Training Log Archive: PG

A loop around Whiting reservoir in Holyoke on the way back from Litchfield. Warm and humid, just one of those outings you get done. Part of getting a little consistency back in my training.

New shoes -- another pair of Nike Pegasus, been using them on and off for 30+ years. My feet seem to like them. The last pair, got 800+ miles out of them, finally got the heave-ho after the rogaine. Too offensive to the nostrils, not the feet.

C • the heave-ho 11

Event: NEOC: Belmont Wanderings
 

The eastern half of the map (with the start/finish), and my route (counterclockwise) --



And the western half --

C • More interesting than Midwestern towns 4

Jim Crawford's bike-O score-O around the close-in NW suburbs of Boston. Three hours, and then you could do another 90 minutes on foot if you cared to, which Phil did but I quite certainly did not.

Very enjoyable. And no falls. Some was off-road, and lots of potholes, but I used my road bike and it seems to work out fine. :-)

Not sure whether my route was any good or not. Went very close to one control that I didn't go to, never saw it on the map at the time, just focused on where I was heading. And one control that I went to, it seems I was slightly off, picked the wrong house. Just shaky orienteering on my part, didn't read the map carefully enough. And a couple of others which took me a little while to find.

But overall a lot of fun, and some good map reading on the move, without taking any real risks. No close calls.

Route was 24-36-50 (a bit of crappy trail and a stream crossing) - 63-83-23-60-42-62 (didn't come out of the park where I planned, took some thinking to relocate) - 70-80-44-64-70 (didn't see it the first time by on the trail) - 43-91-77-81-72-93-53-82-66-56-32-40-61-55 (wrong house) - 45 - finish. Not much time to spare. 55 cost me a bunch of time too.

Now let's see if I can post the map….

Thanks to Jim for the organization. A very nice way to see some of the city, and good exercise for the body and the brain.

Up Mt. Toby from the gate, up the telephone line (18:30), back the jeep road. No falls.

I think I will go do NEOC's street (and park) bike-O tomorrow outside Boston. Get a tour of of the inner NW suburbs.

My favorable omen (the bald eagle over the Sunderland bridge) seems to still have some power -- first time on the golf course in about 6 weeks, and finished things off on the last hole (only played 14), a shortish par 4, 320 yards, with a 2. Nice drive and then a sand wedge, hit 3 feet in front of the hole, then one bounce and right in. Easy game…. :-)

C • A good player . . . 2

At the Holyoke reservoirs for the Thursday evening 5K. A little warm-up. Not near as hot and humid as it's been, but low 70s is still too warm for me.

A good hard effort without going overboard. Wanted to do no worse than 7:45 pace (or about 24 minutes), so happy enough. Legs felt good enough. Forget my lighter shoes, but no big deal, the point was just to run hard and see how slow I am.

Next point is to see whether that gets me out the door to do some training.

C • impressive 2

A 4-minute plank just to be sociable.

Standard loop around town. Not hot yet, but humid and I was sweating profusely. Should have gone around the loop the other way as it was all uphill this way….

And then off to the doctor's (actually she's a nurse practitioner, seems very competent, communicates well) for what is now called by Medicare my annual wellness visit. Fill out a questionnaire, one of the questions is whether I have fallen at all in the last 2 months, and if so, whether I was injured. Answer yes to both. :-)

Blood pressure was 110/60 (lower because I had just run, I assume), height down to 5'5.5" (used to be 5'6.75 on my long leg, 5'6" on my short one), I've been shrinking for a while.

Cholesterol 210 (about what it's always been), HDL 82, so the ratio is good.

I've been verging on anemic at times so taking extra iron. Hematocrit is 42.5, better than high 30's a couple of years ago but nothing that would get me DQ'd from a bike race.

And then a bunch of other numbers including undetectable PSA. :-)

And she poked and prodded and listened in various places and after a while decided that was enough and she'd see me in a year, or sooner if I clobber myself somehow as I seem prone to do. Nice visit.

First time on the bike in a long time, but I still managed to get through it with no falls. :-)

Standard loop, Old Deerfield - River Road, gentle pace, not that I was capable of anything more.

