Firstly, I want to apologize for the grainy pictures, in a run all you have is a phone ;). Secondly, pictures that are not selfies (and without Lookforsmile.com watermark) are from xRace facebook page aka job of Riga rogaining official photographer. I downloaded those picture from facebook, so unfortunately they have lost some of their inital quality :( .
On Saturday March 26th I participated in my first ever rogaining. Rogaining is similar to orienteering. Before start participants recieve a map with checkpoints. Checkpoints have different values (f.e. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 points) and the winner of the race is the one who has gathered most points in specific time limit (In Riga rogaining the time limits were 2h, 4h, 6h). If arriving after time limit, participant loses points. Hope I explained it well enough, if not you can always hit google for answers. :)
I am no expert in this field, but wanted to share my experience for documentation reasons here on the blog. :)
My adventures buddy (Read more about adventures buddy philosophy here) you all now know very well ;) gave me rogaining as a birthday gift. She chose 6h distance for bigger adventure :D and she was totally right. For us the longest distance was perfect as we love to expand our comfort zone (at least regarding outside adventures ;) ) and go for the greatest adventure.
How it went. Before the start we planned about a half the route as we didn’t know our actual speed, so we didn’t know how fast we can visit the checkpoints and how long make the route. We chose to start with the area in Riga’s centre, there were decent amount of high value checkpoints and it seemed like a good idea. Also, we knew that area the best, so it was easier to orientate.
It all was going really well but than we reached our last planned checkpoint and realized we have to pick up speed to visit decent amount of checkpoints. Also we lost about 15 minutes planning on route so I guess that is not the best idea. :D 15 minutes can be a lot in rogaining. ;) What I wanted to say, the other 3 hours we rushed through with a little bit of stress thinking “will we make it on time”. Long story short, we did, and everything was fine. :D
But anyways, for first time rogaining, I think we did very well. :) Including our planning. Now we know our speed, so next time we can plan the route more effective and plan all of it before start. :D It saves time.
Also, only at home we realized there was a legend that explained where excatly find checkpoints (in the map, left bottom corner. :D) Happily we found all checkpoints quite quickly, so even without knowing about the legend, it wasn’t a problem. But note for the future, before doing anything, explore all the materials you are given!
Short story about beginners first time rogaining. :D Please, share your rogaining stories! :) Maybe you even have some useful tips?
With love,
Madara
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That looks like so much fun! There’s just a little extra adventure when you need to find checkpoints rather than just run at a normal race – and even better with a friend x
Thanks Anne for coming back to my blog to leave this nice comment! :) And, yeah, it’s fun! Maybe you should try rogaining too? ;) I’m sure you have those in your country too! :)