Getting lost

[Katherine]

Dear fellow racers, another question from a newbie... Has a racer ever become lost running the North Face 100?
The reason I ask is that I got lost doing a training run yesterday along the Great North Walk in the Wattigun forest area. A trail very well signposted, except for one section, which, after a series of backtracks, ended in me being completely hopelessly lost for well over an hour in thick bush (rescued by a small contingent of boy scouts!). 
So now I am a bit nervous about the same thing happening in the Blue Mountains, especially as I will be running at night, and am completely unfamiliar with the area.

Any reassurances or advice?  Is the path very well signposted?  Has any racer ever become lost (or am i potentially the first one???)

Thanks. 

[Simon]

On that note, I wouldn't mind getting a map with higher resolution than the ones posted on the web site. When you zoom in on those it goes blurry and I like as much detail as possible :-). I'm from NZ so is there somewhere online I can buy a map of the area? The maps have "NSW 25k Coast (Central). Copyright © NSW Deptartment of Lands"(sic) on them.

Cheers,
Simon

[Grant]

Again. Organisation on this event is amazing. The track markers where great last year. If there was a split in the trail there was an arrow for the correct track and a cross 'X' for the incorrect track. Not one part of the trail missed out. Two ireshmen got lost last year in the first stage and ended up someones driveway!!! Yakking away not concentrating and didnt look, they got back into the race and finished (think). When your tired anything can happen but unlikely....

[Gary]

The track was very well marked last year, but having said that you could still take a wrong turn, especially when you are tired, darkness falls and you are running alone. I witnessed one runner take a wrong turn in front of me at a junction (which was well marked) they were heading straight for a cliff, it was only because i shouted to them did they realise they were going the wrong way.

As long as you are good at map reading and general navigation (everyone entering should be) then you should be fine. Above all pay attention and dont just follow runners blindly (as happens some times).

When i ran it last year I found running in the dark by myself some - what daunting, since then I have done lots of night running on trails and now very much enjoy it.

To all those entering, you will have a great time and memories of a massive ahievement.

This is a great event!