Training Log Archive: PG

Never been on a cruise, or a bus tour, or any such operation where you get to be the cattle herded from one tourist spot to another. But a first time for everything.

Packed away the O' stuff, got up at 4:30 to catch a plane to Izmir, now playing your basic tourist for three days. For today the highlight was the old Roman city of Ephesus. Quite spectacular ruins. Also a short visit to a house the Virgin Mary grew old in, or so the story (or marketing pitch) goes, eminently forgettable other than a pleasant drive in the hills. Also another ruin, not bad, and a museum, also not bad, plus stops at a ceramic place and a rug place for short demonstrations and longer sales pitches.

A long day in other words, but very enjoyable, also perfect weather, only downside is Gail is suffering from a newly acquired cold. And we were a small group of 6 plus guide plus driver traveling in a minivan, and all actually very pleasant. Nice surprise.

Get to do it again tomorrow in a different part of western Turkey, different guide, probably different companions. Keep our fingers crossed.

Interesting looking at the splits/results for the last day in Istanbul. I remember putting out a really hard effort the last few controls, especially up the hill to 12 and it seems like it made the difference. Wish I could find that willpower out in the woods and on a longer course.

Day 4 (and last day) in Istanbul, this one right in the heart of the historic district in the city. Very cool. Starting and finishing on the Hippodrome (where they used to have chariot races) right in front of the Blue Mosque, the course went though a bazaar, past the Topkapi Palace and the archeological museum, into a park below the palace, and then up past the AyaSophia mosque. Lots and lots of people around, often to dodge, both Turks and foreigners. Wish we could do stuff like this in the USA.

Pretty good run, just one mistake, didn't see a wall continued so went the wrong way around a building, 40 seconds. But I guess no one else had a perfect run, so it was just good enough for first on the day, 10 seconds up on second and a few more on third and fourth. Take 'em when you can get 'em.

And second overall, not close either ahead or behind.

And so the end of a brilliant event. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to others, expect for those that like their language English, their culture American, and their food from McDonalds. I have always been hesitant to travel places where I don't know at least a little of the language. I certainly know no Turkish and can't read any of the signs, but it has still been a joy both the orienteering and experiencing the city. Great organization, and the mish-mash of orienteers from many different countries adds a lot, chance to meet some old friends and make some new ones.

A little bit of me wishes I was on Peo's tour. They were here part way on an excursion that hits 10 or 15 countries in three weeks, orienteering once or twice a day, endless bus rides -- a mix of the sublime and the absurd in other words -- but something that would leave you with a ton of memories, mostly good. I'm getting a little old for that, but who knows....

Off very early in the morning for three days of touristing in western Turkey, just to see a little something else of the country (and because flying home Wednesday was insanely cheaper than any other day) before heading home. No more O' for a while.

The map.

C • Congratulations! 3

I guess I better learn to accept it, because it seems clear I am suffering from terminal stupidity.

Night-O is the Grand Bazaar. Very fine run except I took two controls in the wrong order. WTF. What's next?

The map. I took 7 before 6. Only reason I can give is I was looking at the number next to the circle (part of the code), not the actual control number).

So it seems that I have about 3 different feelings about this --







Results I saw would have had me second if I done them right, so I don't feel so bad. This doesn't count in the overall results and it was a win-or-nothing approach to the run. Got the nothing.

But until I downloaded, it really really was fun.

Note that the controls drawn with a blue circle are on the upper level, have to use the correct stairs to get to them.

C • smuggled map? 5

Day 3. Not my best, not my worst. 3.7 km, advertised as 130m climb, a quick count gives 200+. Not easy, especially reading the map.

4th for the day (after 8th the first day and 2nd yesterday). Overall perhaps 2nd but a long ways behind.

Very nice chat on the bus back with a Norwegian F70, had a knee replaced 7 years ago and is still going strong, was 3rd in her class at WMOC in Minnesota in 1997. And spoke very good English.

Today's map.

Photo of the day (so far) -- riding the tram. Gail is out there someplace (it was packed and we got in different doors). Only going two stops, and for that stop we had to get off on the other side. A moment of anxiety, but no problem.

A few photos from Day 2.

Walked down to the water to get the boat, just like the one shown here....



By the time we got to the island it was raining, but not for long, then had to walk through town over to the beach on the other side where the arena was. Looked a bit desolate there, certainly no swimmers, though apparently the place is packed in the summer, folks from the city escaping the heat.



A little section of the woods, could usually get through OK, just not see much --



Of course some of the course was a lot faster, like the last bit down to the last control --



Or around 10 down in the harbor (though it was a little hard to tell which the single trees were, because some had become part of the restaurants) --



============

Now in another homage to Alex, the rest of today's photos are devoted to food. :-)

A Turkish bagel? Bought from a guy hustling them as we got on the boat for the return trip. 60 cents. Tasted fine, a bit of cheese on the outside.



