Training Log Archive: furlong47

Hickory Run Shades of Death - Long - F-Green (Green Y)

I just typed out the best tale of woe ever, and it was eaten when I pressed Submit :-(

Edit: Found it... on November 17th. LOL

Confused right out of the start, mostly because I ran forward right away without a good consult with the map first. Then saw that I had been right by 1 the other day. Should have been quite easy, and it was until I got close and then bumbled just for a few seconds getting to the exact spot.

Found 2 okay - this was the area I was in the day before and control maybe only 100 meters from the one I had then.

Then - the nightmare beginneth.

Went down the trail to the sharp bend, intending to take the indistinct trail across the stream and into the green. Somehow I ended up heading E along the green/stream instead until I realized I should have crossed the stream and not had it to my right. Still not entirely sure what happened here. Went back to the right trail, crossed the stream, immediately lost the trail and was bumbling through the rhododendron.

I will have to see my forerunner track to have any clue what transpired next. I thought I had made it to the sharp stream bend on the far W side of the large green area. In reality I was somewhere upslope and to the E. Again, my mind was forcing things to match up with the map when really they did not. I even thought I had hit the trail W of the control at one point, but then the path disappeared. Frustrated, I bailed all the way to the big trail to the N and relocated, then was easily able to follow the edge of some green patches right up to the control.

Found 4 okay. Signs marking the boundary line made a nice handrail. 5 was okay too, enjoying the white woods. But then it was back into the green again...

Entered the white area in the middle of the green (it was kind of neat in there) but then saw a knoll and climbed it and found myself looking right at 7 instead of 6. So I climbed up to 6 and then returned to 7. Ugh.

Here is where my mental capacity really breaks down, because I somehow failed to notice that I could pop right out to the trail and easily follow that around. Instead, my delusional brain decided it would be a GREAT idea to press E through all the green.

I mean, duh.

Sometimes I had to crawl.

I made it back out to the sharp trail bend, somehow, although there were times I was certain I might die and no one would ever find my body in there.

Now I did follow the stream/green boundary to the E, duplicating the path I had started taking on an earlier mistake. I got down to where the marsh was, and intended to follow the southern stream/reentrant toward 8. Instead, I couldn't find the stream and started drifting north, and north, and north, until I found...

9.

*Smashes head against desk*

Luckily I now knew where I was, so I was able to go south-ish through the whiter areas until I found the rocks and then, finally, 8 at the little pond.

And do you think I could find 9 again, then? I did, but not as well as I should have.

Thankfully after that it got easy. Trail run back to the camp, across the road to 10, which I wasted a few seconds on because I could not see the bag (behind a tree) and by this point assumed I surely had done something wrong as that was the theme of the day.

Even the run-in was tough, as the finish appeared to be about 800 miles away and not getting any closer. But I did get there, eventually, and I lived to tell the tale of my Escape from Rhododendron Island.

Green Y Long - Splits

Event: Hickory Run
 

Hickory Run Campground - Sprint - F-21+ (Red)

A bit disasterous. Had a hard time focusing, and on the way to 3 got totally off course and ended up in the campground area North of the road instead of the SE section of the map where I should have been. Convinced myself that certain buildings, roads, and campsites were actually others. A giant, nasty mess. Then even once I knew what I had done, I had issues with reading the area around the control correctly. This leg took almost as long as Sam's entire race!

The rest was okay-ish but I knew I was already tanked so I didn't push. Also tripped on a rock on the way into 9 and fell and slid a bit. Fantastic.

Compass developed a bubble during this race (was fine at the beginning, decent bubble by the end) which it has done at least once before in cold weather back in the spring. Went to Bermans after the race and picked out a new compass - a thumb compass - my first after 17 years of orienteering. Of course, adjusting to that during the next two races wasn't the best idea either.

Hickory Run Shades of Death - Middle - F-Green (Green Y)

This was a nice course but riddled with smallish errors for me. The past week has been very stressful, and even though I swore to push those things out of my mind for the weekend, the overall mental effects were still present even when I wasn't thinking or worrying about the situation.

Found 1 easily by running down the trail to the small open area and going behind to the marsh. Went along the tops of the other marshes toward 2, but got confused by the little marsh right on the line, thinking it was the small pond NE of the control. So I headed SW and bumped into the depression with water and realized my mistake, from there finding 2 easily.

Got too low on the hillside going to 3, despite using the green clumps to navigate. Saw the rocks and climbed, then found it.

4 and 5 went well, as did 6 (get to the trail and follow the line of little ponds in) and 7 and 8.

The next bit was quite scenic and I enjoyed following along the stream. I went into the yellow kidney shaped field and left from the wrong place heading towards 9, ended up too low and wondered why I could not find the depressions, then ran into the clump of green with a rock (and control) n it and used that for a new (more successful) attack on 9.

10 and 11, okayish. Then I made a stupid mistake, went about 50 meters (had not even crossed the rocky ground yet) and saw a bag and went to it. Of course it was not mine, I had not gone near far enough and the reentrant was not even facing the right way. Duh. After that corrected and found 12 and then it was up to the road, down the big trail, and in.

Red Sprint - Splits

Green Y Middle - Splits

Lesson on William