Sunday Sep 30 |
 | Note | |
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| Venture Quest - no conflict with Sprint Series Finals after all so I may as well try to defend the title. |
| Adventure Race 4:24:00 [4] | |
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| Decent race marred by the huge mental error of managing to skip the third last checkpoint - never noticed it on the map; had read the race passport the night before but lacked time to review it immediately pre-race while I had the map as I was rushing to and waiting at the Bike Lane vehicle to get my front derailleur seen to. Not that I'm sure I would have taken the time to go over the two of them together through to the end of the race even if I had been less pressed for time. Lesson learned for next time, though I probably won't get a crack at this race until 2009 since it seems highly likely to conflict with the North Americans next year.
In any case, I came of a brief run and one orienteering control prologue in first place, lost massive time (around 15 minutes, apparently) to the better cyclists on the first 8 mile mountain biking loop, made all that up plus a minute or two on Petr Minar (also a QOC member) in the 6 control score-O trekking leg that followed, got passed again by Petr and lost about 7 minutes in the second go at the mountain biking, then set off in pursuit paddling downstream on the reservoir. Not having noticed CP7 exactly where a CP was last year, I actually portaged all the way across the peninsula to within 100m of CP8, where I caught up with Petr not realising I'd skipped anything. Ran away from him on the run back to the start/finish and got clued in when Valerie got the download working a few minutes after I finished. Petr came in for the win about 6 minutes later - I suspect that means I would have just barely overhauled him had I done the course properly but it would have been much too close for me to confidently say so.
A good day of physical training though possibly more torque hammering up hills on the bike than was good for my knees - it's hard to say since I also fell a few times on the bike and at least once hard during the score-O. Certainly the worse-feeling of my knees has that status largely because it took the brunt of my hardest fall during the biking, which also gave me a patch of, I suppose the correct term would be, trail rash. |
| Cycling 1:15:00 [2] | |
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| Not being especially eager to wait around until she finished all her timing and results duties for a ride home with Valerie (particularly given it would have meant answering a great many sympathetic questions about my error), I cycled slowly to the Vienna Metro station and took the train home. |
Saturday Sep 29 |
| Note | |
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| The Nation's Triathlon? Back to back with Venture Quest? No, I'm not that silly. |
| Hiking 2:00:00 [1] | |
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| Vetting/field checking in PWFP. |
Friday Sep 28 |
| Cycling 1:00:00 [3] | |
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| Cycling to work by way of the aquatic center. Directly home afterwards. |
| Deep Water Running 25:00 [4] | |
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| Another instance of taking time to break away from my bed, resulting in a brief but intense stint of DWR. |
Thursday Sep 27 |
| Cycling 1:10:00 [3] | |
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| Cycling to work. Much shopping on the way home lengthening the ride. |
Wednesday Sep 26 |
| Cycling 1:01:00 [3] | |
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| Cycling to work by way of the aquatic center and directly home. |
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| C • chart 2 |
| Deep Water Running 30:00 [4] | |
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| Another pool workout under time constraints so skipped any warmup beyond the cycling to the aquatic center and just ran. |
| Core exercises 10:00 [4] | |
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| Abdominal and back exercises. |
| Strength 12:00 [2] | |
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| Eccentric hamstring exercises and one-legged squats with a backpack full of textbooks plus a couple bottles of water (maybe 25-30 lbs). |
Tuesday Sep 25 |
| Cycling 1:01:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work by way of the aquatic center and directly home. |
| Swimming 11:00 [3] | |
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| Flutterkicking. |
| Deep Water Running 21:00 [4] | |
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| All I had time for after slowly dragging myself out of bed so at the high end of intensity level 4. |
| Note | |
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| Just took a few minutes to subscribe to a contemporary dance series in the current Kennedy Center season. Nice that you can now assemble a series a la carte but less nice that they apparently still haven't figured out how to make selling subscriptions online work more often than not. In any case, with tickets actually sitting on the desk, I won't go forgetting to buy them until after all the good seats are gone or performances sell out and I will therefore manage to do something with my free time this winter other than physical training, orienteering, mapping and watching TV. |
