Training Log Archive: jennycas

The quinces from our tree were going to be baking in the oven for a few hours so I figured I'd have plenty of time for a ride - around the south side of the airport then north up the coast to the Torrens outlet (had presumed this would mean a tailwind but I was wrong) and back towards the city along the river - stuck to the north side this time and there were less detours than last year because the section of bikepath which washed out in 2016 has now been fixed. This entire route would actually have fitted into my 10km radius, if I were obliged to stay within one! At about the time when I realised that I'd like to make use of public amenities, I also realised that I hadn't brought any mechanism for locking my bike to anything, so Juliet meekly accompanied me into the ladies' toilets...

After going to the supermarket which took longer than anticipated as everyone has the same idea on a Saturday afternoon, I wanted to check out some trails east of the trainline which Fern & I had run across during the twilight rogaine, and to join these up with trails at the bottom of Gloucester Ave. So basically I went around the eastern rim of Watiparinga Reserve's valleys, which also took longer than expected as there's no easy way of shortening this, but it made for quite an enjoyable loop.

Trailed behind Zara & Fern to the redwoods, feeling a little more lively on the way back as it started drizzling - think fatigue is more mental than physical, since I didn't actually do the rogaine.

G & I are in Canberra for a whole 25 hours, so from the hotel in Forrest I ran the full length of Red Hill ridgeline and from the lookout I saw a yellow hot air balloon hovering above Lake Burley Griffin, then near the restaurant there were Gang Gang cockatoos eating the sheoak-apples in the trees. Further south beyond Davidson trig were lots of roos, which didn't even bother getting off the path as I passed by. Perhaps they too didn't want to go into the thistles (hopefully no orienteering event is planned there any time soon).

After I came off the ridge at Hindmarsh Drive I meandered through the suburbs a bit, admiring large houses and noticing the explorers'/surveyors' street names as usual - but I didn't go down Goyder towards Karina's house because instead we were going to her memorial service down by the lake today.

"there's not a cloud in the sky
it's as blue as your blue goodbye
and I thought that it would rain
the day you went away"

C • Thistles 2

Really would have preferred to sleep rather than control-collecting yesterday but at least it meant that there wasn't as much to do today, especially since so many others had kindly volunteered for collection. Even so, I left Peterborough at 8am, met Mark at the crossroads to do another loop of 5 controls north of there (we finally solved the mystery of the disappearing watercourse by finding out - after the event was over - that it has actually been drawn in the incorrect gully system! We'd deleted the absent watercourse from the broad flat gully in which it was drawn but never had the opportunity to look in the next channel over until today when walking a leg which none of us had ever done in setting/vetting/hanging. And yes, this was the 4th time I'd been to some of these controls...) and by the time I got home it was well after 4pm and peak hour traffic was in full swing on South Rd.

I did take the scenic back roads into Burra via Dares Hill Summit (fabulous views to the east, as always) and Mt Bryan East, because I couldn't face the half hour delay of the roadworks on the Barrier Hwy yet again, and stopped at Tarlee bakery for necessary caffeine to keep myself awake, plus unnecessary Rocky Road slice which was extremely good (contained chopped up Snickers bars amongst other things), but this was still the second-most-tired I've ever driven, I think.

C • Huge effort 6

Had gone to bed at 9:30pm last night with the intention of getting 3 hrs' sleep before the 2am safety loop but that didn't really work out as I heard the 10pm patrol's vehicle leave and return a couple of hours later, also the generator failing and being restarted when the petrol ran out. Neither Geoff nor I wanted to crawl out of our warm tent at 0130 but at least the urn was hot this time and we could consume caffeine as we waited by the fire for our safety loop buddies who would be "riding shotgun" to arrrive. Attached the flashing orange lights to each car roof and headed out in convoy, as it was 5km (each time) from the campground at Bri Glen Springs to the crossroads, from where G was going to the 3 northern water drops and I was going to the 3 southern water drops.

At this point in time the car showed the outside temperature as being minus 4 degrees although the overnight forecast had *only* been for -1. The few teams we passed seemed surprisingly cheerful, but then at 3am we encountered a couple of girls walking along the road and one said she was worried about her teammate who was wearing a space blanket (utterly useless unless you actually curl right up and wrap yourself in it to reflect the heat back at yourself; as a poncho it does nothing with the cold air from the road coming up your legs anyway) and not saying much at all, so we let them sit in the nice warm car for a bit with the hypothermic girl on the heated seat, but she still wasn't very interactive apart from saying that she didn't want to lose all their points, so we drove with them in the car to the water drop (practically none had been used, and in fact with the whole event being so cold I reckon less than 20% of the 2000L we had put out on course was drunk) then back to the place where we had picked them up, offering to let them walk to the HH from there if they wanted to still remain official in the results. Once they realised that this would be a 10km trek, they reluctantly decided to stay in the warmth and come back to the HH with us - turned out this was only their second rogaine, the first being 6hrs at Belanglo earlier in the month.

So, kiddies, that's why you do have a safety patrol in the middle of the night...did hear of a few other people who were borderline hypothermic by the time they got back to the HH - a lot of teams came in for food at least, because the course configuration lent itself to doing so - but they were all able to warm up by the campfire. Spoke to Toby & Max who hadn't been in for long and they said that Jack had really been struggling with the cold but thought he'd warm up ok in his swag, and that Jo & Abi had been a bit underprepared for the distance and conditions, but that they would all be heading out again after breakfast as a team of 5. I realised that it was now 5am and I should go to bed myself!

Possibly got a couple of hours' sleep; certainly it was broad daylight when I woke up, but still quite cold and I was surprised to find that my water bottle had frozen in the vestibule of the tent (last time that happened was at Carrieton in 2006 when it was -7). Consumed a cheese toastie and decided to go out with Ben Caz when he went to check out control 56, 1km east of the HH, which he & Simon G had skipped in their haste not to be late for winning the 8hr last night. So we ran over to that control together and then I headed south across the creek and up to 95 on the bare rocky knoll, one of the few which I'd never actually been to myself during the setting process. Even at 10am there was still frost on the ground in the shade in some places, and I received a text message from the meteorologist whom we'd sacrificed to the COVID-gods in return for brilliant daytime sunshine, to the effect that Yunta had recorded -4.8 overnight. Came back to the HH via completely ballsing up a 20 pointer in the mallee, which is how I realised just how tired I actually was :(

Packed up my tent before presentations, hopefully managed not to mispronounce anyone's names while reading out results, chatted a bit more to landowners who have become our friends, and by the time Mark & I went out to collect a loop of 5 controls it was already 3pm so we hustled to get them done before dark - he said that I was going at proper rogaine pace this time (all our control-hanging had been fairly casual). Already very dark by the time the controls had been dropped back to the HH and I just had to leave control-sorting to the others and drive at snail's pace to Peterborough while I was still awake - don't think I've ever driven so tired before.

C • Sacrificial meteorologists 3