Training Log Archive: Nadim

Hoyles Mill Conservation Park. I started from the ball field parking lot off of White Ground Rd. I got to some areas which were more open today. That was nice for a change. I spent a lot of time tracking the edges of vegetation changes. Features found were often more spaced apart which seemed like another nice thing but there were some areas more dense.

Event: QOC Smokey Glen
 

For my warmup, I hiked from Smokey Glen Barbequers to the start of the 2022 QOC Bumble with course setter David Onkst, and Peggy. It was cold but sunny.

QOC Bumble in the Smokey Glen Barbequers property, and in Seneca Creek State Park, MD. David Onkst set a very similar course to a previous Bumble event held here. By design controls were in very similar locations. David wanted to give past runners a chance to improve themselves and to see if they would. I was hurting early but eventually I felt better.

S-1 - I got moving early and was near the front as we started. I chose my windows and decided most of what my course orders would be before getting 200m down the road.

For the first window I ran O, N, K, L, M. I doglegged toward the start, but being impatient, I jumped in the woods early. Others had gone in right away but since they were just running faster, they were just ahead of me going to O. Bushy growth that I'd mapped earlier had definitely grown taller and thus was thicker. People ahead of me gave away the location but I knew I was close on my own (I made the map). Leaving O, it seemed that a new trail had gotten made, but it joined the older mapped trail quickly. I dropped to the Seneca Ridge Trail and crossed the creek on it. After climbing above some low vegetation, I left the trail and dropped to control N. About this time, my right ankle started hurting--a new pain :(. I don't recall rolling it. It hurt most when the ground slope was higher on the right side. I started dropping off the pace a lot, slow though it already was. I stayed low and in between the hillside and the creek; a place I enjoy running, but I wasn't feeling good. I thought I might have to quit. With occasional walking in the yellow ride, I hit control K right on. Going to L, I could again tell that the vegetation had grown-up beyond how I'd mapped it. I came around some vegetation on the left side just before spiking L With my right ankle still hurting, I hit M perfectly, having gone straight. Elliot Hamilton passed me just before I got there.

Leaving M, Elliot started to go high but later passed me again as I went low and parallel to the creek. I walked more occasionally. After getting onto ground that was more firm, I moved better and went straight along the old road to the marshy area. I passed Diana Aleksieva, but pulled-up a little short while looking for the depression that I knew from memory to be on the left side of the trail. It wasn't visible because the control was actually on a formline shown as an earthbank in the clue description--with so many controls I didn't take the time to correlate the letter on the map with the clue description. I didn't lose much time getting to U--10-15 seconds at most. Heading to V next, I decided it to be faster using the trails along Long Draught Branch rather than the more up and down way with more vegetation and no trails, crossing under the highway at Seneca Creek. I had to stop along the way for a pit stop. By this time, I was feeling slightly better--my ankle was not hurting much any more--weird. I hit V perfectly but it would have been hard to miss being right next to the pavilion. I doubled back heading towards W next. I crossed the marsh on the boardwalk for the Mink Hollow Trail. I was only on it for 100m before making my way up past the rootstocks to the road. W was again too easy, being a distinct tree right off the road in an open area. I ran the road until just past the bridge over the highway. Once approaching the end of the disc golf area, I could see control X, over 100m away. Leaving control X, I doubled back across the stream to the west of X, to avoid expected growth in green vegetation. As I did this, I wondered if it was a faster route because I didn't see as much growth of the vegetation as I had earlier. I eventually crossed the stream and got up onto the plateau. At the top of the mapped gullies, I recognized which gully I needed, and found the little knoll between the gullies, with control Y.

Leaving Y, to go to T, I saw two men apparently running as a team. I was able to catch them after the creek crossing, and I spike it--that rootstock was too small), I kept moving heading to S next to that I'd have a short distance exiting this window. I went straight and spked it, but I wasn't reading the terrain very well. I read my way to T better, and used the telephone poles to attack and spike R next. I used the trail going to Q--it was too easy being right on the trail. For P, I figured I was moving slowly so going straight over the ridge that I was already half way up, was best. I passed Suzanne Izzo (oldest QOC member?) going the other direction, up the steep ridge. I went past the depressions and spiked P.

I went straight again going to #27. I spiked it wih the help of some rootstocks along the way.

I went through the mini-golf and horseshoe pits goin to the finish. I went through an open building that I'd mapped as a canopy.

Overall, finishing-up the Green course was not bad. I was slow and finished just after Ted Good, who'd run Red.

From Northfield Rd., Greenwich Park, to Old Georgetown Rd. to Johnson Ave./Hempstead Ave. to McKinley St. to Garfield St., to Roosevelt St., to the trail at Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd. My ankles were again feeling the stress of walking fast. I was able to get out between rains and temperatures were in the mid-50s F.