| |
| C • life 7 |
Monday Sep 24 |
| Cycling 57:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work. Feet sore and will require care to ensure they recover well enough for next weekend but body otherwise feeling pretty good despite the high intensity orienteering on rocky footing. Cycling straight home in the evening. |
| Core exercises 7:00 [4] | |
| |
| Abdominal exercises. |
| Strength 12:00 [2] | |
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| One-legged squats, still without any added weight. |
Sunday Sep 23 |
| Orienteering 36:23 [4] 4.59 km (7:56 / km) | |
| |
| US Relay Champs first leg for four point teams - ran as part of an unofficial team with Sergei Preobrazhensky, Dylan Thies and Eric Bone. Always fun to do a mass start and I clearly still need to work on not letting them make me error prone. I punched the first control first but overshot 2 slightly to the left and found myself in the middle of the lead pack. So I made a solitary but very good decision to take a low route around the the right to a trail heading towards 3, getting ahead of everyone even though I overshot the control and had to come back up two or three contours, having somehow convinced myself the slope wasn't continously downhill and that the control would be on a cliff in a reentrant after I turned uphill again rather than on a cliff on the downhill side of a small spur midslope. Forbore to fully explain what I was doing to the hiker who asked me if I was lost on the short leg to 4. Got caught up by Michael Sandstrom in the first two thirds of the long run to five, then conspired with him to get trapped on the opposite side of the large area of thick vegetation from the control - I initially thought what I've concluded was the medium green area was in fact the zone of green slash just downslope so my plan was to thread between that and the solid green. Ended up going largely through and then all the way around the end of the first patch of solid green to thread between it and the next patch and arrive at the control just behind a small pack led by Greg Balter. Took the next two controls to run through them and then started the uphill leg to 8 just behind Michael. We pulled away from the pack on the climb but I was worried about making another error and letting them catch us again, particularly if neither Michael nor I navigated carefully, so I aimed off somewhat left of Michael's course to be sure I'd be north of the control when I reached the flattening of the slope at the level of the control. Which worked and I got there just ahead of Michael with no one else in evidence. Took off up to the top of the hill and over with Michael presumably just behind, not that I was looking back. We came out of the woods and through the spectator control within a step or two of each other and stayed almost that close throughout the last loop of variegated rough open, woods and thickets, which was rather tricky at that speed racing someone head to head. Finished, I think, only a couple of steps ahead of him. Too bad about our error on 5 - I'll have to look at splits but I think it might have been of approximately the right size to have made it a tight battle between HVO and CSU for second among the four point teams. |
| Cycling 27:00 [3] | |
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| Cycling home from work after Nadim and Peggy dropped me off. |
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|
4pt Leg 1 Green - Splits |
Saturday Sep 22 |
| |
| Event: Sprint Series Final & US Relay Champs
|
| Orienteering race 13:12 [5] | |
| |
| Sprint Series Finals Sprint A - first just ahead of John Frederickson with quite a good race. I think my largest error in execution was 10 seconds at most - aiming off rather further than necessary towards a stream and then standing still momentarily when I hit a place that looked like where the control ought to be twenty meters or so before the actual control. |
| Orienteering race 13:14 [5] | |
| |
| Sprint Series Finals Sprint B - I'll have to check the splits but it felt like a disastrous first control followed by a good remainder of the race. Became conscious partway to 1 that I was left of my intended rough compass course and hadn't noticed my primary expected collecting feature so had to slow down once I dropped down the steeper slope into the vicinity of the control and figure out where I was. Got caught by Mikell from 30 seconds back and Greg Balter starting a minute behind was apparently also in sight when I punched 1. Buckled down to minimise the damage over the rest of the course and managed to avoid any other significant errors. Didn't manage to run completely away from Mikell. Impressive race from Ross. From Eric too given that he ran very early through empty woods with no slower runners giving away control locations. |
| Orienteering race 14:23 [5] 3.1 km (4:38 / km) | |
| |
