Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Lake Popolopen, Red M35, last place out of 5 or 6. Despite having put "GPS watch" on a list of things to bring this weekend, I forgot it. Made it to the start in the nick of time, after not being sure I could even walk that far. While getting ready, the lower back pain was such that I was unable to bend down to tie my shoes, and I couldn't have done a situp to save my life. I could barely get my pants on. Started out walking, and got to the first control circle just fine, but wasn't sure which of the 23 cliffs in the circle the control would be on, so I climbed up a little high, then had to come back down to where the control was, just as Magnus arrived, having made up two minutes. We had a loop for the next few controls, and were joined by a guy in a hat who was way faster, but a little shaky on the navigation. Despite my back problems, I was able to keep them in sight for most of the loop. The last control in the loop was supposedly a water stop, but it had no sign of any jugs or cups, which meant that the first water was going to be quite a way into the course. There was another control in sight that did have jugs, so if Ihad been thirsty enough I could have gone there. Leg #6 was back to the start of the loop, and halfway there was a row of cliffs that looked something like the one that the control was on. I caught up to hat guy there, standing still and looking around confusedly, and I said to him, "You're halfway there".

The next leg was long, with a fair bit of climb, and I opted to go to the right and save some climb (and to do my climbing late). I didn't do that great a job of executing the route, failing to get onto the bench that ran around the hillside, and instead being higher on a steep, rocky slope with some deadfall obstacles. Crossing one downed tree, I lost my footing, and as I went ass over teakettle, I thought they might need to come rescue me, but instead, the experience kind of shook things out a little and I was able to jog abit after that. I came in low and went by #10, which confirmed my location, and then it was just a slog up the hill to the control, but as I started doing that, I saw hat guy go by, presumably not knowing where he was, and I never saw him again. Magnus got well out ahead of me at this point.

The next few controls went fine, other than a little hesitation at #8, trying to identify the right knoll. On the way to #15, I spotted Magnus up ahead, having gained back a bunch of ground on him. I missed #17 a little because I spotted a control that looked about right and headed down the hill toward it, but it was in fact a different control, and mine was in sight as well, but I had to climb back up to it. Magnus was leaving #18 as I approached it, and on the next leg, he took a lower route while I went high. Late in the leg I could see him far below me, and was pretty sure that I'd be able to get to the control ahead of him. I pushed as well as I could through the last two, and finished a minute in front of him, but a minute down.

My back is still not good, we'll see how it goes.

splits