I got an inquiry from Ian as to whether I planned to run any of my maze courses, and that was enough of a spur that I figured I might as well try the night one, having not been in the maze at night before.

Tried to duplicate the conditions others faced -- ate a good dinner about 6:30 pm, so the belly was still a little full, and then started at the same time, 8:15 pm, as they had. A bit of lightness in the sky, but once in the maze it made no difference, quite dark.

And it was really fun. Taking them in order, of course, using the east side highway several times and around the beak several times, not the shortest routes but opting for simplicity and speed even if the route was a good bit longer.

Hardest part was finding where on the map the next control was. Quite a bit of searching.

Nothing marking the control sites, of course, but I'm sure I was at all of them. Not that they were familiar, but all the twists and turns and junctions and islands and dead ends have their own distinct character. You know if you're right or not.

Glad I took my compass. Had to use it 3 or 4 times, lost my concentration for a moment and the compass came to the rescue. Probably 3 or 4 mistakes but not much time lost, a minute or two.

And really fun. :-)

C • Finding the next control 3

Night - Complete In Order - Splits

Event: 2014 U.S. Corn Maze Champs
 

Putting out the controls for the classic and part of the sprint. They are still working on the beautification, almost done.

Still have to put out rest of the sprint later, and then even later the trail-O, and then the night O….

Checking points in the maze, plus setting up and then taking down the model for the trail O. The maze beautification is progressing, but it may not be 100% done by tomorrow afternoon. We can deal with it.

And then printing maps. Everyone will have the choice of a roughly 1:1,000 map or a 1:4,000 one. I expect the elites will use the 4K one to help prepare for international competition.

Yeah, fat chance. :-)

C • Offset 5

In my attempt to determine what to do, if anything, about my deteriorating eyesight, visited the retina specialist today. Previously my regular ophthalmologist had said it was time for cataract surgery, and the cataract specialist had said getting the cataracts done would only solve 20% of the problem and I should think about retina surgery.

So now the retina guy said he wouldn't really recommend retina surgery, didn't think it would do much good, but cataract surgery might help a bunch. WTF.

After some discussion I got him to agree to call up the cataract guy and discuss with him directly (without me being an ineffective middleman) what made sense. So maybe I'll hear something in a week or two.

And then maybe seek a fourth opinion?

Meanwhile the road signs are getting harder and harder to read…. :-(

C • Surgery . . . 1

Very slow run around town with Dave. He was feeling his age, I was feeling the humidity. But good to get out before the rain came.

C • Wapack 3

I have this sinking feeling that we will never see complete results from last weekend. Today's blog post.

C • Au contraire 2

Testing courses at the maze. First was a possible "sprint" course. Seemed to be fine. One mistake, headed for a trail-O control at one point, otherwise OK.

C • GPS 3

And then a possible classic course. Also seemed OK, though my orienteering was a bit shaky. Trying to go fast makes it not so easy.

Both should be fine with just a tweak or two. As will the trail-O course. Still have to do the night course, but I have the gist of it already done.

Saw Mike's son, David, down there. I inquired about the plans for beautifying the maze, since I'd thought the work was going to start today but there had been no one there this morning when I went by. Well, they'd had some organic berry plants that really needed weeding, so that's where the crew was today. But tomorrow….

Told him I worry about such things, needed to be sure it was done by Saturday.

No problem.

By beautifying, I mean that right now most paths have a smattering of young corn here and there, two to maybe 5 feet high, that needs cleaning out. And then the edges of each path get trimmed. And maybe the ground raked. Right now it's a little rough.

Then over at the maze to do the courses, there was Mike. So we go over plans again. And he says he'll have the crew beautifying tomorrow morning. And then he drops a bombshell, he's going to move the viewing tower down the maze a ways, to the south. Wants to encourage folks to go down there where there are other activities.

Well, I don't let on that the tower will be an essential part of the trail O -- the corn is now 8 to 10 feet tall, and without the tower there will be no trail O. But I do say that folks really like to go up there to look out over the maze. So he says they'll try to have it done by Saturday.

