The course had actually been run before as part of the Wellington MTB-Orienteering Series, with riders breaking newly-fallen snow on the higher parts of the course. Rogaine planner Dave King added a few extra controls, overprinting leftover maps on his home printer. He even managed to turn the no-go (for bikers) purple crosses on Tanes Track into asterisks to indicate that use was now OK.
And he exceeded the "shoestring" expectations by placing pink lettered ribbons at all control points, and preparing multiple-choice answer cards made of waterproof paper. The idea was that even if pens and pencils didn't work, some sort of mark or scratch could be made against the correct answer. And to top it all off, he had the barbie going when competitors started arriving back!
Even with the 80 points not available to the bikers deducted, the winning score for 2hrs40 on foot is exactly the same scoring rate as the best biker, who scored 330 in 2hrs. But it was a painful exercise; Bill had been suffering from some sort of lurgy, and he didn't feel at all comfortable at the end. Get well soon Bill!
Results have been posted. The next Wellington Shoestring will be in the hills above Stokes Valley on 30 Oct.
This page written by Michael Wood, installed on 16 Oct 03 with minor updates on 17 Oct.