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When Nic suggested doing a 24 hour Rogaine event as a way for our adventure racing team to train, I had only recently learned that the sport even existed. Like most people, the word Rogaine instantly brings to mind the thought of some over-marketed hair-growth product. But as I later found out through reading, research and eventual practical experience, it's actually an event that reminds me of being a kid on a treasure hunt! And it's one I will definitely be doing again.




To get you started, let's talk about the actual definition. Simply put, a Rogaine is an endurance event that involves exploring the great outdoors with a map and compass. More specifically, a R.ugged O.utdoor G.roup A.ctivity that I.nvolves N.avigation and E.ndurance - Not thinning hair. Most rogaines are done on foot. You can either run the course or hike it, depending on how much distance you plan to cover and what your strategy involves. The sport differs from orienteering in that instead of having a set course that you try to finish as quickly as possible, there is a set time in which participants try to maximize the course. The event can be any length varying from 8 hours to 12 hours or even 24 hours long. A set numbers of controls (orange and white square flags) with an electronic recording device, are placed anywhere over a given area, which can cover as much as 40 square miles.



Each control, depending on its difficulty to reach or find, is given a point value. It's the goal of your team, in the set amount of time, to gain as many points as possible. And that's where strategy comes in. Which route do we take? What order do we try to obtain them? Should we try to hit several easy-to-find, low-point controls? Or do we go for the fewer, more difficult higher valued locations? Which ones do we look for during the day? Which ones do we try to find at night in the dark? See what I mean? It's a big game of sorts. A treasure hunt! At least that's what it seemed like to me. How fun!

So we arrived in Antelope, Oregon on May 13th to see what we could do in an event we had never signed up for before. At best, we hoped to get some good navigation and map-reading practice. And least, I needed to see if I could survive a 24 hour event. I had been battling plantar fasciitis in my left foot for the previous 12 weeks and had not been optimally training. And overall, we were all itching to get out there racing together as a team again.

The Big Muddy consists of 65,000 acres of rolling ranchland that was used by grazing cattle and sheep herds at the turn of the century. But its biggest claim to fame occurred in the 80's when an Indian guru named Baghwan Shree Rajneesh brought 5,000 of his followers to this area to form a commune. Furthermore, this Rolls-Royce loving guru and his orange-clad followers made eventual headlines in the Muddy Creek Valley when they were indicted in America's first domestic terrorism case, involving contaminating the local water in an attempt to take over the county government. Since that time, the man himself has been deported due to immigration fraud, and the commune dissolved. And now a Christian Youth ministry called Young Life operates the sprawling ranch. Unusual sport. Unusual history.

As we prepared for our long day of trekking, we surprised to find two 'luxuries' we were not used to having at endurance events: an 11am start time and access to water and hot food throughout most of event! A large canopy referred to as "the Hash House" served as a central camp and recovery area. Here, participants pitched tents and parked campers, and revitalized as needed throughout the event with whatever their depleted bodies needed. Hot food and coffee? Oh man! We were in heaven! Not only did this mean we got to sleep a few more hours before the event, but it also meant we did not have to carry as much weight with us. And lighter packs equal lighter feet. We were stoked! In a Rogaine event, teams consist of many combinations of pairs, triples and 4-packs like us. Some were coed, some were not. Because of Jay's and my 'maturity', our totaled ages put us in the Veteran Mixed Team category. Brad and Nic initially snickered a bit at this until they looked around and saw that the majority of people in this sport? Well, let's just say, this was not their first rodeo when it came to endurance events.

So the race started and we headed out at 11am, packs full of water, map and compass in hand, and a strategy in mind. The best I can describe about the next 24 hours is that it was synchronicity incarnate. The four of us had not raced together as a team yet this season. After our grueling experience in Scotland in August of 2005, we had taken the rest of the year off from racing, but kept in touch socially. This year so far, the guys had already participated in a 50k trail race and in few local events to get started back into the season. And I had been doing what I could with a healing injury, but had been on the sidelines pretty much up until this event. But today, it was as if the four of us hadn't skipped a beat : constantly moving, pooling our brain power, bantering back and forth, seamlessly changing plans on the fly as needed….we were a 4 - wheeled machine, and we were rolling. In hindsight, I think it was the most fluid I had ever seen our team. I know it was the most effective we had been. And it definitely was the most accurate map reading we had done in a long time. Over the first 9 hours we covered over 22 miles and probably 4,000 feet of elevation.



We bagged over 1000 points worth of controls in the hottest part of the day. When we stopped, we were purposeful. When there was a decision to make, everyone was involved and had something to contribute. And when darkness hit and the moon came out, the machine kept right on moving. The smartest call we made was recognizing, 14 hours into the race, that a few hours sleep would probably be beneficial. With 10 hours left to go, wandering around with tired eyes and fatigued brains would have an exponential affect on our accuracy. So we opted to return to the Hash House area and Jay's travel camper to get a much needed 2 hours of sleep.

It was a smart decision. For as the sun came up, and we dragged our blistered feet and bleary eyes back out to the course to finish our task, the fog in our brains lifted and were back on task. When we returned to the Finish line at the 24 hours mark, our personal feelings of success were compounded by an even bigger surprise. We had won our division! Wow! We were actually the official National Veteran Team Rogaine Champions! Not bad for our first time out. :




So we packed up Jay's camper (which was not quite as tidy or smelled as nice as when we left) and drove back to Boise. The RAID at Tamarack was only 5 weeks away. And this put a much needed boost of confidence in our team. We still have a lot work to do. And I have a lot of legwork to catch up in the next month. But we left the Big Muddy Ranch feeling like we had improved our navigational skills and were back on track.

Cheers,

Jen.

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