggett and Caroline Kelly beat the father and daughter pair of Derek and Zoe Brentano. Wigs and Caroline had 490 points and lost 50 for being late. The tally on their sheet read 370 when it should have been 440. Derek and Zoe collected 420 points so they end up second to Wigs and Caroline. My apology for the errors.

One hour course

Solo: Piers Pirow, 610 points

Pair: Andrew Wiggett & Caroline Kelly, 440 points

90-minute course

Solo: Christo Truter, 620 points

Pair: Brian Gardner & Neal Markham, 1020 points

The winning pairs and solos got edible awards plus free entry to the next metrogaine. As the event grows, I will certainly include more categories, like male, female and mixed other than just solo and pairs.

Pre-entry worked really well because:

  1. I know how many people are coming and thus how many maps and instructions to print and cupcakes to bake.
  2. Little to no cash on the night so that I don’t need copious amounts of change and my mom, Liz, who handles registration isn’t a sitting duck with cash in hand.
  3. I can brief the venue as to the number of people to plan for.
  4. I have lists of people to check off and to make sure that everyone is ‘home’ safe and sound.

Thanks to Liz for assisting with registration and finish. And then there were a bunch of helpers to jumped in to assist with adding up points. It is a really tough manual job, done under time pressure. The counters that I saw included Susette, Jono, Fred and Piers. If I’ve missed you here, thank you for helping with this task.

Yes, there will be another metrogaine, probably only in September. I’m thinking around Tuesday, 6 September. I’ll confirm in good time. I have in mind an idea for a ‘Power Points’ control or two where you can earn extra points. All will be revealed…

STATS

Total number of controls: 42

Total point score available: 1260

Highest score: 1020 (Brian Gardner and Neal Markham)

Highest one-hour course score: 610 (Piers Pirow – he had 660 but lost 50 points for being late)

Distance run by Brian and Neal: 18.6km with 295m of climb in 1:27:07

Total number of runners: 72

Runners on 90-minute course = 21 pairs & 3 solo = 45 runners

Runners on the one-hour course = 12 pairs and 3 solo = 27 runners

Full results

1 Hour course Time Points Penalty –

LATE

Penalty –

Wrong

Total
Solo Piers Pirow 1:04:23 660 50 610
Solo Nathan Thompson 0:51:45 620 120 500 #41 is Multiguard
Pair Andrew Wiggett Caroline Kelly 1:04:59 490 50 440
Pair Zoe Brentano Derek Brentano 0:58:15 420 420
Solo Pieter van

Heerden

1:04:38 440 50 390
Pair Fred Richardson Allison Glass 0:58:15 360 360
Pair Nicole Stuart Dring 1:05:12 390 60 330
Pair Roelof Letter Esmari Kilian 1:05:12 370 60 310
Pair Nicky Lance 0:58:15 280 280
Pair Sarah Pope Magi Lingnau 0:58:15 420 150 270 #15 is 2; #45 is 1
Pair Bettina Klein Anisa Govender 1:02:36 250 30 220
Pair Christelle van

Vuuren

Rory Meyer 0:57:34 160 160
Pair Chris Tamryn 0:59:07 310 150 160 #53 is mosaic
Pair Abdul Ebrahim Aneesa Hendricks 1:16:52 270 170 100
Pair Cameron Naidoo Angie Sanchez 1:17:57 290 180 150 -40 #55 is pick axe
90-minute course Time Points Penalty –

LATE

Penalty –

Wrong

Total
Pair Brian Gardner Neal Markham 1:27:07 1020 1020
Pair Alex Pope Tony Abbott 1:28:48 950 950
Pair Clinton

Mackintosh

Jane Swarbreck 1:29:29 840 840
Pair Patrick de Jongh Ryan Burger 1:30:14 810 10 800
Pair Steven Yates Patrick 1:26:59 690 690
Pair Charl Keet Lizelle Smit 1:32:15 720 30 690
Pair Andrew

Raubenheimer

Shelly 1:21:23 660 660
Pair Mary Scorer Lynette Jones 1:28:27 650 650
Solo Christo Truter 1:29:09 620 620
Pair Shaun Brassell Alexander Retief 1:28:24 590 590
Pair Mark Dickson Gareth Evans 1:24:56 520 520
Solo Fernando Santos 1:28:49 510 510
Pair Chris vd Merwe Lauren

Freemantle

1:34:18 560 50 510
Pair Isabel Roux Ilse Karsten 1:25:26 470 470
Pair Erik Vermeulen Karin Derwort 1:26:59 450 450
Pair Jacques Booysen Zurika Untiedt 1:31:04 450 20 430
Pair Lobby Goulding Pam Goulding 1:24:27 410 410
Pair Allyson Towle Phillip 1:21:23 370 370
Pair Susette Meffan Jono 1:29:09 370 370
Pair Larry Harmer Nadine Nunes 1:15:18 370 370
Solo Ari Vlastos 1:24:26 440 150 290 #53 is mosaic
Pair Francis Rogan Petra Anderson 1:21:04 370 90 280 #31 is white
Pair Justin Nolan Barry Schooling 1:32:54 330 30 300
Pair Duncan Crous Yasmin Palmer 1:17:29 260 80 180 #48 is metal


1 Comment

  1. Loved it….although suffering the consequences of 0 progressive training.
    5 – 10kms in one shot :)!

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