Training Log Archive: RJM

a little shopping at the library and hardware store. Other than that, too busy with painting and house stuff.

drizzle

tp am, crosby home.

From home to dentist, back along exchange (where a right-turning car literally grazed my front wheel, apparently on purpose), home via north.

Brecksville HillBilly Goat long course (with a map exchange!). Second to Stan, mostly due to one error while running with him (Control 5).
Very pleased with my navigation, not so much with my endurance (ran out of gas after map exchange, mostly because Stan was right with me there and I wanted to shake him, but also because some of my route choices involved too much climb).
Yet another fantastic course by Howard Montgomery! His courses always show me interesting terrain I hadn't noticed, and set excellent problems to solve. Howard's designs are are like A-meets, and I'd walk over hot coals to take part in anything he sets.
Overcast, no rain or threat of rain, ~60F, damp but not overly slippery. Great day for this.

I'd like to know what controls other people skipped (we were allowed 2 non-consecutive skips.

For me: I Skipped # 6 on the first map, which allowed me to run trail and powerline-cut all the way to snowville road and get #8 from the south.

On the second map I skipped #8, and so did Stan

Stan skipped #1 on the first map (! I never thought of that, but I think he was trying to shake the pack right off the start, thinking (correctly!) that we all intended to follow him and put the maps in our pockets!).
He also skipped #8 on the second map.
I didn't get to talk to other finishers.

Just to start a conversation with any one else who was there today, here is my control-by-control breakdown of what I did.

#1: Bob led the way, and I was close behind. He headed too far west but then hesitated as he neared the plateau edge - I looked right and saw the faint reentrant, zipped over and punched first, with Sergei close behind. Didn't see Bob after that (1:44 split)

#2: Headed to the spur just right of the line, came out on the road a bit too far right, and saw Sergei ahead of me to the left. He hesitated along the edge of the plateau, but I knew where I was and zoomed past him to #2. Forgot to record split

#3 This had lots of potential for error, so I slowed a bit. Mostly ran on the red line by compass and features. After crossing the river, saw Sergei to the left, and lower than the control, apparently missing it. I followed the contours right in to it. After I punched I didn't see him again (heard that he had some calf problems later on). Behind and to the right I heard a tremendous and extended crash, like a tree falling, but heard no voices or yells, and no response to a call of 'are you ok?' so I continued on. (Total split for 2+3 of 7:25)

#4 After punching I saw that Olga had punched a bit ahead of me (wonder what she skipped?), and I followed her straight up to the plateau, then followed that SE. I passed her where the plateau narrows on the red line. The veg on the spur was a bit thick, which slowed me down. I did a little head scratching in and near the circle, but the control was right on once I figured out the terrain. (4:45)

#5 I didn't like the idea of going straight through green (which had been unpleasant and thick so far), so I crossed the stream, and found that though mapped as white woods, it was thick with grass and bushes, and slow. Walked and trotted to open yellow area, attacking the depression from there (though I aimed too high and had to drop down to it once I realized that). (3:26)

#6 My original plan was to skip 12, which I knew went through an ugly, slow, and featureless area. However as I started to head towards 6 I realized that if I skipped this instead, I could run almost all on trail to get to number 8 (since 7 was omitted), and as a bonus get a very easy attack from snowville road. So, skip it is!

#7 Omitted

#8 Contour south, cross stream, climb spur at stream junction, up the spur, run hard on trail south to yellow powerlinecut, near control 10 head right into the woods, and aim for edge of reentrant at snowville (might have been better to stay on the powerline, but there was a big area of tall cattails that might have been hard to run thruogh just ahead), out to road at house, along snowville road, cut into the open area at the 'trail' (which didn't exist beyond road edge). As I entered the field I saw Stan leaving #8. However, a frustrating patch of briars and rose slowed my final approach, and he was long gone by the time I punched. (18:05)

#9: Poor execution here, but the basic idea of running the compass bearing and looking for the reentrant tops worked. I moved slowly through this grassy, shrubby, and varied terrain. I was hopeful I'd see stan, but no luck. (1:43)

