Training Log Archive: furlong47

Walk to start and back from finish

Klondike State Forest -- NAOC Long - GreenX - FGreen Open

Long has never been my discipline so I was pretty happy to just slog through this one. It was fairly humid weather, would rather have had the rain I think. Ended up missing my start due to a very long line for the bathrooms, luckily someone else did not show and I got out about 20 minutes late.

No issues to 1, followed along the edge of the swamp towards 2 but ended up just popping out to the road by the aid station and then back in through the cairns to the control. Through the bottleneck on the road and then I went along the edge of the swamp and up between the hills to 3. On the way here I saw my only bowhunter of the weekend. Scared me a little, just not expecting to look up from my map and see some dude in camo carrying a bow and a bunch of arrows and standing still and silent while about 6 orienteers were running all around him.

Got a little off course heading to 4. The swampy areas on these maps did not seem quite as mapped (generally they were drier) and I had problems using them to navigate. I found a distinct knoll that I was able to use to relocate and then located it with no more issues. Crossed the marshes on the way to 5 at the little knoll with the rock on it and just picked my way over to the control.

6 ended up being the mistake of the day. Thought I was reading everything fine and knew where I was. Still not sure how I got off track, but I ended up at another control on what I thought was one of the small marshes. However, several attacks based on that principle failed. Then I managed to stumble across the trail so I was obviously too far north and west. I went down the trail to the knoll and attacked again and this time hit it. I could also see the other control that I had found while I was on my way back in... so I wasn't that far off, just had not gone far enough. Other control must have been on a reentrant or depression that was wet but not mapped as marshy.

Out to the road, went to the marsh and followed it in to 7. Went out to the road again and took that and the trails to the vicinity of 8. Attacked from above where the trail makes a right angle. Back out the trail to the road, up to the water stop and took that trail straight to 9 and 10. Then along the stone wall/boundary line and hopped my way in among the cairns to 11. After that I found my way back over to the road, went back through the bottleneck, and took the lower part of the loop trail over until I hit white woods then went north to 12. Didn't think the ferns were as bad as advertised, certainly no worse than fern season in French Creek!

I went down into the swamp toward 13. Got a little misplaced down there but found a knoll with a control on it and relocated. A little cautious going into 13 but found it alright. At this point I could hear the hubbub over at the finish, cheering and the rumble of lots of people talking. I pretty much went straight to 14 & 15, picking off features on the way. Then just out to the go control and finally done!

Not really happy with this effort but only one huge error. Just slow. 3rd in F-Green with less than 3 minutes separating all 3 people! Should have pushed it just a little more, if not for that one mistake I would have won the class this day.

Walk to start and back from finish.

I have never seen a town with public fish cleaning stations before. These people are serious about their salmon.

Salmon River Fish Hatchery -- NAOC Middle - GreenX - FGreen Open

Another wet day. Everything was slippery which caused me to move more slowly than I may have otherwise. Around the right edge of the pond and into 1, taking some time to adjust to the map and to the scale after yesterday's sprints. On the way to 2, crossed over the small saddle at the end and dropped down the reentrant right into the control. On the way to 3, I hesitated slightly when crossing a deep reentrant which looked like it could be the trail. It was too early -- still not quite feeling the 1:10,000 map yet. Hit the trail, ran along it and down the little indistinct trail to 3.

Back to the trail, then took the branch that went north. I used the indistinct trail on the spur between the stream and marsh to get over to the area of 4, then went up the reentrant and over to the bag. On 5 I got higher a little faster than I wanted, ended up in the western depression but knew I just had a bit further to go. I went down the trail, at the bend with the little knoll I crossed under the knoll and went up the first reentrant then up the hill to 6. There were a lot of people all going up the hill at the same time from all directions. Kind of reminded me of ants.

To 7, along the trail again, took a bearing from one of the few rocks on the map. Across the flat to the big trail on the way to 8, I used the dot knolls & gate to attack. The vegetation (coniferous) on the way to 9 was a huge help. On the way down the hill to 11 I was drawn to an unmapped rootstock further to the right. Found the correct one quickly. The swamp was much drier than it appears. I came across another rootstock with a control on it, but couldn't tell which one, continued to head west until I hit 12. From there it was out to the trail, pop in on 13, and around the little pond to finish.

15/37 overall on the GreenX, which is much better than I would have thought.

Walked to the start and back again to retrieve my map, check if friends were done, etc.

Went to see the 110 foot waterfall at Salmon River Falls Unique Area. Donna and I walked along the trail to the overlooks, then took a trail which takes you to the riverbed at the top of the falls. Finally we went down into the gorge which gave an awesome view of the falls and huge pool below. Even more beautiful with the fall leaves.



We also checked out the Fish Hatchery which was pretty interesting. Saw some HUGE salmon.

Event: North American Championships
 

Green Lakes -- NAOC Sprint Prelim - Red F-21+

Very sluggish out of the gate -- on the way to 1 & 2 my arms and legs felt heavy. Maybe to the point where having a bit of warm up first wouldn't be a total waste of limited energy now. Heading down toward 3 I finally felt more able to open up. Went down the ride between the two sections of green and into 4 through the interwoven tree limbs... hard to move in there. On the way to 5 I caught my foot in a hole along the elephant track and fell. Got back up very quickly as I feared being stomped by spikes! 6,7,8 had a constant stream of people coming the other way which made it hard to move through the green sometimes. Went around on the road to the right from 10 to 11. The big idiocy of this race happened on 13. I SAW the control and for some reason felt that it was the wrong thicket, and probably spent a good 30 seconds going back and forth and scratching my head in front of the whole crowd... yes I always get nervous and make my mistakes when everyone is watching. Finally got straightened out to run it in.

The pace here is pretty much as high as it gets for me -- and I beat three whole people which was better than I expected.

Green Lakes -- NAOC Sprint Final & Sprint Series Final - Red F-21+

By virtue of being a prolific sprinter this year, I somehow managed to get into the top 10 women in the Sprint Series. So, I had to start at the end in a special grouping. The 8 ranked higher than me started after I did. Obviously, I was greatly outclassed by the rest of the runners, and the majority of them had blown past me by the fifth control. The first loop went alright though, flipped my map and headed out to loop B.

Tiredness was catching up to me and I was moving slower and slower, and my brain finally shut down on the way up the hill to 12. I somehow managed to misread both the map AND control descriptions and thought I was looking for a spur. So I went right up the hillside directly into the control and bypassed it without even checking because it was in a reentrant. I wasted what felt like an eternity running around up there, searching for the nonexistant spur, and at one time was even off the edge of the map. Then I looked at the descriptions again and realized the completely stupid mistake. Went back to the reentrant and sure enough that was my bag. The rest of this loop went okay, but slow. I had to really push to jog in across the field with people yelling for me.

Last loop. I started out okay. Heading across the field to 21 I got too far left and was confused for a minute with the roads and which was the correct patch of woods. Going in after the control, I was caught by the majority of the men who had started 10 or so minutes after all the women. This was a pretty bad place for it to happen, though I was trying to stay out of the way of the more important competitors there was really only one narrow track in and out of this place. The rest of the race I felt like I was plodding. One last time having to cross in front of everyone, then up into the dark pine forest above the parking lot. Between the last 2 controls 26 & 27 I was passed by Ross who I am pretty sure was the only other person out there at that point. Somehow I managed to run in from the last control, but feeling awfully battered. But hey, I qualified and I completed it!

Lesson on Patrick (William came up lame) He's quite a different ride so I felt like we were kind of blasting around most of the time. Finally starting to figure him out at the end (it's been a long time since I last rode Patrick)