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I sat on the plane in route to Antelope, Oregon. I was to meet my Team Spyder teammate Rebecca Rusch to compete in the U.S. Rogaine Championships. This was a 24 hour orienteering competition. I had competed with Rebecca in an adventure race in Spain the prior year, so I new we would be compatible teammates and we would for sure have a good time. I wasn’t so sure that we wouldn’t get lost…..!!! I decided to review the race rules on the plane, only to realize that we had left behind a few pieces of mandatory gear, and learned that altimeters were not allowed. This was surprising new to me, as my Highgear Altimeter is one of my crucial navigation tools. Hmmm. So a trip to Wal-Mart was in store for us to pick up some items including a cheapo watch (without altimeter function!) to make sure we returned to the “Hash House” within the 24 hour time limit.
Hash House? Rogaine? What kind of weirdoe race was this? As Rebecca and I drove to the start we envisioned seeing a bunch of pot-smoking, bald-headed men hanging out in some retro-like house. The Hash House is actually the start/finish area of the race, and actually it’s just a tent where they serve warm yummy food for the athletes during the race. A Rogaine is actually the Swedish word for an orienteering meet, in other words; searching for checkpoints using a map and compass. Nervousness set in as I thought about the 24 hrs ahead of me, and actually wished maybe our joke about the pot smoking bald men at the hash house would actually come true. It wasn’t. Instead we were greeted by several very fit and friendly athletes with map and compass in hand.
Sure enough, we were late. Antelope was in the middle of no-where-Oregon. It took a while to make our way past the lush vegetation and waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge of eastern Oregon and into the contrasting dry grasslands and rolling hills of Central Oregon, home of the Big Muddy Rogaine, as it was called. We wondered why it was called the “Big Muddy” because we saw little sources for mud around. (Turns out the little creek that runs though the area is called the Big Muddy River.) The Rogaine was on a parcel of a several thousand acre private piece of land; the land itself having quite a history which we would learn about later. In the meantime we scrambled to collect our maps, control punch (to prove we’d been to the checkpoints), and several hours worth of food and water. While lacing our shoes, the gun went off. Yes, we were late for the start. We stayed mostly calm knowing we still had 24 hrs to complete this thing. I glanced at the map which looked like a checkerboard of hills with little dots indicating checkpoints. Whew! There were over 30 checkpoints. Hmmm.. So in about 30 seconds, like a little kid with a crayola I picked a start point and connected the dots in as logical order as I could into what would be our predicted route. I made three loops, coming through the Hash House to refuel between each loop. I would have liked about an hour to look over the map, but oh well, at least we got an extra hour sleep before the race!
So then we were off and running. Only a couple minutes late and chasing past some other teams. Many teams choose to walk to the checkpoints to conserve energy. We chose to run, at least as long as we felt good. We made it to the first checkpoint with no problem. We had the help of watching another team come and go from the checkpoint, which certainly helped, but our confidence was boosted none-the-less. We continued running and made our way to the next two checkpoints. As we made our way to the fourth we realized we had chosen a route that no other team had chosen. It was a little further, but worth big points (some checkpoints were worth more points than others, and the goal was to get as many points as possible in 24 hrs.). We aced it and continued running, feeling good about our progress so far. Rebecca and I worked well together; we kept a moderate pace; not too fast and not too slow. Typically in the adventure races we do, the guys start out really fast and it’s hard to keep from “blowing up” later in the race. It was nice to cruise along steady. We communicated well with each other. Since we each had a race map we could walk and talk and bounce thoughts and ideas off each other as we progressed. We confirmed each move with each other as we made our way to the checkpoints. Each checkpoint was about a ½ mile to 2 miles apart.
Things were going well, and we were about 6 hours into the race. We had just got a checkpoint atop Black Rock, a fairly high peak in the area. From a viewpoint atop the peak we took a bearing to the next checkpoint, which was far below in the valley. Following our compass, we scrambled down the steep hillside toward the checkpoint. But no checkpoint? We searched and searched but couldn’t find it. There were a couple other teams searching for the same checkpoint and they came and went after a while. We didn’t know if they found it and left or if they didn’t find it and left. We searched a while and decided to skip it. It wasn’t worth very many points and we didn’t want to waste too much time. So we continued on, chin's down and discouraged. We were nervous looking for the next checkpoint as we were unsure of our position and our confidence was blown since we missed the last one. Fortunately we found the next one with little problem and we regained our confidence and momentum. We were moving at a fast walk at this point, since the terrain was more rugged and slightly uphill. The next checkpoint was on the edge of the map and caused us some confusion as the high point of the hill was off the edge of the map so we didn’t have a good frame of refrence. Once we sorted it out we found the checkpoint and continued on. At the next checkpoint we were greeted by a team of 4 ladies doing the race at a “more casual” pace. They were enjoying a snack and the view. We stopped long enough for a short chat and a photo, and then carried on. The sun was getting low and we were loosing our daylight. The realization of this put a “bee in our butts,” which we needed at the point to keep our momentum going. We hustled on, enjoying the beautiful area and the challenge each checkpoint posed. Our plan was to return to the hash house before dark to grab our bright headlamps and to refuel and rehydrate before heading out on another loop. We arrived just as it got dark and enjoyed a warm bowl of chili and prepared our gear for the night ahead.