| Sprint Series Finals Final - first in an exciting and competitive final. Tailed Ross through the first loop then passed him running to the spectator controls. Started second loop in company with John and stayed just about even through it. Aimed off somewhat excessively to the left on the first control of the third loop to the north of the start/finish and then did rather a big S curve approach into the second control for enough time lost that John was just heading off on the final loop as I came into view of the spectators. PG announced the gap as 19 seconds and I think Wyatt, Ross and Eric may all have been within that interval behind me. It was very close in any case. I may have closed a bit on John getting to the first control in the loop but he was out of sight as I emerged to plunge into the woods myself to start the long leg to the south. With the green slash athwart a direct attack on the next control and the risks of meandering and getting confused trying to go straight through even open woods, I stuck to the trails south then west then south again to get onto the trail heading straight west to the control circle, fortunately (since I hadn't managed to read ahead and plan every turn of this) without any wrong turns or time standing still. Got on the trail heading towards the control and saw John emerge from the woods onto the trail just behind me. Got to the control and saw Eric coming in from the woods to it as I exited. Booked it to the trail heading north along the road to the junction near the depression than fairly straight to the next control (through the woods to the next trail that went through a gap in the stone wall then around the large patch of green and towards the field visible just the other side of the reentrant with the control in it. Emerged into the field with no one in sight ahead of me and, it became clear over the next hundred meters, no one close on my tail either - Eric and John would have been very close behind if they hadn't made nav errors following a route somewhat to the right of mine on the attack towards the control circle. Ran the last two controls and in and then watched the fight for the next four positions. |
| |
| C • Congrats on your victory!!! 3 |
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|
Sprint A Course 3 (R/B) - Splits |
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Sprint B Course 3 (R/B) - Splits |
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|
Sprint C - Splits |
Friday Sep 21 |
| Cycling 30:00 [3] | |
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| Cycling to work. |
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| C • Congrats on your sprint finals! 2 |
Thursday Sep 20 |
| Cycling 59:00 [3] | |
| |
| Work commute. PCRM work party cancelled so took in earlier screening of Summer Palace at the AFI Silver than I'd planned on the way home. |
Wednesday Sep 19 |
| Cycling 1:01:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work. Home by way of the aquatic center. |
| Swimming 15:00 [3] | |
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| Flutterkicking. |
| Deep Water Running 25:00 [4] | |
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| Pool running - light training desired leading up to the weekend races but nothing but cycling seemed like a bad idea. |
Tuesday Sep 18 |
| Cycling 57:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work and home again. Will have to do something beyond cycling this evening and/or tomorrow, despite an easy week being the plan leading up to this weekend, but I've got a lot of things other than exercise to get done these next few evenings. |
| Core exercises 8:00 [4] | |
| |
| Abdominal exercises. |
| Strength 7:00 [2] | |
| |
| One-legged squats. |
Monday Sep 17 |
| Cycling 57:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work and back. |
Sunday Sep 16 |
| Orienteering 3:00:00 [1] | |
| |
| Block vetting for the US Champs classic model event and for Keg's day - 5 to six hours of occasional jogging, mostly walking, and a fair bit of standing looking at things. A fair number of small map corrections to do in Keg's terrain than that can be put to bed. The model event map still needs some work. |
| Cycling 7:00 [3] | |
| |
| Out of order here - cycling to Cleveland Park on my way to catch my ride to the vetting. Comedy of errors as I got there, prepped my bike for locking, phoned Nadim to tell him I'd meet him at Dave's rather than his place and then entered the Metro without actually locking my bike, forcing us to drive through rather than around DC on the way south to secure it. Good thing bike thieves apparently sleep in on Sunday mornings. |
| |
| C • So, how did you know? 3 |
Saturday Sep 15 |
| Note | |
| |
| Four Seasons 5K at 8:10am and Lake Accotink QOC event in the afternoon. |
| Cycling 1:10:00 [3] | |
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| All my cycling - to the 5K then to the library and home then the round trip between the Franconia-Springfield Metro and Lake Accotink. |
| Running race 17:08 [5] 5 km (3:26 / km) +20m 3:22 / km vdot: 59.6 | |
| |
