Training Log Archive: davelevine

Event: QOC Patuxent
 

BP: 111 / 63

Green (16 controls, 6.3 km, 150 m)

Actual Distance Traveled: 12.7 km

I decided at the last minute to not borrow a compass. For a while it wasn't a big problem. I made some small mistakes but when it came to looking for one control in particular it proved to be disastrous. That said I think that if I had played it a little safer I could have finished this course without using a compass.

I got off to a decent start. I found the first 4 controls without any trouble. I misread the map on 5/118 and thought it was much further south than it actually was. By the time I realized my mistake I had to backtrack a bit. I had been heading south after passing through the start area when I should have been heading southwest. After picking up on what I did wrong I found it without too much trouble. I didn't have any trouble finding 6/128 but I got turned around in the woods and lost some time when starting out from 6/128 to 7/129. Once I hit a trail I knew where I was and for the most part after that it was smooth sailing until I got to 9/111.

I got a little overconfident when traveling from 9/111 to 10/151. What should have taken me 10-15 minutes on a good day ended up taking me 1:12:29. The straight line distance was about 390 m. If I had taken the safe route along trails and found it with out any trouble then I probably would have traveled about 1.2 km. Instead I tried taking the direct route and traveled over 4.3 km (2.7 miles) between the two controls. I was wide right in my inital approach, which was my initial guess but without a compass it quickly became very difficult to figure out where I was or the direction in which I was headed. It wasn't until I reached a bridge, 55 minutes in to my search for 10/151, that I was able to reorient myself and figure out the best route to the control considering that I did not have a compass.

After that I was too short on time to find the rest of the controls. I had about 25 minutes to find the remaining 6 controls and get to the finish. Instead of looking for them I headed for the finish. I goofed once again and headed northwest instead of northeast. I wound up back at the bridge I found before, which frustrated me but from there it was a simple matter of following the trail most of the way to the finish. I made two side trips to 15/115 and 16/104 before I reached the finish. I didn't check my watch but it was probably 10 or 15 minutes after 3 PM when I got to the finish.

Green - Splits

BP: 101 / 66

Metro to Office

Office to Metro

BP: 104 / 66

Metro to Office

Office to Metro

BP: 100 / 74

Metro to Office

Office to Metro

BP: 109 / 66

Metro to Office

Office to Metro

BP: 109 / 70

Metro to Office

Office to Metro

Feeling kind of meh; I think I have a head cold of some sort; my throat has been just a bit scratchy for the last couple weeks but now my nose is running, mostly just the left nostril; I've thought of a number of places I could have picked this up but I think I already had it and my heavy exertion over this past weekend at Rocky Ridge is probably mostly to blame