Training Log Archive: syd

Event: 2022 Green Corn Moon Orienteering
 

Green Corn Moon 6h Rogaine

We drove over Friday to our campsite at Tar Hollow SP. It was ~30 min from the race S/F, but it allowed us to have a site with electricity. Our neighbors were...interesting. I certainly wouldn't need to return to this campground, but it served our purposes.

Headed over to the S/F area a little early to catch up with some MI friends that we hadn't seen in too long. Then maps were handed out at 5 and I quickly planned a route. My race plan was to hike (no running) and call it early if I wasn't feeling great. I didn't expect to clear so I decided to head south first to get the majority of the points and save the small northern loop if I had time at the end.

The race started at 6 and I headed off with a crowd to my first control. I expected to be with people for a while since I wasn't running at all, but I was alone half way to my second control! Things went smoothly as I worked my way south. After I got to 59 I decided to head down Rocky Road for a bit to try to find the bonus control. My interpretation was that it was off the edge of the road somewhere so I was closely inspecting the woods as I walked along. About half way along the road I decided to just commit to finding this silly bonus and reverse my planned order of the controls further south. Finally found the bonus nearly at the end of the road...and it was just on the road...

Continued on to 46 and then had my first error on 57. I headed down the spur that I thought was next to the reentrant I needed, but I overshot and ended up on the trail below 57. Took a few minutes to relocate since the trail didn't quite line up with the contours on the map, but once I got that sorted I reattacked from the bottom and found 57. The next couple of controls I woke up when I found them, which surprised me. Finally saw another racer going in the opposite direction as I was headed from 64 to 43.

It was getting hard to see my map at 43 so I paused to put on my headlight. I was enjoying the twilight as fireflies twinkled in the woods on my way to 80. It's been a while since I've been out at night :) The night navigation was going smoothly and I finally started to see more people as I approached Lick Run Rd. I decided to make a short detour to refill my water, but when I got to the water stop it was empty. There was a team there that had called it in and were waiting for the RD to restock. I decided I probably had enough water to get to the finish so continued on my way without a refill. My second mistake of the night was on 74. I came down from the trail junction, but ended up in the small reentrant north of the correct one. Figured that out pretty quickly and headed south to the correct location.

At this point my brain was rather foggy. I blame the lack of any stretches of sleep > 5h over the past 2 months... The rest of my route was all pretty straightforward navigation though so I didn't have any more errors. I was thinking I would head back to the finish after 56 and call it a little early. As I was exiting 56 I stepped on a bees nest and ended up with 3 stings. That cemented my decision to be done. Trekked back and finished with about 30 minutes to spare.

Really enjoyed getting out and finding flags again! I felt pretty good physically. I've been doing a lot of walking/hiking and that definitely helped. My abdomen/pelvis felt tired by the end, but not in a bad way. Will continue working to regain my strength and hopefully I can be back to running rogaines in no time :)

Finished 3 OA and first solo.

My planning helper was more interested in sleeping than looking at the map:

Morning stroll around the neighborhood.

On the Montour. 4/1 run/walk. It was hot!