Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Event: 36th Annual Billygoat Run
 

Looking at Billygoat splits …

1. Lots of people missed splits at water stops.
2. Looks like control 1 was the control to skip. 8 minutes for me, 6+ even for Ethan.
3. Running with Adrian early on, I was in second/third place behind Ian. I guess that makes sense, but I didn't realize how good a skip 1 was.
4. Gained 3:00 on Adrian by not following him right to 6. So I was running in 2/3 with Ethan to 7-8-9 (although falling behind).
5. Hadn't realized that at the debacle that was 10, everyone bashing around in there was basically within a minute of the lead. Let me repeat that: halfway through the Billygoat, I was within a minute of the lead. Ran out of there with Wyatt who was in fourth place, but he put some time on me running through the woods.
6. I lost time to 12 mostly by being unsure of where I was going. Helped to have Balter catch me and lead towards the control. Fun running with the foursome from there.
7. Adrian's strategy on 17 was inspired. Lead everyone astray, bash through a marsh and back, and drop a couple people smart enough to not bash through the marsh. Leaving me to run and pant to keep up. Since we weren't going to make up 13 minutes at that point. (Impressive the top guys put 13 minutes between controls 10 and 17.)

C • missing punch at water stop 4

Quick run around some fields before the goat.

So this is my third Billygoat. The first (unlogged) I spiked the first control and then proceeded to wander around Moreau for a few hours. The second I also got lost a few times. I decided that I was orienteering too much and not following enough, so this year I was all about following, bashing, and orienteering, in that order. And it worked.

It was warm but dry, and I felt pretty good, and well hydrated. We were marched up to a sidewalk and they said go. I was near Ian, who I knew well enough to know I might be able to keep up with him, and we ran in the woods.

S-1: Followed Ian to a trail, not looking at my map. Last year I think they gave us 30 seconds; not this time. Lost time on the pack, but gained it back on the next climb. As we got to the trail to turn off of to go to 1, Ian and another guy ran past and punched 2, which was right off the trail. I did as well (I could always go punch 1 and come back) but then consulted my map: 1 was a pretty decent skip and had two additional plusses. First, it meant I wouldn't have to worry about which to skip the rest of the way. Second, it would mean that I'd have faster people coming by me the rest of the way if I got in to trouble. So it worked.

2-3: Ran the trail, then bashed on a compass through the woods. I lost Ian but kept Adrian in my sights, which was fine. Not too much orienteering to 3.

3-4: I started out from the control on a small hill, and then traded leading with Adrian. He led a bit to the left of the control but I saw the punch and scampered up to the top of the cliff/large boulder and punched, then let on that I'd found it (and caught my breath).

4-5: Running with Adrian. Kept to the right of a pond, then handrailed off some cliffs and a stone wall. We wound up one reentrant south, but pretty quickly found the control. I am still not sure of goat etiquette and whether you are supposed to talk to people you are running with.

5-6: Adrian led to a trail and then went right. Right? It seemed roundabout. I went left and shot down the trail, then found a crossing of the pretty good-sized stream there. I ran with a guy with a Norge jersey on, and we handrailed the wall up towards 6, then attacked off of the trail—a pretty easy find using terrain.

6-7: Not a bad attack off the trail.

7-8: Ran down the trail and stopped at a flat area and looked for rocks, then saw Norge coming out. Saw a lot of people going up in to 6, so figured even with the early skip I was doing okay.

8-9: 9 would have been a nice skip except it was a water/gatorade stop. These were important. I cut in one trail early so had to scamper down the scree to get to the tennis court.

9-10: Trail run was easy. Finding the control in the vague reentrant not so much. Looking at it now I was not really looking in the right place, but found it. Still was only a couple minutes behind Ian.

10-11: Followed someone up the hill, but he put some time on me once we got to the white runnable stuff. Still, I moved pretty well to the attack (stone wall, reentrant, left of rocks, find the hill) and spiked it. That feels good.

11-12: It took me some time to figure out the route. First I was going to take a compass bearing but there was so much vague. Then I followed a trail around a marsh. Finally I remembered Alex telling me to use contours. Contours! White running along a swamp at the base of a hill. I got caught by Balter and he led us to near the control (I was a ridge off), but a parallel error away. We met Adrian at the control.

12-13: East to a stream, down the stream bank.

13-14: Up a trail to a curve, left off of there (still with this group of 4).

14-15: Trail, green, white, reentrants.

15-16: Here I just followed Adrian mostly and my map a little. He did pretty well and led right to the control.

16-17: Here I followed Adrian and he (and the rest of us) went well north of the control. We got pulled a spur north and through some green; we should have descended through white. I correctly spotted the end of a stone wall and we reconnoitered. When we realized where we were he said "well, this is going to be the wet way." It wasn't too bad. But my feet did get a bit wet. Nothing like the mud last weekend.

17-18: Following Adrian, trying to keep up. It was getting pretty warm out (but I was glad to be wearing pants). Handrailed off the stone wall, then crossed reentrants. I grabbed water and forgot to punch—not realizing until a while later. A bunch of people did this, and with the temperatures they were giving people controls (Adrian vouched that I was there with him).

