Metrogaine fun - awesome results

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.