Training Log Archive: the kempster

What a bad race!!!! The first control wasn't turned on, so that kinda freaked me out a bit but 2 was good. Taking into mind what I had learned at the training camp, I read all of the re-entrants and made it to 3 without any trouble. Same with 4, but 5 I had a bit of trouble on. 6 was good and then 7 was awful!!! I was in exactly the right spot at the top of the re-entrant but I couldn't see the control. So I thought I was lost. Then I ran around for a bit getting myself more "lost" until I got back to the same spot. Then I saw somebody go into the control and cursed at myself!!! 8 I had no idea where I was going, but I said to myself, "ok, once it flattens out, I know I'm right below the control." It flattened out, and I was right!!! Phew!!! 9 and 10 were good, and 11 I ended up going in after the wrong trail, but I soon figured out something was wrong, relocated, and found the control. 12 was a disaster, I ended up at 14... hehe, oops. All of the controls were fine after that and I burned off my anger in the finish chute.

I had a much better race today!!! It was fantastic (except for that 5 of the controls weren't turned on.) I only made mistakes on the legs where there were 2 controls really close together. I just ended up closer to one than the other. I felt that I made really good route choices and I was going at a pretty good pace the whole. By control 8, I had Justine and Heather behind me so that kept me going too. I just felt so strong the whole way through and it was awesome running in the white (although, most of the map was green) and I was reading a head a lot. I came 4th, and it felt pretty close to a perfect race.

Did part of the model event with Rhiannon and Emily (the first 4 controls) which were pretty good. Had a bit of trouble on 18 because the indistinct trails were pretty hard to figure out. Relocated off of the major trail and found it all right. Then I went off on my own to do 21, 20, 12, 17, and 16. Hit all of them right on because I was working on reading the map in great detail so as not to miss anything. Once I got to 12, I only had 5min to get back to the cars, so I just ran past 17 and 16 instead of actually going to look for them.

This speed-o was soooo intense!!! When you go the map, the only thing you could see were lines going EVERYWHERE!!! It was so complicated. They had us going back and forth across the map but it was awesome. You always had to read ahead so that you knew which way to go to get to the next control. Only paused once because I hadn't read a head and another time to check the number. Still a really great race.

Had another relay except with the training camp. My team consisted of Victoria, Afan, and I. Victoria did the beginner really well and then Afan and I did the advanced and the intermediate. The first one that I did wa inter. and it didn't go too badly. My second one was advanced and I totally messed up the second control. Ended up in the wrong re-entrant, but I was smart, and relocated out on the trail and then nailed the control. The third leg was advanced as well and I just killed it. I knew exactly where I was going, I was fast and I hardly stopped. It was awesome. I don't know where we finished but we had a blast!!!

Did the first 6 controls on my own and I spiked them so badly!!! I was in contact with the map, was determined not to make mistakes where I had made them yesterday, and I only made a small bobble on control 3. Then Mike started shadowing me and I just lost it all!!! It was mistake after mistake!!! I'd know exactly where I was, where I was going, but then when I started, I'd end up totally lost. The only good control after was 10. I did learn a lot though; I learned that I need to read the map to it's fullest so that I don't miss some small re-entrant and think I'm in a bigger one (kind of stupid, but I do it all of the time). And I also worked A LOT on relocation!!! :-)

Second speed-o today and it was even more fun. I ran it twice again although some people didn't because the relay was right afterwards.

My relay team was me (advanced), Ilona (beginner) and Molly (intermediate). So I went out with the mass start and got the 7 first controls pretty much perfectly. Just on 3 I wasted 30 sec looking for the control although people lost a lot more than that because the whole thing was kinda weird. My route choice to 8 was a bit iffy but 9 was good. 10, I came out on the trail and wasn't sure where I was, luckily, it wasn't that hard to figure out and I found it. 11 to the end all went really well although I felt as if I could've run a lot faster. Anyways, got back and Ilona went out. Then Molly and we ended coming in 2nd place in the over 8 category!!!

Went with Carol with Jim taking up the rear, so Carol and I alternated controls. We were doing pretty well up until 7. We were hitting the controls really well and then leaving them great, but then we got into the part of the map with tons of re-entrants and spurs!!! 7 and 8 were disasters, 9 was excellent, but when I took over at 10, everything went down the drain!!! Oh ya, the map had the trails taken off, so that made it really tricky, although you just learned to run over them. Anyways, I just totally lost myself within the maze of re-entrants and had to relocate almost at 9 again. Finally found 10, and then 11 was a piece of cake... almost.

The beginning part of the line-o was on the really subtle part of the map so it was hard to know exactly where you were. I was with Carol again except Mike was with us this time. I think we found 5 controls in all on these features: a knoll, between 2 knolls, the top of a hill, another knoll, and a teacup depression. Only did 1/2 of the course though because we had to get back for the speed-o!

Did the first speed-o today twice, so actually I was about 5min the first time, and 4 something the second. It was sooo fast because the course was only about 800m, but it was intense. The second time, I did it without a map because it's pretty easy to memorize... that was fun.

The race was the THOMASS format, but instead of taking my regular handicap (2) I took the elite one which was 5. So that was a bit of a difference but I still think that I did pretty well. The beginning was really fast but once we got into the box, I was pretty much alone until the last few controls. Didn't make too many mistakes except for a bad route choise to B and then mistaking a clearing for another on 10. And then a giant one on the very last control because I wasn't reading my map. All in all, a pretty good race.

I think I did pretty well on the score-o, a total of 410 points, and I didn't make too many large bobbles. Had a bit of trouble with 9 because the control was hidden in the raspberries, but 10 was good. On 26 I ended up too far to the right and 24 I just had trouble finding the control even though I knew exactly where I was. I was worried about 27 because it was somewhat of a bingo control, but I could see it even before I got into the green. 25, 23, 22, and 19 I spiked, but 18 I got kind of confused because of the parallel features. 17 and 15 were good, 16 I didn't want to run up the hill in case I went up too far, but the control was up there anyways. On 7, I found a beginner control on the same feature, but fortunately, I pratically tripped over the real 7 on the way to 8. 6 and 4 I was careful on because I didn't want to make a mistake when the cut-off time was so close. Then I messed up 5, I'm still not exactly sure what I did, but I'll blame it on the map. Anyways, 11 didn't go so well either because I lost track of the parallel features. Thankfully, the last 2 I hit so I made it back on time. The only big problem with the race were the burrs. By the first 10mins, the back of my pants were covered in them, so every time I ran, they'd chaf the back of my legs with no mercy. Happy with my race anyways...