On the way back to the hotel, first went by a guy selling (and juicing), no, it's not red onions or tomatoes, rather pomegranates. Passed on this guy, though Gail's been having fresh pomegranate juice for dinner, says it's delicious.



The route next went through the spice bazaar, where the displays were more and more awesome --





And then we finished up with a snack -- exactly the same as yesterday, soup followed by some chocolate pistachio baklava. The former was excellent, the latter was positively sinful.



============

Will be an early bedtime tonight. And tomorrow will be a struggle staying awake for the sprint in the Grand Bazaar. But I don't think we will skip it.

Day 2. 4.4 km, 125 meters climb. Heading off in quite a different direction, southeast this time (yesterday was north about halfway to the Black Sea, still on the European side of the Bosphorus). And by boat today, about an hour, Heybeliada Island in the Sea of Marmara. Who knew any of these places existed, let alone were good for orienteering.

Quite different terrain today. No thorns (yay!). About two-thirds rather tricky forest, one-third fairly straightforward city streets. And I managed not so bad. A little cautious to the first couple but OK. Maybe not the fastest route to 4, went around (low trail then up) as Gail said you could get through the green.

5 was the only bad one, though probably not more than a minute. Thicker than the map reflects.

In fact on much of the forest part it was as if you needed a new symbol -- good running, lousy visibility. Lots and lots of low bushes (waist to head high) that you could weave through pretty well, but they reduced the visibility a lot. Made it hard to really see what the contours were doing.

After 5 things went pretty well. Took 7 via the back door, made 8 a dog-leg. 9 to 13 the main problem was seeing the controls on the map. 14 and 15 were tricky, the rest easy.

No results when we left to catch the early boat. Though I saw one of the fast Finns come in shortly after I did, and he was 3 minutes quicker, so obviously no win today. Yesterday was the opportunity for that, but I didn't take advantage of it.

Tomorrow we're back on the bus going north to a different section of forest, then night-O at the Grand Bazaar, then a sprint in the historical old section of Istanbul wraps it up on Saturday. 5-day events are just too short.

The map.

Photos will have to wait until after we have dinner, but time for one now. Gail suggested that we try to pretend we are Alex with a camera. And what would Alex do? Well, maybe take some pictures of other people, but for sure there will be a close-up of herself, mugging for the camera.

We are pure amateurs at this, of course, but we did one thing quite professionally -- only one shot allowed.

Not so bad.... :-)

C • Photo Propensity 2

Event: Istanbul 5 Days
 

Had a really nice dinner with John Murray and his partner Ellen. He speaks some Turkish and has been in the country a bunch, so we learned lots of stuff, plus enjoyed some good food at a place he picked out, where they spoke no English.

It turns out we aren't the only Americans here for the orienteering. A lot of kids too --



All sponsored by Rotary clubs? And it seems they are all running just the fourth stage, the night-O in the Grand Bazaar. I'm curious how that goes, since my guess is they have done little or no orienteering.

Their presence in the entry list already called a moment of confusion. Opening ceremony this morning, the oldest and youngest of each of the 39 participating countries were supposed to take part in a display of flags. I was clearly the oldest (John is only 65), and I thought one of the kids was the youngest, but the kids weren't there, and so Gail should have been up there too. By the way, the flag to the right of me is Wales, sort of a country?



They played the national anthem, and the Turks stand a lot straighter than Americans do on such an occasion, and then the president of the Turkish O' Federation spoke very briefly. A shot of him later, second from the left. Don't you think OUSA officials ought to show up to our events similarly dressed?



Other cultural differences -- no porta-potties here, these toilets have been there a long time (and they are the very primitive type). You get your toilet paper from the lady outside.



The woods? In some places they were very nice (this is the drop down to the last control....



And in some places not so nice (this is just to the left of the last photo, and where I went)....



And this is the nice trail around I could have taken....

C • Interesting write-up 4

C • 6th for you, 7th for Gail 2

C • Wales 38

Travel to a whole new country, and within eyesight of a new continent, but damn if I don't find out that my stupidity has followed me. As well as the thorns.

Istanbul 5-Days, day 1. M65. 4.4 km, 190m. Nice terrain other than the thorns, which came in two varieties -- the short and not really threatening kind, usually about a foot or two high, and the serious stuff very much like greenbriar back home, just a single strand can stop you dead and extract some blood in the process.

My general sense is that the thorns got the best of me today. I must have fallen a dozen times, usually pretty hard, a foot catches and the vine doesn't let go but the body keeps going. Last one was really hard, really jarred my back, but so far it seems to be holding up OK.

And my orienteering sucked once again. One silly route choice to the last control, but just 30 seconds, a couple of smaller parallel error type goofs, maybe 45-60 seconds each, and one serious parallel error, corrected reasonably soon, but then followed by an inability to find the little depression the control was tucked in (5 -6 minutes). It seems that such a run has now become a pretty accurate measure of how I orienteer these days.