I go off and run, and when I'm done he's there talking to his carpenter. Calls me over, good news, they won't start moving the tower until Monday. One less thing for me to worry about. And we go over finances, 10 bucks a head go to his farm, that's just fine with him and just fine with me.

And then we chat a little about orienteering. And he's seen the e-punch operation and wonders if there is a way to have an orienteering game of some sort using the e-punching, and wonders how complicated it would be. Always trying to add fun things at the maze. Pretty complicated, I say, but you could put out maybe a dozen controls and boxes, people could do as much as they wanted, main problem would be some running the operation. He's interested.

Anyone out there ever do anything similar -- have a score course of some sort with e-punching in an area with lots of people passing by? Any thing positive or negative about it. Here you've got the map which he gives to everyone, he gets a good crowd, but it's not the king of thing you can make self-service.

Just wondering….

Anyway, nice chat and we're good to go for Saturday.

C • epunches 7

A few thoughts about the rogaine.

First about the map. I was a bit surprised by it in places, but then I have never done a rogaine where that was not the case. And I have been on maps as bad or worse, and managed fine, and the competition managed fine. Such as the first WRC in Australia in 1994. That had all sorts of surprises out there.

I am perplexed how the roads came to be mapped as they were. We went out to the training area the day before, and the section of roads we visited was mapped virtually perfectly. Every bend was there. So I had reasonably high expectations for the main event.

The first blow to those expectations was on the way to our third control, 42. The main road up the valley was mapped fine, but the side road that we wanted to take wasn't, heading off first in the wrong direction. After a couple hundred meters it was back to going where it was supposed to, but it was still a surprise.

Second blow was the "road" we picked up leaving our fifth control, 105. Hardly recognizable, almost crossed it without realizing it, it was covered in grass. Surprised it was mapped, but it was.

Third blow was several controls later, on the way from 45 to 67. Up the main road, keeping careful track of where we were, intending to take the spur road heading north. Knew exactly where we were, but no road to be seen. Nothing. And nothing that would indicate that a road had been there anytime in the last 50 years.

There were several more such instances, always a surprise, but it's a rogaine so you go with the flow. The goal isn't to come back with the most and best complaints, it's to find the controls. But one is still left with the question just out of curiosity -- how could they do this? I have no idea.

The rest of the complaints about the map which I've heard don't strike me as valid. You aren't going to map fences. You aren't going to map vegetation. The contours are going to be generalized. It's not orienteering, it's a rogaine. Get over it.

------------------

Next the course. It was big. I don't know if anyone got them all, but if they did, that is quite an accomplishment, given in particular the amount of deadfall that slowed progress significantly. And there seemed to be lots of choices, both strategic and tactical. Just what you want.

What I would question is a few of the control sites. Two controls we went to, 83 and 84, were reentrants on paper but just hillsides in fact, no reentrant to be seen. I have no idea why they were chosen, or if the location was correct. Both were found with a fair bit of luck.

Two other reentrants, 71 and 102, were so small that it's a wonder that someone found them to put a control there.

79, "a knoll" where the circle was centered on a knoll on the map -- did this mean, under the decades-old convention that "a" (as opposed to "the") meant the feature was not on the map, that there was a second knoll out there, not on the map, that we were looking for? Found the control, miserable thick forest, in the dark, seemed to be just a flat spot in the woods. Other uses of "a" in the description were equally perplexing, and yet there must have been a reason. Right? We nailed the control, but with a large dose of luck.

And others, nice distinct location, but the vegetation was awful. A good challenge, you want the points so let's make you earn them, but still. Why? Why as organizer, knowing that each site needed to be visited at least four times (initial marking, vetting, hanging, retrieval), would you do it to yourself or your crew?

-----------------

And the results, or lack thereof. For the moment at least, just a sad story that no one wants, not the participants, not the organizers, and certainly not the fans. I hope retrieval is possible. Though even then, the awards ceremony will never happen, nor the closure to an event that that signifies. Very sad.

