Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Event: CascadeOC Wednesday Evening #2
 

WES #2 @ Lake Wilderness Park. Had a nearly perfect race - possibly one or two wrong route choices which cost me a few seconds, but nothing other than that. They build a new disc golf course in the park and in doing so turned a swath of previously useless (for orienteering purposes) dense forest into a decently interesting area.

Another good turnout with 75-80 starts, same as last month's. It's nice when I get to run at a Wednesday event. I'm the course-setter for most of them, and last year I was event director as well because our paid event director at the time wasn't available on weekdays. Now we have a new person in that role who is, so I can focus on designing courses, and on occasion even run if someone else designs.

So I discovered a pretty hilariously random and epic connection circuit today that was unearthed because my roommate went to a bridal shower for her cousin's fiancee at the home of the family of two current WIOL participants, who happen to be the cousins of that fiancee and who just so happen to be two of the half-dozen or so WIOL kids that I happen to have met and know on a name+face basis because they are two of the relative few who orienteer beyond the regular school league season. Their mom was chatting with my roommate and for whatever reason she mentioned orienteering, whereupon my roommate was like "wait what my roommate does that."

I feel like that paragraph is pretty unintelligible so if you're scoring at home:

Me --> Roommate --> Roommate's cousin --> Roommate's cousin's fiancee --> Roommate's cousin's fiancee's cousins --> Me

Right ankle sore, left knee bruised up, shins scraped and battered. Newcastle Island is the type of terrain that just relentlessly beats hell out of you physically and mentally - it seems like every third or fourth step you're tripping, stumbling, or landing awkwardly, and it's very difficult to stay on a bearing because the vegetation pushes you around so much - but it makes all other terrains seem easy by comparison.

C • Freedom! 8

Newcastle Pan-Island Bush Orienteering World Championships, Day 2. Started off quite well for the first two controls, but rolled my janky right ankle four times in the span of about 15 minutes between 1 and 4, each time feeling the pain increase. Considered bailing but decided I could continue cautiously if I protected the ankle - don't need some stupid injury right now. It stopped hurting around 9-10 but I can feel it afterward.

Newcastle Pan-Island Bush Orienteering World Championships, Day 1. I came in with vague memories of swimming around in salal on my first trip here at age ~12, so I wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised by the terrain. There was salal, but also nice white woods (to various degrees) and interesting rock detail. I did plenty of dumb stuff, some of which I'll claim was the map's fault (1, 6) and some of which was my fault (9, 14, 17), but also won a decent amount of splits.

C • Blue Jays Weekend 5

Left work at four on the dot to hustle home in time for Game 4, only to realize when I arrived that it started at six, not five. Rooting for the Cavs mainly because I'm a LeBron guy but also because more Finals basketball = better.