Training Log Archive: JanetT

Event: Canadian Championships Sprint
 

Sprint in Perth, Canada, course 3, 2.9 km (measured along the "optimum route" given that there some out-of-bounds areas to deal with--mostly a main road, for which they had a couple of manned crossings forcing a slightly off-line route). I enjoyed the challenge of making sure I was on the correct side of things (the first control, for one) and looking for traps. The only real "mistake" I made, costing probably about 40 seconds, was *not* crossing the crossable watercourse between 14 and 15, or even taking the southern bridge rather than the northern bridge (southern might have been slightly shorter).

A first for me, I think, was finishing the sprint *inside* a building. It appeared to be a venue that could be used for a farmers market, or be rented for events (such as this one), as it overlooks water and has a good sized parking area nearby. They had vendors there selling the local brews and spare rib tacos. :-)

7th in F55-64. The speedy Canadians duke it out for top three and I've been finishing in 6th or 7th.

It was partly cloudy and a bit muggy; temp around 76. Cooling off after we finished so I'm glad I had a dry shirt to change into.

3 - Splits

Retro-O in Parc Gatineau at Camp Fortune. Re-run of the original COC courses from 1968...I did the women veterans' course, the "yellow" (like a modern green), 4.3 km, on a 1:20000 black and white map with 6m contours. With north lines about 45 degrees off vertical (angled left), something else to keep track of. Not all used features were actually mapped, but flags were in the circled locations (control descriptions were English only; international symbols came later).

Mostly sunny and humid; mid 70s to start but low 80s when we finished. I was soaked with sweat enough that the brim of my hat was dripping for most of the last half hour.

Started well, being careful to pace count as I went down the trail to where I wanted to leave it to attack, because of the 1:20000 scale. The marshes showed up right where I expected them to! #2 was reassuring, back to the trail and near a junction. Almost overshot my third control, the terrace, number 86, but saw a couple of people coming out of it so I checked where they came from. The only other control I messed up was near the end when I was running on a trail behind others and just needed to find a bridge, except I wasn't confident which trail we were on and explored some others which apparently aren't on the map (bike trails) for several minutes lost, I'm sure.
When I finally did see the bridge I didn't see the flag at first because several young boys were hanging out there and one was between me and flag, but then he moved. From there to the finish was a bit tricky finding the proper trail. I went up a hill on one with streamers (control descriptions said "150 m from last control to finish. No tapes") and there was the finish banner just ahead of me. Success!

I was in about 18th place overall on the course when we left with only a few more people out.

Because the original event here also apparently had a club team award, Gord encouraged clubs to put together their top three runners' times (as long as they met certain rules). Turns out EMPO (Janet Findlay, David Hunter, and me) were first club team, narrowly beating out Marion Owen's team from Calgary)! Janet and David certainly ran well on the yellow course; as for team times, my time was almost two minutes faster than Glen's (though he ran the longer "red" course).

After a late night, feeling tired from three days of races and a morning trying to find my car key (we eventually found it, kicked under the cabinet in the motel bathroom...), I decided to just walk some of the controls closer in to the Ecowellness Centre. I've been on the Barrens before and didn't relish running (or adding sunscreen to be out in the open). Visited 215-117-121-118-152-114-122-120 (the last two were right along the trail). Yeah, that was enough. Buggy woods with plenty of mosquitoes despite my using spray, but I got some quality woods time (turned my ankle once, not too badly; it's okay).

Gave the Barrens portion of my map to Jean O'Neil from Ireland who hadn't gotten one in her packet and wanted to revisit the area. That gave me a much smaller map to handle. :-)

Night O at Rivermead Golf Club in QC across the river from Ottawa. Because there were mass starts for the three courses offered, they did some forking and mixing up of the controls so following was not advised (not that *I* could keep with anyone :-)).

I was given course 2-A1, 4.3 km. Greens and sand traps were mapped out of bounds and for the most part weren't along leg lines (except 5-6, where I contoured around the hill the green as on). I think I had other people heading into many of the controls which helped. The longest leg was one I called a non-spike because I didn't stay close to the line but got off to the left hitting a pond I needed to skirt, so I lost time there. Otherwise I navigated well and knew which way to turn after punching. It was fun despite my getting so sweaty that the cool evening temps were uncomfortable after finishing. I didn't manage to win a prize; 21st overall on course 2 behind 4-5 other women; 4th F55-64 (an Irish woman who finished about 20 sec ahead of me was F65+).

Order of controls for my forking was:
81-84-107-90-85-105-104-99-87-92-105-93-106-88-101-96

Event: Eastern Canadian Championships - Middle
 

800m, my eye. ;-) I gave myself plenty of time. A bit nerve-wracking following the narrow trail through head-high rough open fields which contained plenty of wild parsnip along with more benign vegetation.

ECOC Middle, course 5, 2.2km/15m, on the Pierrefonds map (1:7500, 2.5m contours)

This was better. No big errors, and just a couple of controls where I wasn't dead on.

About 4-4:30 minutes behind Joanne Woods; 5th overall in F55-64.

I started my Garmin, but forgot to stop it at the parking lot, so it tracked the entire ride back to the motel. 13:50 is where pace and cadence changed in the data so I figure that was about it where I stopped moving.

Fell once in the woods, hit right knee on upper outside (no biggie) and apparently have a minor strain in the right wrist...no noticeable swelling but some discomfort when I bend it.

ECOC Middle - Course 5 - Splits

Event: Eastern Canadian Championships - Long
 

Event: Canada 150 Orienteering Festival
 

Course 5 in ECOC Long at Notre-Dame-de-l'île-Perrot, west of Montreal. 3.6km, 15m climb on a 1:7500 map with 2.5m contours--it was a flattish area with a maze of trails and light-to-medium green woods for a large portion; some white woods on the south side of a large power line.

I ended up taking the wrong trail out of the start but it set me up for a good approach if I'd executed it correctly as the green along the power line wasn't too thick. But I wasn't yet counting paces (I did on the second try) and was too short...I returned to the trail to try again and count paces.

Things went better from 2-8 though I had a couple of approaches where I navigated off features not in my original planned route; but then I blew it going to 9 where I again had no idea of distance and was trying to navigate off features. A 12-minute leg that should have been 6-7...

6th overall behind Joanne Woods and mbo in places 1-2; almost 10 minutes behind Shelagh.

For my future reference...on the big wide trail in the power line (7-8 leg) I tripped over something and went down on the bare rock there. Not too bruised or battered; mostly just scrapes, but I did land on my left knee. I'll survive.

ECOC Long - Course 5 - Splits