------------------

And then our own performance. And here I have to say right up front that despite everything said above, I still walk away from the event not only having had an "interesting" experience, but also a fine time. I can understand why others might be pissed, or disappointed, depending on what their expectations were or what their ambitions were. But that is not me.

I'm not sure what hopes or expectations Sandy and I had, other than to act our age and walk the whole time. Which we were quite successful at, walking almost the entire time, the only exceptions being when we were sitting. It was all very civilized.

I would grade our performance overall as a B+ or maybe an A-. By my count we got 1960 points. The things dragging the score down were several bits of flaky navigating by me and a general physical discontent for Sandy, maybe the altitude as she just arrived Thursday night.

Our plan was 34 controls, roughly 52K, just walking, don't come back to the hash house. We ended up skipping three of those, 43 because it didn't seem worth it, ditto for 34 and Sandy's knees preferred an easier way down the hill going from 40 directly to 84, and 91 because we correctly thought that we had neither the time nor the energy to get it.

We got all 31 we looked for. That was good. We did some excellent work at night. That was also good, and also very satisfying. The bad was in three places. First, 105, she kept telling me I was too far left, and then I went further left misreading the subtle slopes before being saved by the clearings to the west. Then, 73, thought we were just above the control, when in fact we were just below it. And finally, the one real moment of "I don't have any idea where we are", top of the ridge for 94, in the dark, miserable vegetation, I got turned around a couple of times, we finally figured it out but probably 15-20 minutes gone.

But still, a lot of good navigation, a lot of good adjustments to surprises on the map or in the terrain.

And so I walk away (not run, of course), with a feeling of a weekend well spent with a partner that has both gumption and smarts. And that is not so bad.

Almost forgot one other thing that made the rogaine more, hmmm, interesting. See the difference in how these two controls are hung (photos from the organizer's blog) --





In the second one, which is how most of the controls were hung as far as I remember, tied snugly around a good-sized evergreen (and usually a tree with a bigger trunk than the one shown in the photo), think how much of the flag you will see if you are coming from the other direction. Almost none. And how much of the reflector if coming at night. Definitely none.

I don't know what the current thinking is for placing controls at rogaines. Maybe this is fine, maybe not. Sure made a few night controls more difficult.

C • A knoll 2

Our routes, first part on the east part of the map --



and the second part on the north and west sections --



Screwed up #105 (bad compass on my part, but we recovered OK, 5-10 minutes), #73 (misread where we were on the ridge, went down first instead of up, 5 minutes), #94 (dark, thick vegetation, totally confused for a while, 15 minutes), #84 (looking for a non-existant reentrant (5 minutes). Overall, not so bad. :-)

C • Pink dots 10

A little bit better view of the rogaine course, at least the part we did. Our route was 20-70-42-78-105-71-52-50-45-83-104-73 (now dark) 82-79-61-51-86-66-94-72 (now light) 40-84-62-102-69-90-30-25.

First part of map --



Second part of map --

Event: 12th World Rogaining Championships
 

WRC with Sandy. Don't have the usual data like how far we went or how we did, the former because GPS units weren't allowed unless they were properly bagged, which I didn't bother to do, the latter because SI problems apparently were allowed. I assume they have results sorted out by now, but they weren't when we left to flee back to Wyoming.

Terrain was fine, though the forest was downright ugly at times (deadfall) with little way of knowing when that might be the case. The map, printed at 1:33,000 and 10-meter contours, was the most legible map I've used in the USA. Seriously. Oh, it had its problems, but you sure could read it.

Sandy seemed to be having a low energy day, maybe altitude? So we throttled back the pace, walked slowly, took breaks as needed, We had a decent route, executed well, especially the night controls, and handily defeated various rivals, primarily JJ, Clint, and Ernst. And therefore didn't finish last. And no snakes, no mountain lions, didn't get shot at, got hopelessly lost only once but recovered pretty quickly, and didn't lose any money in the Deadwood casinos. So a very successful weekend.

Though I am getting a bit old for this 24-hour stuff, even when done at a saunter.

A really blurry image of the map, I'll work on doing better. Click on it for a larger blurry image.