#10: I was about to go back to snowville road and take the longer but flatter route, then thought I heard Stan below, so I took the straight route, down and up. Poor execution, with slow running in the creekbed, and a mistaken ascent before the reentrant I wanted, forcing extra climb and contouring. This was one of many minor errors of execution that I paid for later in the course - they just tired me out! (6:07)

#11: Ran the straightline to the plateau edge, followed that to what turned out to be a very complicated and interesting reentrant and spur system (hadn't noticed that it was below the plateau's top). Slow progress once in the circle. (3:24)

#12 With no clear attackpoint or features to navigate with, this one required a careful compass bearing and attentive distance estimation. Neither of those are my strong suit. Still, I ran straight down, and then tried to maintain map awareness in the featureless area (is it really white woods? There's a lot of grass and other crap that made it hard to move - lots of highstepping! This added to my growing fatigue). I found some sort of edge of the wet area (near the 'reentrant?), hesitated many times, but followed the edge eastward until bumping into 12 pretty much by accident. (3:39)

Map Exchange: ran to the parking lot on the red line, which again had lots of grass and wet areas that were hard to move through. Great to see you there Howard! Nice drink of water, new map, and as I move out Stan comes in. He later said that he made errors on 12.

Map 2, #1: UGH! Back to #12. Tried a different route (to the right), which worked ok but not any better. Stan close behind me. (6:11 from #12 to exchange back to here)

#2: Ran the Redline (straight), but hard to keep a bearing in this mix of shrubberies, brambles, and tangled grass. Stan and I run through the open area about 20m apart, converged on the patch of green, with me still punching first by a few seconds. (2:31)

#3 Redline, I can't even remember this one. Since the map exchange I've been running hard, hoping to break contact with Stan, but no luck, and it's now taking a toll. (1:15; I am now 1 hour into the course)

#4: I considered running to the road, but decided (why? I don't know - oxygen deprivation I guess) to stay in the rough open. This was a mistake, and within 50m I re-realized that the rough open was more rough than open. Bailed out to road, where I saw Stan ahead of me by 40m. Up the road, attack from the trail-road intersection, but both of us have to walk up the minor but grassy and briary hill to punch. About 20-30 seconds behind stan now (4:48)

#5: The options were to go up or go around. Stan starts up, and I'm pooped, and I want to get ahead of him, so I made a fateful decision to try going around to the right. Somehow wound up in the reentrant NW and across the stream (a very interesting set of weird features there I now see), and convinced myself I was in a complicated but initially similar reentrant system NE of 5 for about 3 minutes. Finally figured out my error, but after an ugly climb up a narrow and debris-clogged reentrant I feel absolutely beat, and have lost a lot of my fight. I probably lost 3-4 minutes here. (7:31)

#6: I am completely pooped and feel like I'm miles from the start, and wonder how I'm going to get back, with this long and imposing leg ahead of me. The red line would involve over 20 lines of climb, so it's out! I walk and slowly return to jogging in the direction of the trail, get on it, and slowly realize that if I drop into the river valley I can catch a trail route that will only involve 8 lines of climb. On the trail I slowly regain some vim and vigor, although Greg Harpst and his crew can attest that my progress up the steep trail there was agonizingly slow. However along here I finally realized that I still have one more control I can skip. Hooray! I read the map and plan the next couple of controls on the uphills. From the hairpin turn at the top of the trail NE of 6 I run the plateau around to the ridge above 6 and dropped in, again surprised at the topography here (and glad again for the excellent use of the terrain by this course. If only there was less climb, or an escalator). (12:29)

#7: redline to river, around the spur, attacking from there. (3:36)

#8: Skip!

#9 The redline is the right route again - up the spur, bearing to the edge of the plateau, bearing to the house (spot on!), and good run into 9. (forgot to take split)

Finish: Again oxygen starved from running, had to stop several times to make sure I was headed in the right direction. As I emerge from the woods I see stan sauntering back to his van. I think he beat me by about 3 minutes, about the time I think I lost on control 5. Rats! (11:00)


I was beat in many ways, but I had a fantastic time. Great day, great course, great friends.

Things I did well - map contact, reading on the uphills, running the straightline.

Control pickup