Training Log Archive: TomN

Event: QOC Oregon Ridge
 

I ran my own Red course, which had some long legs I had never done during the course setting. I was interested in testing the theory that a big factor in my orienteering is the inability to visualize the control area, and the resulting time loss due to lack of confidence at the endpoints. The answer was yes, I was more confident entering the control area, and faster entering, punching and moving on. But it wasn't a great test because most of the controls on this course were visible from a long way away. It was hard to hide anything in this forest. It being a club event, the control locations had to do multiple duty, and I couldn't hide them from all approaches.

My only problem was the leg from 2-3, on which I lost track of the distance on the long featureless ridge. Well, that was the trap I intended to set, and I fell into it. Perfect.

Nice to see all the DVOA folks there. Had a good chat with Dan Barker, Dave Urban, and others. Afterwards, took Addie to lunch at Wegmans and discussed her course.

C • Thanks! 2

Red - Splits

I arrived at about 11:30 a.m. and found the NJROTC event in full swing. This was remarkably gratifying. The start and finish were grandlly streamered and running like clockwork. Starting runners were being called up on 2-minute intervals. Finishing runners were entering the arena one by one to great cheers. Basically, it was an A-meet. The parking lot looked oddly empty, but it turned out the buses had all parked in the overflow area in the field left (east) of the parking lot, where several of them immediately proceeded to get stuck in the mud.

I headed over to the Nature Center parking area to see how the controls were working. My big water stop control for Y-O had been moved to the proper location (thanks, Eddie). I should have known something was up the previous afternoon when Valerie couldn't find the streamer for it, but by then it was dark. I went up to the next common Orange control. Everywhere I looked, runners were going in the wrong direction, off on impossible route choices, or standing stock still with the control in plain view. One kid was hollering to see if anyone had seen a rock, because he needed it for Green. (There were no rocks.) It was chaos.

Checked in again with Valerie, and went off to have a lunch at Wegmans (I admit, I was actually looking forward to doing this). When I got back, it was all work. I visited all 4 water stops with a backpack full of water, cleaned up the trash and replenished the water supply for the next day. At dusk I met Valerie and Sandy, who reminded me that there was a White control that needed water too. Unfortunately, it was at the top of the ski slope. We left that one for a volunteer tomorrow.

Putting out controls for Oregon Ridge. This was a combined NJROTC/QOC meet. The Saturday NJROTC event had over 400 runners registered. For the courses, they had asked for 2 Yellows and 2 Oranges, with each pair of courses equal in all respects so they could declare an overall champion. That was interesting. I spent a lot of time tweaking the courses to make the twin pairs. Then at the very last minute, it turned out they had too many Green runners, so I made another Green course. The first attempt I sketched in it turned out to be exactly the same length and climb as the other Green. No problemo!

It took me a long time to get the controls out. I was walking, not pushing very hard, but still. At the end of the day, there was water that needed to get put out on the courses. Valerie had kindly volunteered to hump 12 gallons up to the top of the hill (how can I ever repay you?) and I backpacked it out to various widely-dispersed locations. Who designed these water stops, anyway? It turns out that 4 gallons of water rides pretty comfortably, but 5 is basically over the limit for me. Shoot, there was a time when I packed 120 lbs up to 11,000 feet in the Wind Rivers and became known as the Beast from the East. Oh well, the ravages of time and all that.

Anyway, it was about dark when everything was set. The drive home was nuts. I got stuck in 3 accidents. It was 2 hours just to get out of Baltimore. Great food back at home but couldn't eat much, too tired.

Drumm loop, with a short detour out to Capitol View on account of total space-out.