Walking around a bit of the model map for the rogaine with Sandy and Gail. I assume it will be the same sort of stuff tomorrow, just 23 hours more of it.

And just marking where the event center is.

Hit rock bottom this evening after a very good stretch…. :-(

Of course I'm talking dinners, and the quality thereof, since departing the US Champs.

First stop was Salida, with a fine pizza and salad and beer at Amicas, been there once before some years ago.

Second stop was Silverthorne, visiting former Ultrarunning parter Stan Wagon and his wife, they served us a Thai dinner.

Third stop was at the western retreat of Pete and Lex Bundschuh, excellent meal cooked by Pete (plus lots of good conversation).

And then heading north, we landed in Wheatland, Wyoming, where the place that seemed least likely to poison us was Taco John's. So TJ's it was, dining in style on their patio….



And onward to Rapid City tomorrow.

C • Beau Jo's in Rapid City is very good 2

C • why not buy food in a super... 1

Went with JJ to go up what turned out to be Mt. Lincoln, 14,286, though we weren't sure where we were headed when we started. Route for the most part is the green one (#1) on the linked map, except an extra mile and a half because we couldn't get our rental car all the way to Mineral Park.

And then the word was that you weren't supposed to go to the top of Mt. Bross, private land.

So we figured we see how things looked when we got to the saddle just NW of Bross, and then decide. Got there, saw some folks heading up to the top of Bross, decided not to ourselves, mainly because Lincoln just looked a little more interesting. So off to it. And then back to the car the same way we'd come.

Nice outing. Beautiful day, got an early start, about 8 am just to avoid be up high after noon, but just a few clouds and not much wind. Just a steady hike going up. Jogged most of the way back down, getting tired towards the end, certainly could have done without the last bit on the flat dirt road. But still a really nice time, very glad to have company. And JJ did OK for a young fellow.

C • Alternative trailhead 2

I thought I should put down my own version of a strategic plan for OUSA. There will only be about 4 items, but if we could get them done, it would be wonderful.

General comment -- the time frame will much shorter, things to be done by the end of 2015 at the latest, but preferably much sooner.

Here is the first one. It's easy. All it takes is a little leadership. The cost will be minimal.

1. Make our maps more readable.

Reason -- We currently strive to follow IOF map specs, which have been developed with the elite orienteers in mind. Even they have trouble reading many maps. For the vast majority of orienteers in the USA, orienteering would be more fun if the maps were easier to read.

Action required -- Still follow the IOF specs for creating the map -- this is absolutely not to be an opportunity to add more detail -- but just print it at a larger scale. Perhaps 1:7,500 for maps that would normally be 1:10,000, perhaps 1:3,000 for sprint maps. The rules and sanctioning committees should do more than just allow this, they should be actively promoting it. As a measure of success, it should be happening at every A meet in 2015, and could even happen for some meets this fall.

It may be that for M21 and F21 the maps would continue to be printed at the usual scales, if that is what they want. With current printing methods, that is both easy and cheap. But for everyone else, just think the following -- orienteering is not supposed to be a test of eyesight, and it is a lot more fun when you can read the map.

And if it is more fun, maybe more people will stick with it.

C • 1:7500 35

C • #2 7

A very enjoyable weekend at the U.S. Classic Champs, both with regard to the orienteering, and socially.

The Classic Champs, our main event for the first 30 years or so, seems to have slowly but surely become a good bit less significant than the SML Champs. That is the way of the times. I think it is too bad.

I'm not sure why this has happened. The reason given is that this is the way the rest of the world does it. That to me is not a particularly persuasive argument.

Perhaps the appeal of the SML is that you get three tries in a long weekend. Screw up one run, you still get to start the second one with a clean slate. Screw it up too and there is still a chance for total redemption in the third.

What you get in the Classic and not in the SML can be summarized by the phrase "sleeping on the lead". Can whoever wins the first day do it again? Not so easy, especially when there is 24 hours to think about it. There were many stories over the years of leads blown on day 2, of comebacks from far behind, of nerves that were not up to the task.

