Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: SVO Memorial Day Weekend ROGAINE
 

SVO Rogaine. Partnered with the much more Rogaine experienced Dave Onkst, I got through my first 24 hour Rogaine. Starting, my gear bag felt a bit heavy and weighed +15lbs. We decided to get the larger climbs and density of controls out of the way by going clockwise. We figured we'd be able to loop around and be back to the base camp by morning, then do another loop to finish out.

Getting used to the less detailed topo maps took some adjustment. There were far more features than mapped. It was hit or miss on route choice and some errors resulted from unmapped trails or other map differences such as 20ft contours. In the first 12 hours we went from the start triangle to: 24, 51, 73, 53, 44, 72, 25, 60, 45, 54, 30, 35, 22, 70 (but we never found 70), 63, 43, 42, 34 (I think we got this far before midnight). The distance shown was measured straight line from control to control as in done orienteering. However, some rough measuring of the actual route for the first 12 hours shows approximately 28.2 miles.

Going to 73, we were recalling Peter Gagarin's experience at Ultramarathon's as once editor of the magazine by that name. This must have invoked the 5ft. long rattlesnake to appear in the road and shake his tail at us before slithering away. We spoke no more of Peter after that but warned the Domine's when we saw them. Going to #72, we risked taking an unmapped trail to a ridge road. Coming out behind Susie and Rick DeWitt, we passed them but were unsure of where we were on the road. We questioned, then passed the correct turnoff, not seeing the DeWitt's again until 3 controls later. Coming out of The Narrows from the Mont Alto map, we surged ahead of a bunch of people who were on our tail by both finding a fast road then hitting the much more technical control #30 dead on. All this advantage was lost when we fumbled getting to the first water stop, #35. Our straight approach pulled up just short and then trying to relocate from the road we were confused by the trail markings on the map that looked like houses.

Going to #70 from #22, we encountered private property on the direct route. We went around but then didn't have a good bearing to go off of. We missed and wandered a bit before seeing the DeWitt's again as they were leaving the area. We tried attacking twice more off of the stream and off of the road bend with no luck. We should have attacked off the large pond in the field. There were just too many unmapped ponds here (I'm told this area will become an O'map eventually). We felt the 70 minutes we lost didn't justify further investment and we were worried about the oncoming darkness so we went on.

The next fiasco was trying to get to #63. As did everyone else attempting the route, we ran into the umapped 12 ft. high deer fence marked private. We chose to go around to the right. In the process we found it to be an 800m long deviation that forced us to making an unplanned +340ft climb over the very steep Kettle Springs Mtn. Dropping off that with headlamps on and it now being truely dark we encountered the mountain laurel and rhododendrons that forced us on hands and kneeds to crawl 50m or so underneath them. On the other side, we noticed the reflective tacks on the trees and used them to go up to the unmapped Appalachian Trail on Rocky Mountain. They helped us know which way to go. We spiked #63 but it took a lot out of us. It was a low point for me. As a result we abandoned plans to go to #52.

I was very slow for a while after this and tended to wobble when climbing. We ate a meal just past #43 and that helped a lot. Closing out around midnight, we walked on the road toward #34 and decided to play it safe cutting off our lights and jumping into the woods when a pickup truck peeled out and approached. We kept the lights off as we passed the party at the house ahead. We turned them on just in time to find the trail leading to #34. We missed it initially but Dave spotted it on our slightly lower return along the ridge--it didn't seem like much of a spur.

C • Rattlesnake? 5

Final packing for SVO Rogaine and preparing food to take.

Pack organizing and fretting about the gear and food to take on the upcomming SVO Rogaine.

45 situps. Using the time to get gear and food ready for the Rogaine this weekend.

Beech St. at Oregon Ave, Washington, D.C. Into Rock Creek Park. Using mostly the Ridge Trail and the Valley Trail I ran through the woods at night. I needed to test gear for the upcoming rogaine(s). I borrowed Dave Onkst's hydration pack, put some new padding in my shoes, and used Dave's headlamp at about 10:30pm. Trying to run with the dim light setting on a moonless night, it took me less than 5 minutes to end up on the ground and cut my finger pretty good with my compass; it didn't stop bleeding for a long time. It was fun going out but I was slow. The hydration pack was okay but rubbed my neck. It also leaked at one point. I guess all this is why I needed to test it.

45 situps.

Annapolis, MD. Broad Creek. Warm-up around the start area for QOC's short courses. I felt tired but better as I went.

QOC Broad Creek. Annapolis, MD. I ran Sprint B first. It was fun and used many of the same control locations from the Summer Short Series that I setup last year. I pulled-up short on #3 having come off the wrong trail bend. I misread #5 and went around to the bottom before having to come up to the obvious rock. Going to #8 and #9 was thicker than expected and thus slow. #10 was misplaced. After going down the reentrant then up, I went down again and then over to next reentrant where I found it. I untied it then carried it to the correct location to hang it for others. I was surprised near the end to come across the new uncrossable fence. I followed along it to just before the building, then decided that I'd have to go around on the Riva Rd. side. It wasn't until control pickup that I learned there was an open gate just at the builiding on the near side. It was a fun run that kept me thinking and reading.

Warm-up around the start of the QOC Broad Creek Annapolis meet. I had to hurry because starts were ending and Peggy had just come back.

QOC Broad Creek, Annapolis Sprint A. I knew going out that both Tom and Andy Strat had finished in 25 minutes. I figured I'd have to run clean to do that and did. This sprint was much more in the open though I did cut across the woods in places. The experience from the earlier sprint let me know where it was bad to do so. Going into the woods the first time, I ran toward the correct trail then veered off to the wrong one. I corrected quickly dropping into the reentrant. In the field, I ran to the wrong side of the small building and again ran all the way around the pool building on another control, not knowing that the unmapped fence did have a gate in it near the building.

Broad Creek, Annapolis, MD. I was assigned 5 controls in the fields while Peggy strolled Max to get some others in the open nearer the start. All the fun ones in the woods were already assigned.

Broad Creek, Annapolis, MD. We had a new comer get lost. She was out on the Sprint B course for around 4 hours. She'd run off the map across a creek and up the other side to a road where she was eventually found. Others had checked there before but while her mother searched there by car along the road and found her, I ran about searching in the woods. I had a cell phone with me so Peggy called me when they had returned.