When we left I was 4th, 3 or 4 minutes behind. I'd guess I might drop another place or two. Obviously others had trouble too, because it is actually a very good field, out of 55 in the class I can count 8 that I know from past events that have been better or roughly the same (including a couple of world champions many decades ago), plus there are the Finns and eastern Europeans I don't know because they don't travel much. But at this age everyone is falling apart in one way or another, plus the brains are decaying, so the results can be most anything. Hopefully better tomorrow. I assume I'm not the only one thinking that.

I met another American here, John Murray from City of Trees OC in Boise, also in M65. He has close friends in Turkey, has visited several times, but just started O' 18 months ago, so this is the first time at the event. We're supposed to be having dinner with him and his wife tonight, if we can find each other in this huge city.

And it is a huge and fascinating city. 13+ million people. Got to see some of it on the bus ride out to the event, and some more on the way back because we came a different way. It goes on and on and on. Have yet to see a jogger. Have seen one bicyclist. Lots of buses of all shapes and sizes. Lots of boats. Lots of mosques and minarets, but it is a secular city so not many women wearing the veil. Horrible traffic, totally glad we aren't renting a car -- the signs are in Turkish, and the drivers seems to express a fair bit of disregard for the normal rules of the road. I'm sure we won't have enough time for really exploring, but just being here feels like quite an adventure -- exposure to a whole new culture -- and that is not a bad thing for expanding the mind.

Tomorrow the O' is on an island SE of the city. Another adventure. So far the organization has been excellent.

The map.I botched 4 and 10 a little, and didn't take the big trail to the finish, but the real problem was 8, took 9:02. Yikes!!!

C • Istanbul 1

Seem to be in Istanbul.... :-)

Just enough time at home to transfer contents of the fridge to Alex, who was going somewhere there would be power, and then push her car out of a snowbank, and do a little pruning of the big branches hanging on the wires so we could get out the driveway easier, and then just leave. With arrangements with others to deal with the house.

Istanbul sure is different. Time to go exploring....

C • Have fun! 6

A nice walk around a little of the old part of Istanbul, visited the archeological museum and the huge Sophia mosque (now converted to a museum, so no religious customs to follow), plus a very nice dinner at some place Gail found online -- big gold star to her, as we knew where we were heading, instead of wandering around looking at menus, lots of places to eat.

And then crashed big time, but at least got a very solid 8 hours, didn't wake up once, though I do remember a snippet of a dream in which Balter had gone missing. I wonder what the rest of the dream was about.

And now off shortly to catch a bus to see what the O' is like. Supposed to be hilly and a mix of very open and somewhat thorny. I should be prepared. And maybe my awesome Sunday night O' will be the start of some good orienteering runs. One can always hope....

Ah, finally got in a good O event, maybe the best of the year. And first time I'd ever tried this version of orienteering -- Parkling Lot O'.

Arrived at Bradley airport in Hartford a little before midnight. The parking place didn't answer its phone, but the shuttle was running so off we (Ali, Alex, and me) went. No power at the parking office, just a few candles, and quite a crowd of people who appeared to be waiting for their cars.

I checked in at the office, gave them my parking ticket, the woman said it would be a little while, because first they had to find the cars, and then they all had ice on the windshields so they had to be warmed up before they could be driven.

Could I go find my car myself to speed things up? Nope, very icy out there, can't let you go back there.

By now I had used up all my time with her, because there were others demanding attention. Including one complaining that he had been waiting an hour, and another complaining about waiting two hours.

I went out to inform the girls of the situation. Time for a little independent action. Dug out my spare flashlight (putting on the headlamp would have been too conspicuous) and headed out back.

Here's the map and the course:



Notice that there is no course, none marked on the map anyway. No idea where the car was. Also very icy, snow all over the place. A couple of employees also walking around looking for cars, but they paid no attention to me. Within 2 or 3 minutes I had nailed the first control:



I hadn't notice the woman inside doing anything with car keys, so I was hoping....

The car wasn't locked. Reached in, but no key in the ignition. Looked around, there it was on the front seat. Big smile. Warmed up the engine while I scraped off enough ice to see, extracted the car from the snowbank it was in (thank you Subaru). Now time for the finish chute.

Where, as it turned out, my corn maze skills came in handy. The direct route was block by a couple of cars and a van, but a zig away from the exit and then a zag back had me in sight of freedom. In the process, a call to Alex to alert them to the plan -- get the bags, meet me left of the building, fast! -- and then they were running towards me with the bags, and then were we out of there and on the way back to Amherst. And laughing very hard. And wondering how long they may be looking for me car, or me.

The finish chute:



If I could have just orienteered so well out in St. Louis....

C • Fantastic! 6