Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC Balls Bluff
 

QOC: Balls Bluff, VA. Peggy, I and the kids arrived late so we rushed out. I didn't get a clue description on. I'd skimmed the course notes the night before and recalled a bit of trail-o being mentioned but I thought it was going to apply to the White course. Just before going out, Peggy and another guy did. The other guy seemed to take a while to leave the start. It turned out that I did that too; I just couldn't find #1 or the start triangle. I lost between 45 seconds and a minute. It didn't help that I went to the wrong control. I did the same for #2 and for that I had little excuse but not having control descriptions on my arm. I didn't want to unfold the map for them as I was reading it. I only went to one of the wrong controls for that.

I was a little shaky going to #3 because I was getting used to the mapping of the reentrants and kind of lost count. I wasn't sure which ones were counting. I didn't lose any time. I was solid going to #4 too.

For #5, I did pause a while looking for a good route. I ruled out going to the right along the cliffs because it was a long climb with a steep climb through green at the end. I thought going left was too far around and didn't eliminate enough of the trails. I went straightish taking some trails and bearings across open forest. I got forced by vegetation more to the right and the trail at the end, but I spiked it leaving from before the knoll at the end. I spiked #6 going straight too.

For #7, I was happy to be able to run through the low vegetation. I came off the road at a fence end and had a small animal trail leading to the reentrant. I went around on the left to the trails, including the vehicle track. I spiked that coming in off of the fight vegetation corner to the north--I could seen the control from there almost 100m out.

For #9, it was just straight on. I was not sure how high it'd be--the hill kept on going!

For #10, I went just right of straight and ignored most of the trails near the parking lot. I dropped into the big reentrants and came up the spur at the end. I went a little left at first for #11 to maximize the runnable terrain.

For #12, I got left of the reentrant and onto the dam. I took the road up and attacked from about the corner to spike it.

For #13, I went straight but at the stream, I had to pause and turn to get to another crossing. I'd hit the stream at an earth bank. I read the contrours on the other side well and didn't get fooled by the dot knoll higher up. I did however have to drop a short way to the control. I'd understood that the rootstock could have been the dot knoll because it was too small to be classified as a root stock on this map. Somewhere around here, I'd realized that I hadn't made a mistake yet--a rarity. I hoped to keep it up.

For #14, I ignored the trails, passing just north of the parking lot, and down a spur toward a steep climb. To not get slowed too much by it, I angled left. That meant I had to correct to the right once I got on the ridge. I ran around the large reentrant and dropped right into the reentrant at the control.

For #15, I moved a little to the right initially, but mostly went straight.

For #16, I hugged the property line. I made sure not to get into the open area crossing one reentrant along the way. I saw the control from across the last reentrant.

For #17, I went straight and into the stream valley. For #18, I got my feet wet crossing the first stream. It was wet and leafy enough that I decided that climbing to the right would be best. I did that and passed Amy Loudoun who was walking the hillside below me. At the end, I crossed the last reentrant and walked-up to the control.

I wasn't that strong so I went a bit to the left, partially crossing reentrants near the tops. I was able to keep running the whole way and I hit the finish right at the control (seeing the pavilion from far off made it easier but I didn't see the control until the very end).

This was a pretty good run for me. I was happy to not have made any errors. :) Having gained some weight, I did feel it climbing hills. If I can stop working late, and hit some better weather on nights that I get off closer to on-time, I really need to do more running. I thought Daniel Heimgartner set a great course for the available terrain. The terrain was also a star with really open forest most of the way. I'd seen a few areas driving-in and near the finish where someone had been doing a lot of work to pickup the deadfallen branches and put them into piles. That really helped too. I tend to make more errors in places that are green and I didn't have much of that to deal with today. On a side note, I was wowed by how close the splits were for Vido and I. He and I compared them and our routes afterward. We'd taken a lot of very different routes but got to a lot of those controls only seconds apart.

Red - Splits

From Muncaster Mill Rd., I ran to just south of the Inter-County-Connector Hwy. (ICC) and added onto the map. Initially I went east over a ridge and into a valley for a side stream to North Branch Creek. This wasn't a particularly interesting or difficult area, being narrow but it had enough useable features. It took some time to capture them because many were linear--flood plain ditches, old rides, and a stream that I hadn't earlier gotten off of imagery. There were a few point features too. Visibility was mixed. The need to get it was that it connects to one of the 3 ICC underpasses

Afterwards, I went north of the ICC. The east side of the creek that I mapped is narrow but the woods were almost 100% wide open. There was an abundance of features low along the stream and the North Branch Creek. I found a few trails too.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfeild Rd. There was a headwind and I felt cold.