It was completely dark when we headed out and we both simultaneously had a moment of complete disorientation. The first night checkpoint was only 200 or so meters from the hash house and Rebecca and I both stumbled around in the dark doing circles before we decided to re-group and reorient. Once we calmed down, we found the checkpoint but realized that the night orienteering definitely was going to be a challenge. We tried to choose a route where we could use mainly roads, even though it entailed some extra distance. As the night went on, fatigue and sleepiness set in and our pace slowed, but we continued and actually did a good job of finding the checkpoints. We realized we weren’t going to be able to find all the checkpoints, so we tried to make it priority to get the ones with more points, when possible. We fought the zzz’s and each of us though about stopping for a nap but never said anything as we are both competitors, so we continued with our walk/jog momentum. We knew we had to overcome the fatigue, as we had done many times before in adventure races. Our conversational energy quieted, but we still continued to work together with the navigation, even more so at night knowing we needed both our brains and both sets of eyes to accurately fight the fatigue and dark and properly night navigate. At one point we stopped for a snack and I put on my ankle brace, as my ankle had surgery 5 months prior, and with only three months weight bearing, the tendon was not as strong as normal and was weakening and sore. The brace helped and we carried on. I remember a conversation between us during the wee hours of the morning about why we do these crazy kinds of ultra-endurance events and how much longer we’ll be doing them. Both of us fatigue at the time settled with the fact that we really are a little crazy to do this kind of thing, but knowing in the back of our mind that once we persevere through the suffering, that the reward of achievement and the personal satisfaction of “doing” is worth it.
As first light made its way over the landscape, we knew we would soon be warmed by the sun and our job of finding more checkpoints would be easier. The energy of the sun also energized our pep, and although our legs were fatigue and eyes a bit droopy from lack of sleep, we had a new energy as we continued on. As we planned the rest of our route, we had kept in mind our timeframe, knowing that every second we came in after noon would cost us points. We wanted to be in well before noon, just in case. Our conversation also turned to our main competition in our category; the “Mom’s on a Mission.” With the word “Mom” in the title, one might assume they were doing the race for fun—a break from the responsibilities of the kids, right? Otherwise perhaps they’d call themselves “Gals on a Mission” or “Divas on a Mission.” Or so we assumed. “Mom’s” suggests, or so we assumed; keeping overly busy with the kids and housework and cooking responsibilities, perhaps also holding a job. Could these “Mom’s” potentially be competition for two well-achieved adventure racers without kids nor husband to take care of? You’d think not, but… both Rebecca and I chatted about many a mom’s who most days of the week can kick our ass be it in cycling, running, kayaking,…..rogaining, etc. We reminded ourselves of the German woman from the way-back-when Olympic games-- who induced pregnancy then abortion prior to competing; as supposedly the hormones released after pregnancy allow for lower body fat and increased VO2. I suspect the truth in that story, yet decided that indeed the “Mom’s on a Mission” might actually be tough competition for us, and not to be taken lightly! With that in mind, we changed our route strategy.
Originally, we were going to swing through the hash house before making another loop, but we realized we could save ourselves a ½ mile to mile of travel if we just continued on without the pit-stop. We had enough food and water with us; so we charged on. Our pace had slowed after over 20 hrs on foot, but we still managed a walk/jog. It was a long distance to our next checkpoint, and we made a slight error in route as we headed up one re-entrant too early. It was easily corrected, but frustrating as we had to traverse a side slope. I looked at my watch, and studied the map and convinced Rebecca to get one more checkpoint before returning to the finish. Not wanting to be late, and with our pace slowing due to fatigue, she was a bit worried, but agreed. So we charged on for one more, and aced it. I kind of wanted to charge on for another, but knew it would require us to pick up the pace and could be risky. I accepted Rebecca’s advice and agreed it wasn’t worth the risk…but first asked “but do you think the mama’s..” “No way in hell, honestly…I mean, I just don’t think so” she replied. I thought to myself, “yeah we’d been doing really well at navigating-- not making any big errors, and our pace had been steady.” I figured Rebecca was right, we were safe. But, were we????
We made our way back to the finish at the hash house and checked in. We had about an hour to spare. We had been out about 23 hours. There were still several teams out there. We were in need of a bath and a nap. We drove a short distance to a little lake where we washed and laid down for a short but sweet nap. We went back to the hash house in anticipation of the results. We found out the Mama’s had arrived only a couple minutes before the 24 hour cutoff!! I caught my first glance of the Mama’s—fit and still with compass in hand discussing routes, etc. with some other teams. There definitely was no post-pregnancy fat on them, and they certainly new there stuff when it came to navigation! “Had we been too conservative?” I wondered if we should have hustled to get that last checkpoint. Word began floating around that it was a close race, as we anxiously awaited results.
It was time for results, and we found out that Team Spyder had narrowly surpassed the Mom’s on a Mission to take the win. The point spread was close, only a couple checkpoints! Whoa! There were two male teams ahead of us, who got all but one or two checkpoints. We were third behind them and the Mama’s were forth! A good showing for the gals! We also found out that several other teams struggled with finding the checkpoint below Black Rock and in the end we were awarded the points for that checkpoint! Both Rebecca and I had to rush to catch a flight back home, but we had time for a photo and a short chat with the Mom’s who were super friendly. They did the Rogaine on Mothers Day, and a good day indeed it was for them! And for Rebecca and I as well. We really enjoyed our first Rogaine and were thrilled with our title of US Rogaine Champs. We’ll be back for more!
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