Orienteering (Foot) 5:31:46 [3] 26.3 km (12:37 / km)
slept:7.0
HVO: Hudson Highlander, Harriman State Park, NY. With recent injuries, illnesses and lack of training, my goal was to not get injured. I thought about doing the Lowlander but decided to just take it at a modest pace with Peggy the whole way. It was fun.
The initial look on Pole Brook Mountain felt more difficult for me than it seemed to be for others. I had trouble reading along at times. The areas of green sometimes contributed. There were a lot of people around. I'm not sure if it helped or hurt me by being distracting. I started off on leg 7 going behind a person but after the stream I lost sight of him and I got off to the left too far. It seemed that several had been chasing Peggy and I during this and the whole train came to a stop. I made up for it later on leg #8 as several were going down a reentrant. Peter Gagarin was ahead but chasing another guy. They overshot while I cut up to the right to spike the control.
After the aid stop, going out on the trail run on the Sebago Lake/Kanawauke maps, we were behind Peter Gagarin again. Jeff Seager passed. The route required some reading of the map but wasn't bad. After the half-way point as the trail climbed, we got to see some of the leaders pass through the area on their way to #18. Peggy and I were headed to #12 and still far from it. We actually drifted off the trail on the ridge at one point.
At the aid stop at the end of the trail run, we had gotten personalized service--our aid box and was set out for us! Paul Bennett hinted that going direct to the next control would be good if one could follow the way without the blueberries. We opted to take the trail route over the ridge like most befoe us (except the elites). I felt rewarded by the views even though I'd just run the same trail. The descent was steep but didn't cause us to lose any time. We spiked the control using the reentrant. Leaving #16, I reasoned that going through the green either left or right wouldn't be much different but I probably got that wrong. Peggy and I had a lot of trouble avoiding unmapped watery parts hidden in the thickets of rhododendron. We made good time going to #18 (King/Queen of the Hill leg) by staying left initially. I got a bit confused on top but Peggy took over and spiked it for us. Along the way, we passed Peter Gagarin again as he was suffering on the climb. Like me he lacked sufficient training though his lack of training was probably due more to injury than mine. Peggy kept us true on #19 too. For leg #21, we opted for the trail/road route--though we passed the control a bit we still were able to get back up to it before seeing Peter.
I felt slowish going out on the last Sebago Kanawauke loop. My feet had been feeling bruised. It was either the lack of running training or the issues with tendons that I'd been feeling all over since Spring (like my arches hurting sometimes). At #22, an older and heavier adventure racer asked to tag along. He'd been doing the Lowlander. Peggy gave him tips along the way. After getting through the campground area and crossing the field. I wanted to go lower for better footing. Peggy kept us high and Peter passed below. We got to #23 around the same time but then passed him for the last time. We lost the adventure racer on the climb to #25 and I saw Jeff Seager as he was just leaving. After #26, we started passing others; the blueberries weren't much fun. Peggy was doing a good job reading the scattered boulders where I was relying on contours and bearing. At #28, several were converging. We passed most of them going to #29 and had the feeling of being almost done. Most of what remained was downhill. I spotted #29 a long way off. We were just a bit to the left getting to #30 and saw some others climbing back up to the road. I didn't like the idea of running the road in spikes much and Peggy didn't want to climb back up. However by staying low we came to realize that a fence would make us climb anyway. It was nice to be done.
QOC did well with Ken Walker, Jr. taking 3rd, and Dave Onkst placing pretty high with one of his best finishes even though he could have been faster. I felt that I got all my base traininig in for the fall season in this one day.