Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC Little Bennett Night-O
 

QOC: Night-O at Little Bennett Regional Park, MD. Being tired from not sleeping much all week (I was working on map drafting), and from not training much (had to watch the kids in the evening and the weather was bad), I did the Middle Advanced course. A big difference from my last night-O was that I used the full beam the whole way. I was seeing things pretty well and ran pretty good bearings too. My one biggest error was taking a bad route over hills and forest with thorns, instead of following a road. It all worked out well however, since I won the course. All of the faster runners ran the Long Advanced course which was 2K longer. I forgot to mention that it was cold out--about 17 F the whole way, with about an inch of snow. It was good fun and as I've said--I ran with glee!

Little Bennett Regional Park, MD. This was my warmup for the night-O. I jogged from the Nature Center to the start, only only to realize that I'd forgotten my eyeglasses. I ran back to get them. There was an inch of snow on the ground and it was between 19 and 17 F.

Medium Advanced - Splits

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. It was raining lightly and it was dark. I rode slowly both because I was tired and because it was a little windy.

From Muncaster Mill Rd., I continued field checking areas between Muncaster Mill Rd., and the Inter-County Connector Hwy.

Washington, D.C. At lunchtime I did a version of what I call the Memorial Tour from my office (From 14th St., SW to Independence Ave. SW, to 15th St. SW., past the Tidal Basin, and Jefferson Memorial to the Rock Creek Trail along Ohio Dr., to Lincoln Memorial Circle, along the Reflecting Pool to 17th St., then along Independence Ave. to 14th St., SW. I got a lucky break from the rain at lunchtime--I anticipated that it'd be too messy to run and get back to work on-time but since I brought along my running things and work wasn't too busy, I took advantage of it. It was nice to get out. The weather was comfortable (46 F) but it was wet everywhere. I was careful not to wipe out on the slick concrete sidewalk ramps. Along the Tidal Basin, the high tide overflowed the river bank and there were chains to keep one on the submerged walkway. I went slow there but somehow still managed to run 8:08 pace when I thought I was running closer to 8:30 pace.

From Muncaster Mill Rd., I continued field checking areas between Muncaster Mill Rd., and the Inter-County Connector Hwy. I went over areas west of North Branch mostly, and spent a lot of time on vegetation mapping. There were lots of areas of rough open and scattered rough open to map. I also put an edge to green areas. With it being mid-winter, even the green areas seemed rather passable except for a few spots. I did find more boulders and ditches. I confirmed a strange mowed field area with horse jumps in it being park land--there was a sign on the ground about keeping out during a park program to cull deer. I finally got to see more of the 7 hills area as I call it. Each hill had cliffs or boulders on it. I also got to some flatter areas with several ruins. Its strange but interesting terrain from a mapping perspective. I wouldn't expect people to make big errors on it, but there's enough there to keep one paying attention. There were some pretty nice areas overall. At one point when walking over one of the 7 hills, I tripped on a thick vine and came down on my left shin on a rock. I was lucky not to have hit my knee. I also found yet another way to get across the ICC. This one was probably made for animals since there was a separate smaller drainage culvert along side of it--I could walk but had to hunch over the whole way.