Training Log: Sandy

Woohoo. I can still walk reasonably fast when I put my mind to it.

Hah! This time I did 11 repeats. I must have forgotten to hit the split button on one there in the middle. Oh well it's all good. Spent some time trying to reestablish the trail - lots of downed branches all over the place. The good news is that the ups, while hard, did not seem as hard as they've been in the past.

Pretty tired out from the weekend but it was a beautiful day so I did a short walk around the neighborhood.

My arms are really sore. Could be from driving but probably from getting down hills on my rear using my arms to lower myself.

Got a good night's sleep so was a bit more optimistic for this course. And I really, really enjoyed myself for the first 9 controls. Was even doing reasonably well, no big errors, even jogging on the road for a bit. I was very careful to #1 and #2 since I had lost significant time in that area the last time I was on this map, but I nailed them and was feeling good No problems to 3-4-5-6 although I did have to hook a little for 4 and 6. I thought about going out to the road from 6 to 7 but when I got to the place where I had to decide, it looked like I was going to lose a lot of elevation and then I would just have to climb back up, so I thought straight would be better. I ended up climbing too high so didn't really save any climb in hindsight but I knew where I was and the approach to the control was easy from above so I was okay with it. Getting down to the road from 7 was not easy - steep and rocky - but I managed and then jogged the road before cutting in to 8 and then back to the road and more jogging and then in to 9. If the course had ended here I would have been thrilled and thought the course was fantastic. But no, there were still 6 controls to go. The next 2 were on a crazy steep hillside with maybe 12 cliffs mapped inside the circle as well as all sorts of stony ground. It was too steep for me to sidehill which was annoying since I knew right where I was but there was no way I was going to take a chance and scramble through the rocks on the hillside. So I climbed to the top and then picked my way down. Again, I knew right where I was, but just couldn't get to where I wanted to be. Sat down and used my arms to lower myself to where I was close enough to the control. And then stayed like that to get down the hill to the road. 11 wasn't too bad to get to, and I should have just gone back out to the road the way I came in, but I tried to go down the hill to the road (instead of contouring out to the road) and that seemed to take forever as all sorts of people went whizzing by. The last few controls were in a flattish area but the footing was difficult - very wet and hummocky and not something I could move quickly through. A lot of people on the brown courses managed all the controls just fine and certainly a lot better than I did, so maybe I just need to suck it up and get fitter and stop whining or something.

It's a good thing that 1-9 were so much fun or I would seriously wonder about going back to West Point ever again. I spent some time talking with course setters trying to get across what they need to keep in mind for the brown courses. They listened but who knows whether anything was learned.

C • downhill 5

Brown Y - Splits

Event: West Point 44th NRE
 

Long walk to start.

So, this has got to be one of my all time worst events. I got very little sleep the night before - not sure why, I just couldn't fall asleep.

I was a bit shaky to #1 but went relatively straight to it after figuring out the trail on the map was not really on the ground. On my way to #2, I realized I wasn't pace counting and since every rock looked like every other rock whether on the map or not, I was unsure where I was. I stopped short and wasn't at all sure where I was until I was able to see the big main trail to my east and from the way the bend lined up realized I hadn't gone far enough. I then figured out exactly where I was and made my way to the control. On #3 I dropped more than I realized and ended up at a different control. I then proceeded to wander around like an idiot for about 10 minutes eventually making my way back to the boulder where the other control was. Once I put my mind to it, it was easy to see where I had to be and then easy to make my way to my control. I can only blame the lack of sleep for why I didn't do this the first time I was there.

At that point, I was thinking, I am not really into this, I'll just make my way to the trail and walk it in. But #4 seemed straightforward enough that I figured, oh, I'll just go get that one and then walk it in. The map must be a bit weird there though since I pace counted and stopped and could see nothing that resembled the bare rock I was looking for. I spotted a control way down the hill and I thought that couldn't possibly be mine, but it is on bare rock, so what the heck, I'll go check it out. Surprise, it was mine. Back to the trail thinking, well, I'll just walk it in from here. But, #5 and #6 don't look too bad so maybe I'll get those two and then walk it in. Spent a good bit of time checking out all sorts of boulders before realizing I should be looking for a knoll. The flag was tucked into some blueberry right where I had been 10 minutes earlier when I was surveying a bunch of boulders wondering which one to go check. I've done this before - looked at the control description and see a black dot and thought boulder since that's how boulders are depicted on the map. But, I usually catch the error right away since I've done it before; I can only blame the lack of sleep and my lack of focus for not catching it this time. Punched #5 and then made my way to #6 and looked at the last three controls that were in all sorts of green nastiness and thought, maybe I'll just walk it in when I get to the trail. But, when I got to the trail, I decided to just finish the damn course and so waded into the blueberry. Went pretty much right to #7, and then most of the way to #8. I went down the hill early and then had a really hard time getting to #8 because there was this giant set of trees down across my path and I could not figure out a way to get across it. I ended up crawling under the first big trunk and then up and over the next big one and sort of rolling over the last one. Decided I was not willing to fight through the green to go straight to #9 so went back out to the trail (climbing the hill and having to navigate rocks which was why I had gone down early in the first place to get around the mess of trees on the way out), down the trail and then back in. Walked the road to #10 and the finish.

I'm not quite sure what to say about this course. The map needs to be seriously updated if it's used again. The course wasn't difficult, I just was not into it at all.

Brown-Y - Splits