Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

Event: OCIN Harbin Park / TROL Series #5
 

Brown course at Harbin Park, set by Orunner.

I loved this course. I told Pat it was amazing. Every leg fully matched my expectations of a fun, interesting leg. There were no "gimme" legs. The easiest leg on the course was 20-21 (72-69) and even it required that you recognize its simplicity and just put the map away and go. (I was second fastest on this leg after a Boy Scout team on yellow, and I think they passed 69 on the way to 72). And even this leg set up a cool route choice (go backwards and use a bridge, or go forward and do a semi-nasty descent and climb).

Even the doglegs on this course were awesome.

Claire didn't like the zig-zag section 3-8 (33 to 38). She said it was just back-and-forth using the same elephant tracks. That was not my experience at all. I'd dogleg a bit, but I was just trying to optimize my time and invariably would veer off. And almost without exception, I'd not hit what I was aiming for. (The trails are pretty well mapped, but they're not perfect. I think they've changed. Pat said he didn't update this section.) Still, I loved the orienteering. Also, this might be a good way to do compass training legs for advanced orienteers. I really appreciated the minimal climb through this section. If it had been just a bit hotter, gully crossings would have been nasty.

Some notes:
2-3: Took the southern trail, then NE to the hairpin, then...stuff started going downhill. Saw Casey leaving 3, but didn't realize it, kept going west, but noticed I was too close to the end of the spur. Had to backtrack a bit going NE to the control.
3-4: Wanted to climb to the first trail, then take it contouring around the hill. Ended up on the main straight trail on the west edge of the map. Easy correction (some extra climb), but dang, I was being careful, I thought.
4-5: Plan: pure compass. Halfway: better count these frickin' trails. 90%: Where the heck is that big reentrant? Oops! I'm right (more than expected).
5-6: Just run same bearing backwards (S needle "in the house"), but go left when I can. Did a short trail section, but ended up about halfway between 4 and 6. Saw the tree, but realized the circle wasn't centered on it. Turned around, saw flag. Ughh.
6-7: Plan: hop to the trail that goes right to 7. Execution: Found trail about halfway there. Hesitated as I passed the top of the right ditch.
7-8: Possibly the shortest leg on the course. I ended up back at 6. Will look at track. Probably left on the trail to the west rather than southeast. The plan was to run S on the needle but go a bit east, but trails didn't make sense. GPS should be telling. (Last place split on Brown here: 11th of 11.)
8-9: Totally fun leg. Deceptive. All the action is in the first centimeter or so. First glance: Trail east, hop up one, wiggle, boom into the field. Actual: Trail east, hop up one, another to shorten kink---oh crap---I'm not on the right trail yet. Gotta go one more---Good spot right here. The end of this leg looked scary, but you could see the control from the ride.
9-10: Quick, better go fast. Lined up going across the open, but no easy way into the woods. Cut left 15 or 20m, found elephant tracks and control. Seemed way off, but acceptable---visible if I had busted through where I eyeballed it should have been. (And I may be wrong---I wasn't waiting around to check further.)
10-11: Went left of lake, by X and hopped trails at the obvious spot. Considered going around, but this looked way more fun. Probably was faster, too, although I wasn't sure when I started.
11-12: got on the trail south of "12" and saw the bag. Sprinty, a tiny bit tricky. (#1 on Brown, but dersu, Ben, and Spurlock beat me.)
12-13: sprint leg, quick, better go. (#1 on Brown)
13-14: Around---no way. Straight back to 12, normal to the big trail, reposition SE on the big trail, in to the little trail. (#1 here too.)
14-16: SW to reentrant edge, up to these two. Blazed Green trail here now, I think. Saw trail flagging as well.
16-17: SW to trail. Wasn't sure if this was fastest, but left seemed out-of-the-way with more climb.
17-18: Downhill, literally as fast as I ever run. Snow slowed me down a bit. I was aiming for the narrow gap two hedges south of 22 (99), but found a good spot 40m or so early and took it before I realized. No lost time---quick route. Ran towards the X, trail was a lot farther than expected past it.
18-19: I should have cut this line when I printed the maps for Pat---trail obscured. Not concerned, though--I usually don't check lines for local events---but I do cut the circles more than I probably should. (Interestingly, I don't think I got any benefit from cutting the circles. The course isn't visible. But if I had cut the lines, it probably would have been unfair.)
19-20: North out of 19, and took "bridge". Local knowledge = these little gullies are steep.
20-21: Saw that it was a sprint leg, and just ran. Fun. I got that sprint feeling. Love that.
21-22: Fast to full stop. Not crossing that. Going around. I love this as well---fast set up to significant route choice. Course setters = Sneaky bastards.
21-22: Weird map as I hit the clearing by the lake. Compass pointed me towards the shelter we've used for events. Checked three times, but was already aiming left where I thought the road gap was. Elephant tracks were all pointing towards finish, not 99. 99 was placed on the volleyball court. Saw the uprights. Most elephant tracks curved part way up the hill.
Go control: Ran hard. Had left most of it on the course, though.

So fun.

C • Glad you enjoyed it. 1

OCIN_Harbin_Jan_2013_Brown - Splits

These are Orunner's GPS mapping tracks for Harbin.

Just eyeballing them---They look really good.

Event: OCIN New Years Orienteering
 

OCIN_Timberhill_New_Years_Day_2013_Brown - Splits