If the Classic disappears completely in the next few years I won't be surprised. But it will be a shame.

But for 2014 at least, the Classic was a chance to celebrate two fabulous stories. First was the return of Sandra Lauenstein, now a mother, back into the ranks of our top female orienteers. Such a pleasure to see, and I was witness out in the forest to the fact that she is definitely running very well again.

And the second was the win in M21 by many many time champion Mikell Platt, he too back in fine form after a couple of years that were not so good. Bravo to him. And a message there to all our other male orienteers, that if you are getting beat by a fellow in his mid-50s, that you would be well advised to take a look at the training that he has done for decades, and continues to do, and then step up your own game. A lot.

Bravo, Mikell, such a fine win.

C • classic champs 5

Day 2 at Round Mt, 4.9 km.

This run wasn't very inspired. Legs had less zip as expected, and the brain went on vacation a couple of times. No disasters, just a couple of misses, at 4 and 9, a minute and a half on each. Oh well, didn't really matter. Still enjoyed myself. And thought the course was great, quite different from yesterday, and over the two days there was a very nice selection of O' challenges. Just what you hope for.

Brown X - Splits

Event: 2014 US Classic Championships
 

US Champs, day 1, Badger Gulch (CO), M70, 5.3 km. A very nice day hosted by Rocky Mt. OC, and a very nice course by Kissy.

Pretty good run. Couple of times off the intended line, but not much lost. And a bit too far to the left to 3, though it was easy.

Running was much better than expected. Thin air, but legs had some life, and the walking breaks were not that often nor that long. Enjoy it while you can.

And then a very nice rest of the day -- the O' was done by 10 am -- hanging out at the ranch with lots of good company.

My course and route, as usual, click for a larger version --

Brown X - Splits

Gentle stroll around the model course with Gail.

And my map from last time I ran at Round Mountain, in 2005 --



Don't think I'll be running 7.7 minutes per km tomorrow (and that was on very tired legs, 7th race in 5 days).

And Badger Gulch, that was 6.7 min/km on better legs. The terrain is quick if you're fit. Should be under 5 for M21.

Warm for track session. Not so hot, nor so humid.

(distance: time, rest time)
400: 1:41, 48
400: 1:40, 1:01
400: 1:41, 1:19
800: 3:25, 1:22
800: 3:26, 1:34
800: 3:25, 1:35
400: 1:40, 1:21
400: 1:37, 2:06
400: 1:38

A little smarter this week, didn't push it at the beginning so the workout was less unpleasant. And also a cooler evening. Not cool, still sweating a lot, but better.

And a mile after.

Test course in the corn maze. Very very cool, the maze that is, not the weather, 14 minutes and I'm soaking. It's a very fine maze.

A couple of moments of confusion but not bad, maybe a minute. And sure of where I was at each control.

Figured it was time to remember what carrying a small pack felt like, though not a heavy one, just filled up the water bladder but nothing else. Three times up and down the telephone line trail at Mt. Toby (0.8 miles, 800' climb).

Warm and humid and I didn't have much energy. First time up I was trying harder but it was a struggle, just under 20 minutes. Next two times went up really slowly, a little over 23 minutes. And that was enough. Jogged back down each time.

I remember once doing three rounds trips in about 56 minutes -- part of an event held only once, the Power Line Power Hour, how many round trips could you do in a hour, just two participants, me and Fred. Didn't know if I could get three or not, but made it with room to spare. As did Fred, I think he was about 58. Doing the ups in 13+, the downs in 5+.

This time it took 92 minutes. :-(

C • I'd pay a lot of $$ for that kind of uphill speed now. 7

At Earl's Trails. Relaxed pace up and down a couple of hills, listening to This American Life mostly about some Japanese guy who spent way too long in a small room with no clothes on and not much food, and on TV. Is there culture as screwed up as ours?

Humid, not hot, reasonably pleasant actually, but still takes 15 minutes after I finish to stop sweating.

Enough of a warmup to work up a good sweat (and to stop worrying about being chilly).

7-mile trail race in People's SF. Well, part of it anyway….