| Sprint Four the Cure 5K - strange race without numbers and therefore without official results, just a clock at the finish so you could check your time. Second, just over 30 seconds out of first and the sole male prize, a round trip on American Airlines (no limitations mentioned but I tend to assume it would have been only for destinations in the US, possibly only the continental US). Still, must admit, that's a heck of a prize and I'll no doubt take a stab at it or its equivalent next year, unless my 5K form deteriorates. Course not, to my knowledge, certified and overwhelmingly on the gravel C&O Canal towpath with some sharp turns and stairs involved in the two bridge crossings so perhaps I shouldn't put much stock in the time but I certainly hope I can reverse the current trend and manage something closer to my PR the next time I step onto a certified flat course. |
| Orienteering race 1:05:17 [4] 9.1 km (7:10 / km) | |
| |
| QOC Lake Accotink - the point maximising all controls in ascending numerical order route for Sid Sachs' score-o. A lovely day in the woods, some confusion trying to ignore the new and/or shifting trails in parts of the map, one of which led Sid to believe someone had filled in the pit he intended to use as a control location when it was just 15 to 20 meters upslope of where he ended up putting the control, presumably by placing it in about the right spot relative to the nearest trail - Peggy and I arrived at the pit just about simultaneously to share a moment of befuddlement and resignation to searching the vicinity before spotting the flag. |
| Orienteering 1:05:00 [1] 5.4 km (12:02 / km) | |
| |
| Control pickup - left to run to the far western part of the map with about 20 minutes to go before course closed and picked up all the controls on the way back east. Moved pretty slowly to very slowly, mostly walking once I had enough controls to make running feel awkward. |
Friday Sep 14 |
| Cycling 1:12:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work by way of the aquatic center. Home with food shopping at both TPSS locations - t'would be nice if they would harmonise their prices but only, of course, if they always did so by adjusting the higher price downwards. |
| Swimming 10:00 [3] | |
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| Flutterkicking. |
| Deep Water Running 24:00 [4] | |
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| Pool running with jazz accompaniment once more, livelier this time than last. Hopefully everything will now feel good tomorrow morning during the 5K and tomorrow afternoon at Lake Accotink - indications now are positive. |
Thursday Sep 13 |
| Cycling 1:07:00 [3] | |
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| Cycling to work - below 20 degrees Celsius today. I may have to start carrying tights and my cycling jacket around with me again very soon. Home by way of volunteer party at PCRM. |
| Core exercises 8:00 [4] | |
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| Abdominal exercises in front of The Colbert Report. |
| Strength 17:00 [2] | |
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| Mostly one-legged squats but also 3 sets of the eccentric hamstring exercise for each leg. |
Wednesday Sep 12 |
| Cycling 57:00 [3] | |
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| Cycling to work. Pleasantly cool - low 20s. Straight home in the evening. |
| Running 6:49 [1] | |
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| Warmup/cooldown. |
| Form exercises 31:47 [4] | |
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| Silly walks, 9x100m strides and jogging rests between those and the hills logged separately. |
| Hills 3:20 [5] | |
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| 5 times up the hill, somewhat more than equal rest between each time. |
Tuesday Sep 11 |
| Cycling 57:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work. Feels like my calves have turned the corner - soreness definitely much diminished since yesterday morning. No diversions on the way home though I did pause for chinups. |
| Core exercises 7:00 [4] | |
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| Spent most of the evening working in OCAD but took a break for abdominal exercises. |
| Strength 11:00 [2] | |
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| Another break from OCAD work to do several sets of one-legged squats. Plan is to do these one or two more times and then start doing them with something beyond body weight. |
Monday Sep 10 |
| Cycling 1:00:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work and home by way of the aquatic center. |
| Swimming 20:00 [3] | |
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| Flutterkicking. |
| Deep Water Running 36:00 [4] | |
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Sunday Sep 9 |
| |
| Event: QOC McKeldin
|
| Orienteering race 1:11:55 [4] 8.93 km (8:03 / km) +310m 6:52 / km | |
| |
| QOC McKeldin Blue - fairly hot, orienteered and ran pretty well except for the part where I went from control 8 to control 11 and didn't clue in until I checked the code - slightly more than half a kilometer added to the course, I think. Was also shaky on control 10 where the open area didn't seem to match the map very well. Not seeing the control at first, I went and tested the theory that I was actually in the next open area to the north before coming back and having a better look around.
