Chimneys and Ruins 6/12hr Rogaine (7 October 2023)

Volunteers enjoyed a fantastic sunset and warm fire waiting for the 12 hour teams to return.

Flesh freezing breezes to skin burning sun, rolling paddocks to the evil checkpoint ripping clothes and bodies. The spacious hash house on top of the hill had magnificent views of the rolling sheep grazing country with Mount Franklin lurking behind. The course covered some great country with some thick scrubby bush – no views here. Some scrub was prickly, some of it was not. People quickly learned to tell the difference. But there were also many magnificent areas where the going was nice and easy. It was good to see that the views and the weather encouraged many rogainers to stay and gather around after the event.  They enjoyed the Castlemaine Lions Club sausages and volunteer made soup. There was great camaraderie after the event.

About 250 people turned up to participate in a combination of 6 and 12 hour events and just about everyone claimed overall it was fantastic. A large number of novices out for a new experience benefitted from Norm’s new help desk.

Congratulations to Tim Plozza, Gleb Belov for taking out the 12 hour event. Our top three on the podium were:-

• Tim Plozza, Gleb Belov.(2320)
• Helen Steenbergen, Ed Steenbergen. (2180)
• Andrew Baker, Paul Monks, Greg Robinson.(2090)

For our 6 hour event the winners were Cian O’reilly and Andrew Mccarthy. with an impressive 1330 points despite arriving ever so slightly late. For the 6hr event our top three were:-

• Cian O’reilly, Andrew Mccarthy..(1330)
• Rob Taylor, Rod Gray, Ian Gordon.(1300)
• Yevheniia Prytkova, Eugen Kozynin .(1150)

Andrew Piddington and his crew of enthusiastic helpers put on a fine rogaine with navigational challenges and yet there was room to run. Thanks to Andrew Arranging, Andrew Johnston, Andrew Piddington, Ann Lonsdale, Anneke Thomson, Bernie Quirke, Beth Donegan, Di Baker, Dianne Hebard, Gerard Herten, Grant Jeffrey, Julia Trenchard-Smith, Lorraine Morgan, Margreta Kuijper, Martin Sime, Miranda Milne, Monica Raphael, Norm O’Bryan, Paula Horton, Phil Jelliff, Raj Kad, Ron Frederick, Steve Horton, Sue Noy and to everyone else who helped before and after the event. Our Volunteers enjoyed a magnificent lunch before preparing a delicious minestrone for the returning rogainers.

A rogaine for everyone.