October 7th 2006

Tallarook Tiger 2 – 12 hour Rogaine – Tallarook, VIC

Tali Karng Trackers had our first race victory on the weekend, taking out the title for the men’s and overall champions of the Tallarook Tiger 2 Rogaine.

Mick Kolody, Chris Stevens and Brett Sparkes teamed up for the 12 hour event, dominating the experienced field with a total point tally of 1580, whilst the nearest competitor scored 1320 points. The event was held at Tallarook, approx 1.5 hrs north of Melbourne, Victoria (Seymour/Broadford area), warm weather and very dry forest and undergrowth characterising the day.

The race started at midday on Saturday on a beautiful spring day. The warm conditions required some strategic water consumption & route planning for water stops. We actually ran out of water on a couple of occasions but had enough amongst the team to get home. Mick and Chris had competed together before, but it was the measured experience of newcomer Brett Sparkes displaying some daring navigation maneuvers and consistantly leading from the front that really made the difference. We covered some absolutely amazing terrain, negotiating routes between checkpoints which I would have never dreamed of trying on my own.

Perhaps the most poignant and memorable moment of the race, was where we had come to a canyon crossing and I was looking down in utter disbelief at the apparent crevasse that we were going to attempt to descend – essentially we were to descend the canyon wall, cross the creek below (far below, it appeared to my perched viewpoint at the top), and then climb back up the other side. Surely the road around was a safer, albeit longer route, I told myself. Brett could hear me muttering to myself staring into the abyss and responded with “C’mon Mike! Where’s your spirit of adventure?” That’s all it took, and we were away.

We spent the majority of the course cross country bush bashing, which was tough work in the heat, with hilly terrain and loose, dry scrub underfoot, making traction a difficult at times. Our team worked hard and consistantly, with no rest stops as such, except when we realized we had covered more ground than originally anticipated when first marking out our maps. This required us to the re-assess the map to maximize our points and route for the next four hours. We really had a dream run, finding all checkpoints we looked for.

The warm weather continued through the night, making it an extremely pleasant race in the evening. We were the last team to come back in at a touch before midnight, a true testament to the teams efforts that we pushed hard through the entire race. Post race food was great as usual, with the Victorian Rogaine Association continuing their long held tradition of doing a stellar job in catering for these events.

The winners were announced and we were pleased to take the overall title and our prize: a Chomp Bar…Victory never tasted so sweet. Official results on Victorian Rogaining web page www.vra.rogaine.asn.au

Good luck to Brett Sparkes, competing in the World Championship Rogaine in Canberra this weekend. Hopefully the Tallarook rogaine will provide some great momentum for the World Championship race – how cool would it be to have a world champion amongst the humble TKT crew!

Thanks to Chris and Brett for a truly memorable race.

Regards, Mick

-Tali Karng Trackers ‘Stay Strong, stay on target’