Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Woke up to a coating of new snow outside, so that's snow for 10 out of the past 11 days. Milder and drier weather began to push in during the day however, so that's apt to be it for snow for a while--for a few days at least, anyway.

I took the sun to be my signal, and I headed out to Pelican Bay for some O': 11.8 kms of mix of rougher and nicer footing. Blew one control pretty badly when I wasn't paying close enough attention to the map, and which can't in any way be blamed on eyes that aren't seeing as good as they used to.

Saw one beer can, which I stashed in a convenient place for harvesting later on, and saw one smallish, nearly yearling moose which ran off before I could even say hello.

I finished up before dark, which I count as a plus, especially given that I had no light with me.

Yesterday I was looking at results from the Team Trials races, which brought back some memories. The first Team Trials I ever ran in were in 1978, and which coincidentally also happened to be hosted by MNOC (MinnOC, back then, I believe.)

Few will know or remember it, but participation at that Team Trials was by invitation only. As I had only been running Red and had been orienteering for less than a year, I had no expectation of getting an invitation. It was quite surprising and quite a thrill when I did get one, though. It turned out that someone I didn't know and had never met--Keith McCleod, I think--had for some reason intervened on my behalf. I had no reasonable or unreasonable expectations of making the team; it was just exciting to get to go and get to compete against the best orienteers in the US. It was a lucky break for me, because I came back from those races determined to get better.

Those trials consisted of three classic length races with selections from the combined total time, with the top three finishers being automatic selections (I believe) with two others discretionary picks. The first race was on a tiny map of a piece of kettle moraine prairie (I can picture the map and area but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the map). The second day was at Afton St Pk, which is a rugged, hilly area of bluffs overlooking the Mississippi. The final day was at Lake Maria St Pk, which was quite similar to first day in most respects, but a bigger area and more wooded sections.

A couple of things stand out especially as I think back to that weekend. One was it was where I met Ron Pontius, who has been a lifelong friend ever since then. Another was meeting Steve Tarry, who was one of the best US orienteers at the time, and who was kind enough to go over his routes with me after the day at Afton, and give me some tips and ideas about how I might have gone about my race better. And, finally, on Day 3, I was an early started, and right out of the start we had a leg to the first control that neatly bisected a large pond that was in full view of the start.

Normally it would be an easy route choice decision, to either run left or right around the pond and then continue on the leg. But on the race day, the pond happened to be dry, and the question was whether or not to risk the direct route across the pond or not. If it wasn't too muddy and was relatively firm, it would clearly be quite a bit faster. On the other hand, it could just as well have been an impassible mire that you would get hopelessly stuck in. The first few starters ahead of me all hesitated out of the start, and elected to go around the pond. When it was my turn, I took a harder look at the dried pond, decided the mud didn't look too bad, and headed straight across. It turned out to be not bad at all, and was definitely the way to go.

After the race, someone came up to me and thanked me; they had started right after me and had watched me get across the pond with no problem and so they had done the same thing. In my memory, it was someone who ended up making the team--George Tuthill, I think. Well, it was a long time ago. Memories may improve with time, but accuracy of memory? Probably not so much, at least not in my case! ; ) I'd still love to remember the name of that Day 1 map, and maybe it will come to me, or maybe someone else who does remember it will prompt me.

To come back to the present, it was a shock to see the scoring list and see how thin the fields for the Team Trials were. It feels like sport part of orienteering--that group of M21s and F21s who are seriously training to be competitive--is melting away before our very eyes. It seems quite odd, and I have no idea how to explain what has happened and/or is happening to the sport here in the US.

C • Lake Maria was the map for ... 5

Gray all day with repeated rain/ice rain/snow showers leaving the roads wet and rather uninviting for a bike ride. So opted to run longer on trails at Happy Jack, 2+ hours worth in the end--that was definitely a better choice than biking today!

Scattered rain showers predicted for today has translated into scattered showers of graupel.

Sawyers--or at least a sawyer--had been out today up top, beginning the process of hacking through the multitudes of pine trees fallen across the single track. Summer mountain biking could still happen this year, so they gotta get those trails open for the bikes! Doesn't hurt that also opens them up for the runners. ; )

A few were taken care of today; dozens and dozens to go.

Seasonally chilly--it never made it out of the 20s today. Plenty of new snow for running at Happy Jack, with liberal coatings of snow and ice on trees, rocks, fences, power lines--you name it.

Didn't see much in the way of tracks, even though I ran at the tail end of the day. The complete inventory consisted of: 1 set of ski tracks, one set of footprints, 2 sets of snow shoe tracks, some dog tracks, and some fox tracks (yesterday I saw one of the foxes, a fairly un-shy red fox.) Most of the time I was running in snow that was totally untouched--a really beautiful landscape in the late afternoon light. Adding to the experience was a rare absence of any breeze--quite the contrast to yesterday's demon winds!

The best part was coming across any number of snowdrifts, up to about 3' high, none of which had been present yesterday. Great conditions for putting my exceptional 11" (and growing) vertical leap to use!

I will add that even though it didn't snow much today, it did snow some, and that made it 7 days in a row that we had snow. That made up for having almost no precipitation at all for nearly the first three weeks of April.

C • Snow 2

I did a few errands on my bike in the morning, and even though it was in the low 30s, it was pretty comfortable out. But that changed. By mid-afternoon, killer typhoon winds out of the east were whipping the valley into shape, and they were relentless. Up top, it was windy, foggy, and there was freezing drizzle, so that when I finished running up there, my clothes were sheathed in ice--as was the windshield of my truck, which proved to be impossible to remove without getting some heat going on inside the cab to help loosen things up from underneath. So, all in all, a pretty normal April 28th day in Laramie.

Damn. Another 1st round of another NFL Draft has come and gone, and once more I have not been chosen. What is the matter with these people? Is my battle cry not full throated enough??? Are my sinews of steel not metallic enough? Is it that I prefer spinach to steak? Could it be that it's because they don't have NFL uniforms small enough to fit me that they aren't pulling the trigger? Oh, well, there's always next year.

Meanwhile, more snow this morning made if 5 days in a row for snow/graupel. Yeehaw!

And meanwhile meanwhile, there is pretty neat news out: a stamp is going to be released to mark the coming solar eclipse, and it's not going to be just any ordinary type of stamp either. With this stamp, if it's in some cool locale--say, like Wyoming--it will show an eclipsed sun. But if you take the stamp to some hotter-than-hell place like Dallas, TX, the image will change into an image of the moon. And if you then bring it back to Wyoming, maybe to the Plains of Despair, then the image will revert back to the eclipsed sun.

So where is this neat stamp going to be issued? Well, the eclipse is just about going to center line Casper, WY, so that would seem to be a pretty good choice. But that's not what they chose. Instead, it's going to be issued at the Art Museum of the University of Wyoming, which will be nowhere near the path of totality. And it's going to be issued on the Summer Solstice. (There is an obscure link between the solstice and the Art Museum, and so maybe therein lies the explanation.)

If all this news is not enough to knock you over with a feather, then too bad. You are just not the excitable type.

C • It's not hotter-n-hell season yet. 7