A forgettable outing. Didn't have good legs, weather wasn't hot at all but very muggy, and then after about 25 minutes I took the wrong turn. Ended up back down on the road, so just ran back the road to my car, packed up and headed off to Litchfield.

Left me in a bit of a bad mood, which I am trying my best to dispel…. :-)

C • Wrong Turn 2

Stopped on my way home to go have a look at where I'd gone. The main purpose being to evaluate my thinking process to see to what extent I was just being stupid.

Interesting process, trying to evaluate.

Contributing factors --

1. Where I missed the turn -- trail was slabbing across a somewhat rocky sidehill, so it took some concentration on the footing. The missed turn was to the right and up, while the trail I was on continued straight ahead and down for another 15 yards, at which point there was a big tree with two blue blazes on it. And right there was a sharp switchback, descending (this now the bogus trail).

2. When I missed the turn -- never saw the trail to the right. It was marked by a couple of small lime arrows, partially washed out by the rain, didn't see them either. Very clearly saw the tree ahead with the two blazes, standard marking indicating a turn.

The added factor was that just as I got there, there was Ed and about 4 or 5 others, coming back towards me, classic situation of people having taken the wrong turn, or having thought they had taken the wrong turn. A bit of communication with him, there were no markers up that way.

A more careful look at the tree, the blazes were actual blue with a little bit of yellow in the middle. We were supposed to go from blue to blue/yellow. So maybe this was right. Although I didn't at all like the fact that there was a switchback and that it was going downhill. Didn't remember any switchbacks on Phil's GPS track from last year, though maybe a short one wouldn't show. And maybe we were just going to drop a couple of lines to get past a steep area.

So down I went, Ed right behind me, and the other 4 or 5 following too.

3. At what point do you wonder if you are wrong? I think I asked Ed a couple of times, was he sure the other way wasn't right. No blazes, he said, plus the trail petered out pretty quickly. (On my hike up there, it was clear there was actually no trail at all going straight ahead, just woods.)

By the time we were down a couple of switchbacks I was feeling quite unhappy about what we were doing. By the time we were halfway down to the road I was pretty sure that's where we were heading.

What's amazing to me is that it never occurred to me to go back farther on the original trail. I don't know why. I was so impressed by that big tree with the two blazes, and I knew we had to change from blue to blue/yellow. But for whatever reason my mind wasn't open to what the correct answer was.

4. By the time I was halfway down the hillside, having pretty much decided this was wrong and that the trail was heading for the road, I had also pretty much packed it in for the day. So when I saw the road, it was an automatic decision to just jog back to my car. The reason was that I was on a tight schedule, had to be in Litchfield by 11:30 at the very latest, so climbing back up and continuing would have made that awful tight.

No, actually, that's the excuse. I think the real reason is that a significant reason I run a lot of races is as a measure of my fitness. It's a straightforward way to either get a positive reward from good training, or a kick in the butt for insufficient training.

And so the idea of climbing back up, to then run a race on a course that was a good bit more than it was supposed to be, had zero appeal. As I jogged back down the road to my car, most of my thoughts were about being deprived of the opportunity to test myself. Though, in reality, I guess I tested my mental side, and clearly failed.

5. Do you lay anything on the race director? The turn sure could have been marked better, but it's still the runner's responsibility. Likewise, he gave out very little info about the course, but I still should have done a better job studying the GPS route from last year.

What was odd was when I showed up at the finish and turned in my number so no one would be looking for me. Said I'd missed a turn. He didn't seem at all interested. That's either deplorable, that he doesn't care, or admirable, because there are bigger things in life to worry about.

I'm not sure which.

C • trail marking 1

Just in the interest of accuracy, since sometimes what I remember is not what actually happened, I dug out results for M70 from the 1984 O'Ringen --



So a win by 6 seconds, had that correct. It was on the second day, July 24, 1984. And there were 109 starters that day, had that wrong, all finished, and all the other 108 were Swedes.

For comparison, I seem to have finished 10th out of 148, with a best of 6th. And here is my map from the day.

C • Record keeping 2