18-19: Long leg following Adrian. Never really lost contact, but didn't orienteer until the end. But then I led us to the control. He'd run most of the navigation, I'd run the circle. This would actually be a great Billygoat strategy, sort of a team memory-O. One person runs the long navigation, the second person figures out the attackpoint and finds the control.

19-20: Following little lakes.

20-21: Contouring up to a rock.

21-22: I let Adrian go ahead and he led off to this peninsular control which was easy to find across the fields.

22-23: I slowed down—I was hurting with the temperatures—and no one was nearby. Punched, then ran easily to the finish (it was flagged).

Finished, ate pickles and drank pickle juice, which was wonderful. Then put on a sweatshirt (sunblock) and waited for my t-shirt. 7th overall, which is about 25 places better than previous years. I orienteered some (3-4, 5-7, 10-12, some of 17 and 19) and followed quite a bit. That's what the Billygoat is all about. But I mostly kept contact with my map when following, which is good, and felt good, except for the heat.

Interesting, last year I ran 2:07 but was 37 minutes back; this year 20 minutes back. The year before I ran it in 2:30 and was 60 minutes back. At this rate I'll win next year. It's funny, this Billygoat didn't feel any harder than the others, even with the warm temperatures, but apparently it was—I just a) orienteered better and b) followed better.

Now to check for ticks!

(Look at all the controls I spiked—mostly following people to them.)

C • Very nice run 3

Billygoat - Splits

I was going to run today, but in the morning it was very humid and I woke up kind of stuffy. With the GOAT tomorrow, I decided to take it easy today, since there is some race I am doing next weekend (and the long range forecast is back to 40s with a tailwind, let's hope that stays).

Evening run in the cool but humid air. My body does not like humidity, especially early in the season. Still, it was nice to go out for a moderate jog and run 7s along the way. Bodes well for next weekend? Have to begin tapering.

It was the best of O, it was the worst of O. Yesterday was really good O. I figured out maybe this would carry in to today. But I wasn't thinking clearly, and I certainly wasn't used to the map scale. So I overran 1, but just by a little bit. Cleanly in to 2 and then poor route choices to 3; I should have used the cliffs rather than the vague trails.

Then to 4 I made one of my Big Mistakes. I'm capitalizing, because I can. I got caught left and wound up one big road above where I should have been. Or maybe I was just thinking about Frank Lloyd Wright's design too much. In any case, I cut back to 4, and then went from the worst of O to the best of O. I ran straight to 5 through 8, no mistakes, good route choices, and won all the splits.

I did okay to 9 and 10, well to 11 and 12, and then made another Big Mistake to 13, and I don't even know what it was, but I wound up well beyond and ran in to a catching feature (well, I looked up and said "I shouldn't be seeing you, big cliff") and turned back to find the control. I should have gone left, oh well.

Park-O - Splits

Hmm, it's almost like I ran a marathon last weekend. Oh, I did. On trails. My legs were still stretching out today on the stairs, so I took things easy. Lots and lots of people. Cool temperatures, but I only did one stadium (not 50 sections) and stayed over on the shady side of the street. Beautiful morning!

Ride with Alex up to the Fells. I was a little late getting out of work but we made it work. So many bikes on Hampshire/Beacon; kind of hard to ride. I kind of felt bad taking Alex that way and not, say, Broadway/Oxford, but she said "this was so much nicer than Route 99." Wait, that was her plan? Holy jesus.

Fun partner memory O with Alex. I think I am sort of picking up orienteering. A few highlights:

1. I orienteered pretty well to my first couple of controls.
2. At one point I overshot a trail and lost contact with the map. "Try to get there without the map," said an Alex. So I did. I went on a trail in the right direction, and where it bent, went bashing through the woods, came to a boulder and said "beep." Well, more, I jumped up and down and yelled "BOOM!" because I'd blindly navigated straight to the control. Alex—for perhaps the first time ever—was speechless.
3. I realized I didn't have my bike keys, and both our bikes were locked with my U lock, so I kind of skittered a bit on the last couple of controls.
4. On the last control I was navigating, I had to lead us on a bearing down a "sort of double hill" (Alex: "you mean, a saddle?" yeah that) and forgot both my attack point and feature. But I navigated us in to the correct reentant, anyway. Bring on woods where I am sure to get lost this weekend.

And then I averted the crisis I had created: my keys were in our (unstolen) bags! Well, my bag to be specific. We left them by a rootstock.

I also navigated better than Alex on the memory O. Well, she insisted on going right at Curtis and Powderhouse, and had to navigate a long block. I instead went left, took the first right, went through the school and right to Davis. Plus, if she'd done that she could have gone across Mass Ave, taken the Yerxa underpass and wound up going that way. I was in a bit of a rush or I would have shown the way. Oh, well, by her track it appears she got home.

Wanted to go out for 5-6 miles at a 7:00 pace. But my legs were still good and properly trashed. So I made do with 4 miles at 8s. And then went home and made and ate all the pizza.

So this past weekend I ran ~25 miles and climbed and descended ~2000m. It's almost as if I ran a marathon up and down a mountain. Oh, wait.

Taking a well-deserved rest day today, and probably hitting the hay before 10. Yum.