Training Log Archive: Nadim

QOC: Hemlock Overlook Regional Park, VA. Scare-O. I went out with Nicole Aleksieva and Samantha on QOC's first scare-o. It came off well. Going out with 2 kids as young as these, they were genuinely scared and thrilled at the same time. Niclole talked her way through the march in the dark; we were only to use glow sticks to read our map. The route was marked with glow sticks too. Samantha was quieter except during scares and to tell Nicole to stop squeezing her hand so tightly. Our scares were sometimes simple like a glowing poster-like skeleton at a control. Sometimes they were silently scary like Jan Merka dressed in black with a black had and a staff. Of course, Benny, Jan's golden retriever, was nearby and Benny's breathing alone scared the girls. They didn't see Benny's glow-in the dark skeleton costume until later. Scares continued with flashing lights and even the unintended. The girls stumbled on roots sometimes and one-time when we missed a forking of a trail, we cut down an embankment. While holding the girls hands, I happened to step down into a sort of concrete wall drop for some sort of sewer. An interesting scare at controls 5 and 6 was the guilt-tripping screams asking for help to get out of giant spider webs. We said sorry at #5, only to have our route double back closer to the trapped screaming girl. Again we said sorry and started to walk away when Nicole Lennon, dressed as a sort of spirit came screaming at us from another direction. We ran down the trail and got away of course. There was some navigation required in this, and I helped the girls find #7, which was kind of darker than the rest. Eventually, after a control in a make-shift graveyard, we were surprised by a monster with a bloody mouth all lit-up. We hurried off as Max snuck further ahead and lowered a goul down in front of us. Our final trial was a witch who popped out from behind a tree at the last control and kindly asked if we needed help. We hurried on-in. Everyone seemed to have fun. It took a lot for the Lennon's to set it up and the volunteers had to do a lot of waiting in-between participants. I went off to run a regular night-o course afterward and found that Nicole and Samantha loved the scare-o enough to go out and do it again with Kathleen Lennon leading them.

QOC: Hemlock Overlook Regional Park, VA. It had been a long time since I'd done an official night-o (though I picked-up controls at night over the summer). I was a bit late leaving and thought I should drop-down to a shorter course. I decided to go out anyway and hope for the best. I set my headlamp to a medium setting, worried that I might otherwise run out of power.

I did fine going to #1 and #2.

For #3, I used the trail but even though I was aware that distance seems much further at night, I pulled off of the trail way early. I ended up finding 2 other controls before understanding the terrain I'd gotten into and getting to the dot knoll control.

For #4, I got confused trying to follow the edge of a reentrant after crossing a trail. I wondered around in a lot of deadfall, eventually looping back to the trail, relocating and hitting the control.

I thought I'd take it more safely going to #5, a long leg. I followed reentrants until they ended, then crossed over a ridge. I started not understanding what I was seeing but kept a bearing that dropped me into a reentrant where I thought I knew where I was. I crossed and followed another long one upward. I was probably in the large reentrant to the south of where I thought I was because after a long while I hit a road. Given a nearby curve, I though I relocated so I came at it again--first, I had to go around some out of bounds areas. I did but everything I was in was green. I couldn't make sense of the reentrants very well and soon got to the edge of some private property. This turned out to be the winery because after rounding it, I ended up near the road bend at the park entrance! That sucked. I figured then that I couldn't finish the course but I went out at #5 again. This time I read things well the whole way there and hit the control with almost no trouble.

I was strangely more confident after that 32 minute error. I went at #6 pretty much directly and spiked it, despite it being in the green. I was able to get to #7 pretty well too but that wasn't hard given that #7 was just off of a trail.

I decided that to get back before 10pm, I had to head back. I went to #10 next and hit that well. I went on straightish to #14 and spiked that too.

For #15, I read my way acoss well until the last 150m. I missed it in the green, got low and came back to find it. I turned my headlamp on to full power at this point and noted from my battery meter that NO energy drop was registering; after +90 minutes it looked like I still had full power! I was feeling stupid about not using a higher beam earlier and that might have prevented me making a lot of the errors that I did.

My run-in was perhaps not the most efficient with a combination of cutting across the slash, and using trails. I came-in from too high on the paved foot path.

It was disappointing to have messed-up this night-O. It was one of those that I wished I had a chance to do over. I was worn out and tired (so were the kids) even before we got home. Peggy had her own full day helping the boy scouts learn to be orienteers at Patuxent River Park.

Long Advanced - Splits

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. It was only in the upper 40s F this morning but there were shifty winds. It was slowing me up getting out of Bethesda and part way on the CCT. Past the Kennedy Center in DC, I had some tailwinds.

From 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C., to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. I barely made it out of work without getting delayed at the courtyard gate--they had closed it but the guard was just leaving so she opened it up again. With it being less cloudy, I wasn't riding in the dark until out of Georgetown. I again rode alone the whole way. I was happy that the hard gusty winds that were around most of the day had diminished and were negligible by the time I was home.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. I left work pretty close to 8am and it was 35 F. With my warm jacket on, I felt the air drag. I gradually caught and joined-up with some other riders but overall did more pulling. There was a hardly noticeable tailwind along the river. There were about 3 times during the ride when someone suddenly cut in front of me and I laid patches applying braking. One was a runner who was avoiding a pedestrian walking a dog on the inside corner and wrong side of the trail, another was a van which was pulling out from a parking spot at the very end of the CCT as I was going into Georgetown. On the later there was no maneuver room since a gate big enough for a single rider blocked my sides escapes, and another rider was right behind me. I was fortunate enough to see and react quickly enough for all of these.

From 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C., to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. The temperature was in the uppermost 50s F. I rode this mostly in the dark with a headlamp. I was by myself pretty much the whole way and the winds were calm.

Busy day at work and afterward, I took the kids to get Halloween costumes. Samantha will be a fairy. Max had already ordered a mask, and decided not to get anything more.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. in the dark. I had worked late. A headwind was slowing me down and I was glad that I had decided to take a jacket with me this morning.

Event: QOC Patuxent
 

QOC: Patuxent River Park, MD. I set out 3 gallons of water mostly walking to an area. Luckily, my back had gotten some rest and wasn't bothering me like it was in the evening the night before. I also ran out to the control where I'd forgotten to bring an epunch the day before. I saw this spider web along the way (below) Coming back to the car, I ran the whole way at a good pace.

QOC: Patuxent River Park, MD. I set out 5 gallons of water at 2 water stops. I had again walked out on a trail with the 5 gallons, then jogged the remaining 2 to a wooded location.

QOC: Patuxent River Park, MD. It was embarrassing for Jon Torrance to have just finished the Goat course I'd set, and one of the controls near the end had been misplaced. I went out to check it out. I had been worried about this one. I'd checked it out twice near the end of the day with it being darkish and the quality of my home printed map hadn't been that good. When I saw Valerie's printing of the map, while watching and waiting for runners to come through, I got to worrying a little. Sorry to all whom this affected. I moved the control since I'm guessing that relatively few runners had gotten to it. It did however affect the Goat, Green and Brown courses.

QOC: Patuxent River Park, MD. I picked-up controls in the center of the park. These were spaced out than most of the others, and across some very flat areas. I hit them all well and felt I was running pretty well too.

QOC: Patuxent River Park, MD. Dan Quinn had left a couple of controls. He went out without a compass the first time so we were both splitting-up what he'd left. I looped over to check on the ones he had after I got mine.

QOC: Patuxent River Park, MD. Dan Quinn and I picked-up another control each. My legs were getting crampy again but didn't seize-up like they did after getting home yesterday.