Training Log Archive: GlenT

Long Distance at Salmon la Sac. Very ugly.

Compounding errors on Leg 4 led to a 43 minute error - Yikes. First misread the map (the course printing and particularly control numbers were hard to see) and made a great route choice to the wrong control. Realized the error about half way and started navigating to the correct control, with additional climb and through some gnarly stuff (vegetation, downed logs and a bit of scree). As I attacked the control I was drawn off by others on my course and started looking too far NW. For some reason, I failed to relocate on a known feature and continued to bumble around. Finally stumbled onto my 2nd control and navigated from there to the point I was looking for. In the process of wandering around I twisted my ankle enough to cause some hobbling.

The rest of the course was OK with a couple of 2 minute errors until I was running on a trail going to control 13, fell and smashed my compass. I spent a couple of minutes looking for the capsule (i.e. the expensive part) and found it. It was still functional although I probably could've finished the course just fine without it. And at some point on the way in I twisted the same ankle again.

A monster error, a sprained ankle and a broken compass - not a good day. And the last orienteering for a while, so I have plenty of time to think about it. :-(

Long Green - Splits

Middle Distance (US Champs) and Salmon la Sac. Green course. 2nd M55 (by 24 sec), 3rd overall on Green. About 10 minutes of errors. Sunny and quite warm (upper 70's). Technical and physical terrain.

Walk to start for Middle Distance. No need to jog to warm up!

U.S. Middle Champs Green - Splits

Sprint at Salmon la Sac. Course 3 (M21). A woods sprint, with about 6 legs where trails weren't really an option. Lost 3 minutes on one leg and had several other losses just trying to go too fast. Probably could've been 5 minutes faster. Took a nasty fall towards the end which tore a big hole in my newer o-pants and a few (smaller) holes in my leg.

Salmon Run Sprint 3 - Splits

PNWOF Long - Red Course. Adjacent to yesterday's map but without going into the gold-mining area too much. Lots of spurs and reentrants in fairly open woods - fast running but also lots of climb (control descriptions said 320m, I did 470m and don't see how it could be done with much less than that). Lost 4 minutes on control 2 by not checking my compass enough. Distracted a bit by the hundreds of sheep in the vicinity of #3 and lost a couple of minutes there. Pretty clean the rest of the way. 3rd in M45 again and 7th overall on Red.

PNWOF Middle Distance - Red Course. Lots of fun in gold-mining terrain. Physical and very technical. Lots of short legs. A good run with several smallish errors. Probably could've been 3 or 4 minutes faster. 3rd in M45, 6th overall on Red.

Event: 2009 Pacific Northwest Orienteering Festival
 

Sprint on Boise State University campus. Course 3, M21. Pavement and lawn running with some buildings to go around (and a few things which were a bit more complex). A pretty decent run except for one fatal mistake resulting in a mp. Control 58 and 48 were located ~20m from each other on either end of a thicket (although 48 was actually on a boulder in the thicket). I punched 58 which I came to first and even though I thought "that's not hung in the right place", I kept going without checking to see what was wrong. This was my control #18 and on Course 3 the controls were numbered sequentially, so I saw the "8" and punched. I hope the course setter didn't intentionally set a trap using similar codes. Otherwise, the course was a lot of fun and I did well looking ahead to make the route choice for the next leg. Temps in the 70's but some showers were moving in and it sprinkled a bit towards the end of my run.