Had bizarrely sore calves when I woke up in the morning - is not quite six hours of walking in terrain following a 5K really all that big a deal. Orienteering doesn't seem to have helped but non-weight bearing training tomorrow should. |
| |
|
Blue - Splits |
Saturday Sep 8 |
| Note | |
| |
| National Press Club 5K as part of Team PCRM - their media director seems to think fielding a team might be beneficial as outreach to media organisations. Something QOC might try as a way of raising our profile with runners? |
| Running race 16:54 [5] 5 km (3:23 / km) +19m 3:19 / km vdot: 60.6 | |
| |
| National Press Club 5K - fifth overall well behind the top three men and 8 seconds behind the top woman. All four appeared to be Ethiopian so I'm not going to feel too bad about that. Only 44 seconds ahead of Ted Poulos compared to a minute and thirteen seconds in the race in May - maybe I can blame that on the heat, lack of shade and wearing the new PCRM T-shirt rather than something cooler designed for running. |
| Hiking 2:30:00 [1] | |
| |
| The portion I'll log of about 5.5 hours of mapping in Prince William. Some taking of tracks with the GPS but mostly going back and using compass and pace to refine the relative positions of features I surveyed with the GPS the previous weekend. |
Friday Sep 7 |
| Cycling 1:07:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work with a very small diversion to buy some stamps along the way. Meant to drop in to the pool on the way home but rendered my front light non-functional by dropping it onto pavement at TPSS so it seemed the better part of valour to head home before darkness fell. |
Thursday Sep 6 |
| Cycling 1:09:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work. Home by way of PCRM. |
| Strength 14:00 [2] | |
| |
| Single-leg squats while watching Moya-Djokovic quarterfinal. |
| Core exercises 7:00 [4] | |
| |
| Various abdominal stuff, also while watching tennis. |
Wednesday Sep 5 |
| Cycling 57:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work and back. |
| Running 17:45 [1] | |
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| Warmup/cooldown/rest between repetitions. |
| Running 17:24 [5] 4.92 km (3:32 / km) +52m 3:22 / km | |
| |
| 4x1230m I intervals on grass in 4:16, 4:19, 4:24 and 4:25 - proof, if more was needed, that Brent is better at even pacing than I. Thought I'd be much slower on the first one given lingering soreness from Monday. Same course I've previously logged as being 1200m but now I've tried to measure it more precisely. |
| |
| C • Luck 1 |
Tuesday Sep 4 |
| Cycling 1:03:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work. Home by way of the aquatic center. |
| Swimming 20:00 [3] | |
| |
| Flutterkicking. |
| Deep Water Running 40:00 [4] | |
| |
| Once I felt pretty much loosened up (lunges the previous night had the usual effect so I'm glad I was cautious about the number I did) the running. |
Monday Sep 3 |
| Cycling 57:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling to work and back. |
| Running 6:30 [1] | |
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| Warmup/cooldown. |
| Form exercises 34:57 [4] | |
| |
| Silly walks, 3x100m strides, a couple of attempts at bounding on level ground (feels very strange), a small number of lunges and some one- and two-legged hopping and jumping. |
| Hills 3:20 [5] 850.0 mi ( / mi) +75m / km | |
| |
| 5 times up the hill next to the Woodner (apartment building the size of a small town overlooking Piney Branch Park). |
| Core exercises 5:00 [4] | |
| |
| Core stuff while watching tennis. Been a while. |
Sunday Sep 2 |
| Cycling 25:00 [3] | |
| |
| Downtown and back to finally take in the "Portugal: Encompassing the Globe" exhibit at the Freer and Sackler Galleries and African Art Museum as well as see "The Blue Angel" at the National Gallery, which weirdly for a film that old, even one with a star as big as Marlene Dietrich, drew a full house, all standing room taken. |
| Running 6:30 [1] | |
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| Warmup/cooldown. |
| Form exercises 37:10 [4] | |
| |
| Silly walks, 6x100 m strides and 4 uphill bounding passes. |
| Running 4:49 [5] 1.5 mi (3:13 / mi) +26m 1:54 / km | |
| |
| Two more uphill runs at my new test course in 1:36 and 1:38. Also one in the downhill direction as the light was fading in 1:35. |
Saturday Sep 1 |
| Cycling 1:00:00 [3] | |
| |
| Cycling out to Nadim and Peggy's to catch a lift to the US Champs planning meeting and home again afterwards. |
| Hiking 1:30:00 [1] | |
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| Half the time I spent walking around the last bits of Prince William Forest Park that have to be mapped to accommodate Keg's courses. |