Training Log Archive: levitin

Event: Billygoat 2017
 

Billygoat 39, about my 19th run. Was running in packs until I made an error on the skip from 13 to 15. I ended up navigating solo the rest of the race. Took the right fork for 21.

I didn't even see the left route to #5 until after the race. At the time, I saw Ken Walker, Sr, coming down from a steep cliff on the left and wondering where he had come from.

Thought about skipping #10, but I judged that skipping #14 saved more distance. Never saw the possibility of skipping #1.

The night before I found myself with no Gu in stock. So instead I carried a baggie with Fig Newtons and ate them during the race. Success. No cramps, even slogging up the poor route I took to #15, or late in the race.

At the 2nd Saeger loop, I saw Rich N's group behind, and a lone guy a bit ahead. He reached the huge boulder (19?) ahead of me.

Near the nonfunctional control, I was near another lone guy I thought was announced as David Webber. From the splits, it looks like he fell back after 21. I passed him going up the hill toward #20, when I took a more direct route through the marsh and he went around, then I got up the spur and into and out of the control ahead of him. Yet, at #21, we commented to each other that we witnessed the other one being at the control, even if it didn't beep and there wasn't a pin punch there to prove that we found the flag.

Billygoat - Splits

Westboro Fish and Wildlife area. Got chased by one dog, first time for that among all the dogs that walk off-leash with their humans.

Noodling around at Fresh Pond trying out new gaiters from Bermans' O Supply.

Run on the Rail-Trail from the south to Boston Scientific, then to the new (unpaved) Sheepfold trail roughly circling the base of Addition Hill, turned around and came back. My legs actually felt a little bit, dare I say, peppy? I hadn't been on the Sheepfold Trail for several, maybe 5, years, and it's been rerouted/better established than when I was last on it. They bolted on a section toward the west end so that trail users don't wander into more sensitive Boston Scientific property. That entire section (about 1/3 of the Sheepfold Trail) was new to me, and had a nice little water flow alongside part of it. On the return leg of Sheepfold Trail, I passed through a 3-way intersection that I didn't have a strong memory of going through on the first part, so I was happy to confirm with a pair of MTBers that they had come from the Rail-Trail. It also didn't look at all familiar from the vantage point of the woods until I was on the pavement. Very disconcerting.

Birdsong Trail, Tall Grass Trail, and Coyote Trail, and back.