Training Log Archive: mintore

Event: Annual Goat Race
 

A strange day, but good.

I set the ICO Skiles Test Park meet (white, ylo, brown), had breakfast with my usual orienteering partners, Brenda and Aidan, and headed of to the OLOU Annual Goat Race. They went to start the 40-ish runners on a slightly damp run.

At Tom Wallace Lake, the weather was overcast but the only real rain occurred briefly on the drive. Sadly, many of the usual Goat-folk were off on other exploits today and Dan Mattingly, formidable as a competitor, was this years goat master. After everyone got some love from Louis, we were off. Out of the parking lot, it was 45 m up in 200 m to play King/Queen of the hill. With 3 or four busses of high school kids, I will momentarily admit to being too old to play that game. There was still 10k to go so, I jog-trudged up and, while the younger folk that ripped it were trying to sort out maps, a few runners from N. Hopkins, Helen Hagg, and I got clear and started to work through the course. The course was effectively a small loop inside a larger second loop. On my way to control 3, I twisted my right ankle going down the trail which was not a good omen but it loosened up over the next 20 minutes. This control was luckily spiked as the flag was down. #4B on the first fork was a bit slow (a tricky set of reentrants of varying heights made it difficult to tell how far to go) and #6 seemed to cause most people problems (a shallow depression a quarter of the way from the top of a broad 60 m ridge). Helen usually tops me by a bit, and so the next 15 controls was a closely paced run, bouncing back and forth on finding the flags. All good, except the approach to #17 had something sharp in the gully that gouged a strip from my palm bloody enough that it was obvious to other runners. It was a long climb to #22 and this finally separated us. Almost home, less than 100 m from #23, I turned the same ankle again. Why I will never know because it was a pretty controlled decent. This time it really hurt leading to some pain-induced wobbliness as I punched. If the race had 5 more controls, I would have bailed. But, the first thing into my head was: "What would Orunner do????" Easy enough to answer -- GET (expletive?) RUNNING, there was only one to go because I was using my skip and then on to the finish and my car. In fine Kentucky style, the white-mapped hillside was wrapped in greenbriars. This was good as it made me move carefully. I just hoped not to meet Helen again as I ran the trail to #25 because I was trying step lightly and racing was out. Punched, out to the road, and then to the finish as quick as I could. It seems to have been a very long time since I was the first runner in on any race, but today was my lucky day. The Goat Champion t-shirts are very comfy. Thanks Dan, OLOU, and Helen for a really fun race.

BTW Her skip was #23; she chose better trail running to beat twice through 75 m of dark green to the control. I chose a big up and down that was more navigable. I think it was a toss-up which really was best.