US Night O champs, Green Y, Oregon Ridge, QOC
Up at 4 am for an early flight; my least favorite thing to do. Had a stopover in St Louis, then into Baltimore to meet Mike (who was coming from Durham). Made our way to the event site in plenty of time, by taking back roads to avoid the Friday night traffic on the interstates.
I was excited for this event. I like night O, and I had been told that the woods were nice. And they were. In fact, they were fantastic. On my way down the hill to the first control, I was literally saying "wwhheeee" inside my head. Such fun!
But then I started to go crazy, and make mistakes that I know how to avoid. On my way to 2, I left the trail too soon (I assumed a minor curve was the big bend I was looking for). At least I kept moving, and relocated soon-ish, by hitting the trail again. This time I stayed on the trail until it really was bending, and had no more problems with the control.
I was tired going up and down the hills, but otherwise things were fine. Until I was heading towards 5, when suddenly by right calf cramped up for a second. WTF? I never get cramps. It went away quickly (I walked it out) but I was a bit nervous about it.
My plan for 6 was to go up the power line, and head into the woods to pick up the big trail heading NW. My plan was to look for the trail on my right which intersected the power line. I turned when I saw a trail on my right. And then I couldn't find the big trail. This was weird. There was reentrant on my left, but nothing else made sense. At this point I knew I was off base, but where was I? I saw a marker in the distance, and I ran to it hoping it was one of my later controls. 111. Not mine. But it was on a marsh, so I deduced that I was near my 10, and I headed back up the hill (which was correct).
But I missed the big trail again. And went down an incorrect reentrant. Ugh! Finally went back up, found the trail again, and stayed on it until I found the line of rootstocks, and into the control.
All this time, my calves (yes, both of them now) would cramp up occasionally. This was getting to be no fun. I decided to take it easier, and not run so much.
I had trouble finding the trail again on the way to 7, but I was clean through the next few controls. I remember thinking the hills weren't so big here. Only sitting in the daylight did I notice that they used form lines as contour lines (why?) on parts of the map, which were effectively showing 2.5 m contours.
Earlier, I had been really mad at myself for my big mistakes. By now I was doing better with navigation, but my calves were slowing me down, so I was beginning to laugh at the absurdity. And then the night turned ridiculous.
I was approaching 12 when my headlamp died. Usually, it starts to fade, but this time, it just went black. I had a backup (little Petzel) which I pulled out of my pocket. And found that the latch had come undone and the batteries were loose. I slowly made my way (in the dark) back to the trail, and asked someone if I could use their light for a minute to put my batteries back in. Then I tried to find 12 again. It was hard, with my puny lamp. I was saved by seeing a group of folks leaving the control.
After this I slowly limped down the trail and into the finish. I still can't figure out why my calves chose tonight to cramp up for the first time, My best guess is that it had something to do with flying and competing on the same day. I didn't have nay issues with them for the rest of the weekend.
I was glad I had a slow walk into the finish, so I could calm down and be in a decent mood by the time I got there, and laugh off my misadventures. But I was still really disappointed in myself for making rookie mistakes. I was not paying attention to distance traveled, and that's unforgivable.
But the woods were beautiful!
route