Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC McKeldin
 

Patapsco State Park, McKeldin Area. I warmed-up from the parking lot to the rest rooms and the start.

QOC: Patapsco State Park, McKeldin Area. I hadn't read through the notes and we were a bit late arriving. I thought about doing the Green course along with the Memory-O but Peggy convinced me otherwise (to do Brown), with the kids being with us and it being cold.

I felt pretty well starting out. Sleeping well probably helped. I spiked the first few controls. #1 was physical and I went though the forest instead of using the road. I went straight at #2 and was right on the line going over the ridge at an intersection. I came down and was still going well as I nearly caught some others. I was still chasing them on the short leg across the road. We'd done close versions of leg #4 many times. I took the trail and went a little lower than a faster guy. I seemed to hold my ground or gain on him.

For #5, I contoured around the hill and reentrant to get right to the road corner. I went in from there and recognized the green area. Going around it, I spiked the control.

For #6, I went straight. On the drive up, I could see others running here and figured that the road might be a good option. I didn't bother though it might have saved me time. I stopped one reentrant early. The leg line obscured some of a key contour and I couldn't read it until I stopped for a while. The low vegetation on the map was also not so bad as it seemed to be mapped. Finding a deer trail helped. Once over the last hill I found the control in the reentrant a little higher than I was.

For #7, I again stayed in the forest. I spied the ruin to my right, and read the control description to know the control was inside.

For #8, I went left, climbing the dirt road. It seemed that the control was placed further right and that cost me a little time.

For #9, after getting into the areas, I saw Peggy and another guy running toward me. The control wasn't visible. I ran past them and started fumbling too. My glasses fogged-up. I read the contours on the ridge above us and concluded I was in the right place without seeing it. Meanwhile, Peggy had circled back. She was closer to the ridge than and she saw it first.

For #10, I passed Peggy and ran on bearing. Though the control looked to be in the middle of a black blob with my foggy glasses, the control description said, it'd be placed on the far side. I kept right of my bearing to not get hung-up in the rocks too soon and climbed. I saw boulders I think I've been to several times before and saw it there above me.

Going to #11, I angled the hillside starting out. Getting on trails, I climbed the ridge and went down the reentrant on the other side. I found remnants of the trail but couldn't see anything from the trail intersection. Once the creek took a bend, I began to climb. I was low at the end, but could see it above, between some boulders.

I ran straight toward #12, passing Chris Gross as I climbed. I read the contours getting to the edge of the forest and kept my bearing going down. I could see Patti Mace coming across the hillside from my right. I spiked it.

For #13, I ran down to the trail along the river, then stayed mostly on trails until just past the bend south of the control. I got as far as the depression and cut back to the right. Chris Gross had been coming from above again and I didn't know he was going for the same control as our paths crossed. I was too far left, thinking that the control lined-up with the trail that I'd run up, but I had read that incorrectly. Not seeing anything where I was headed, I had been able to see Chris get to it, so I pursued.

Going to the finish, I watched Chris far ahead but kept to a similar straight route. If he hadn't been there, I probably would have taken the trail. I walked some, but managed to run and pickup speed in the fields.

QOC: Patapsco State Park, McKeldin Area. Memory-O: I started after Peggy did. Immediately, I was having difficulty adjusting to the map. I kept being naturally inclined to hold 180 degrees off, and when I turned it back, I kept losing my place. The start triangle line seemed thin to me and was obscured by other stuff being under it. I thought I had it right and put the map down, then, then I needed to read it again. I finally got going and chose to go around all the low vegetation, then come in along the vegetation boundary. I saw it from far away but lost it when I got closer.

For #2, it was an easier leg, and I was familiar with the location, from other events. #3 was straightforward too. I gained on a woman in front of me and didn't pass her until after hitting #4,and plunging into the woods near #5. I used the boulder to get to #5, but didn't go all the way to the boulder. Peggy was just leaving when I got there.

I climbed back to the road going toward #6. It was more climb than I expected, but fast once over the top. I was having trouble remembering the location. Anne Jepsen was in the area and seemed to go over the ridge than in the middle of it. Peggy came in on my right and was higher. I recalled enough to get further along the ridge and to the control.

For #7, I knew the high route would be a little longer but I thought it'd be faster than making my way down the steep hill to the trail along the river. I thought going down an open spur would be faster. As I got near the trail, I could see Peggy ahead. I passed her after leaving the trail and climbing the reentrant to the control.

For #8, I climbed the spur toward the trail and got further ahead of Peggy. She climbed up the reentrant where it was less steep but I had my doubts about my route when I looked back and couldn't see her. I climbed the correct hill on the trail most of the way and turned off just before the top to spike it.

For #9, I kept to the trail until getting to the field. From there I attacked and spiked it.

For the finish, I fumbled a bit indecisively but ultimately got to the road and in.

Brown - Splits

Memory - Splits

From Northfield Rd. to Hampden Ln. in Bethesda. I towed Samantha while Peggy rode along. We ate lunch and it was in the low 70s F.

From Hampden Ln. in Bethesda, to the Capital Crescent Trail, to Falls Rd., to Glenbrook Rd., to Moorland Ln. to Wilson Ln. to Hampden Ln. to Charlcote Rd., to Northfield Rd. After lunch, Samantha, Peggy and I took the long way back.

From Heartwood Dr., I started on field-checking the flatter parts of North Branch Park. It was slow going initially. I had to re-walk a couple of things with my GPS tracking it. I had also gotten off to a not so good start due to the area being really flat and close to the edge of what I'd printed. I did not know exactly where I was starting from. I got a lot of stuff onto paper and then realized that what I had drawn was really further north. The flat ground did turn out to have more in it than I expected. I found a pond that had been hidden by trees, several ditches, an old road bed, and an old ruin. The imagery wasn't that old but didn't show a lot of saplings where it looked like it was open ground. Where the contours were subtle, there were some boulders and stony ground. In the middle of the time I was there, I ran on a paved trail which I discovered was being built, the last time I was there. I ran it to the end. It mostly went near the edge of the park which was good but they had put up signs about the area off trail being a conservation area where foot travel was prohibited. It's not clear if that was just for areas near where they constructed the trail since the park didn't have a conservation label tacked to it that I'm aware of. I got into some areas where successionary forest is growing. Some of it was nice and some of it very thick. Some boulders and a sort of broken rock wall were found along the edges of the old trails which are disappearing--they were probably pushed/pulled there when the area was farmed long ago.

North Fork Park, MD. In the middle of field checking, I ran mostly out and back on segments of a new paved trail. There were a few side trails going to a school and neighborhood houses. I stopped for a while, then walked with a couple, talking about the park and the trail.

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was cold again.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd.

A planned run didn't materialize. I had to get home early and pickup Samantha since Peggy was stranded when her car got broke into at Carderock.

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station. I had a tailwind.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, Woodmont Ave. to Battery Ln. to Park Ln., to Custer Rd., to Northfield Rd. It had gotten cold again and there was a headwind most of the way.

From Northfield Rd. to Old Georgetown Rd. via Greenwich Park, to Ipswich Rd. to Fleming Ave. to the Bethesda Trolley Trail, to Old Georgetown Rd. to Northfield Rd. via Greenwich Park. It was 58 F starting out, and still sunny. I had teleworked and I was glad to have been able to fit-in a run.

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd.