Rogaine 5:44:59 [3] 12.64 mi (27:18 / mi) +3164ft 22:04 / mi
shoes: Salomon XA Pro - Purple
Fool's Rogaine with Val - Team RootQuist Nerdstock.
A rogaine with an April Fool's twist - always something different. This year, the map had 50 controls printed on it, but there were flags at only 25 of them. Required a lot of confidence in our navigation to decide whether we were in the right spot at each point.
We only learned the rules 15 min before the start, so not much time to prep, which made for lots of on-the-fly strategizing. We moved steadily, collaborating on strategy and route choice, with Val doing most of the nav and me running for most of the CPs. Had a slight bobble at CP 45 ("between two mines"), doubted ourselves a couple times on the northern half of the course, and generally just didn't have the most efficient route, but we ended up clearing the course with 15 minutes to spare, thanks in no small part to Val's awesome map skills. Not many people left in the parking lot when we arrived, but those that were cheered us on loudly once they heard that we'd gotten everything. We weren't quite sure why at the time, but later learned that most of the teams walked by some of the o-flags, thinking that they were fake CPs, so only seven teams actually cleared the course. We were lucky number seven.
My legs didn't feel particularly rested going in, but overall I felt decent during the race. I discovered a few minutes in that my (new) bladder had a hole in it, so I ended up drinking only a few ounces of water over the six hours. I started feeling the effects of it with about an hour to go, but I got a nice energy boost when it became clear we were going to hit all the CPs and enjoyed the final run to the finish.