Training Log Archive: bgallup

Event: The 35th annual Billygoat Run
 

goat! first time. fun, happy to finish. PG puts on a good show. pretty middling-to-adequate orienteering. in a pack with tim p and two cadets for the majority. screwed up two legs i led - 16 and 19. last few legs were an exercise in ignoring everything below my waist cramping.

i take it back, skipping 22 seems best. 6 was probably better than 18 - i wasn't paying enough attention to elevation when scanning the map. sure felt it in the end, though.

QR

1 - spent my 30 second preview scanning for skips, settled on 18. mostly rode the coattails of ian and company on the low, northern road.
2 - grouped up with tim, nadim, and a few cadets. didn't establish rock-solid contact until the saddle at the western crest of the ravine. not much driving here. wore my trail runners instead of the spikes - my knees hurt like hell after the traverse. wiped out on four or so wet logs before getting the message.
3 - did a little driving on this leg, almost missed the control to the north.
4 - unremarkable
5 - unremarkable
6 - dropped off the edge a little too far north, forced further down by gnarly veg , +1:00
7 - tim was smarter into 6 and drove this one.
8 - tim drove the first half of this and i did the second
9 - on point for this one
10 - and this one
11 - behind a cadet for this one, nailed it through the saddle, shitty bearing afterwards. tim spotted it and towed us in.
12 - mostly tim with a shade of independence on this one
13 - barely on point for this one
14 - fell behind the cadets for the first half, but they drifted slightly north and we met at this one
15 - on point for this one, i habitually come in way low to cliff-foot CPs
16 - on point for the worse, here. partial redemption by seeing the water from way far away. pretty obvious, looking at the QR, that i should've realized i was on the right side of the mini-ridge. feh. +2:30
17 - group lead here
18 - skipparoni
19 - passed the cadets near the end of the main trail run. incorrectly counted a vague trail and ignored my unease about the shape of the trail junction. saw the stream, grouped up, went west. should've aimed off north, but i was still reeling/following. tim pointed out the big boulder, i wondered allowed about it being unmapped, tim chuckled and turned around. caught by a second group coming out of the pin. would've been 19th if not for that group. +2:30
20 - behind but ignoring one cadet. dan o'leary dropped into the woods behind me and i made a similar turn. a cadet spotted the flag.
21 - proud of this one. in big group of 10 or so plowing northward, mixing up near the front almost everyone drifted off too west, but i stuck east and nailed it. a more competitive ben wouldn't've yelled "got it", but you gotta give back to the group, eh?
22 - cramped up like the dickens here, feeling the downhill sprint to 21. followed a cadet flock and struggled to stay in contact. reconnected when i hit the E-W trail to the north of the control, and remembered relocating off of the spring at W5MD.
23 - barely thinking, just staying on bearing. saw nadim make a move towards the flag and followed him in
24 - chose the trail and a thin bit of fight. made some time on dan who went straight through, but not enough to be decisive.
F - and the hobble in.

six minutes of stupid, would've been just enough to break 2:00:00. bah! in retrospect, did more independent nav than i thought, which makes me happy.

many thanks to bud o'leary for the timely loaning of a thumpass, with mine in the bermans'ses hands

Billygoat - Splits