Training Log: mikeminium

Event: Sulphur Springs Trail Race
 

Long course at St Patrick's Park. A fun course, generally of yellow level difficulty, with the exception of control 11 which was Khrushcheved in a small pit in an area of "disturbed ground". I wasted about 5 minutes looking for that gem; I'll blame half of that on not being careful enough and confident enough of my exact location; the other half on the course setter. I also lost 20 or 30 seconds coming out of 4, starting in the wrong direction - just not being careful enough.

Event: SMOC Monks Rd
 

Midway Trail / Alvey's Point. (Brookville Lake). Easy loosening up hike after yesterday's Mad Otter. Trail was very wet and slippery, and I had made the mistake of not bringing trail or O shoes. Trail needs a good clearing; I broke off a number of overhanging honeysuckle and Russian olive branches, as well as tossing a few fallen limbs off the trail.

Event: OLOU - The Mad Otter 2017
 

The Mad Otter. "Long Orange" at Otter Creek. Spent 2-3 minutes looking for the missing control 4, verifying that I was at the correct rootstock and checking out another nearby one. Lost at least 2 or 3 minutes searching the swamp for the misplaced number 6. Then took an extra minute or two taking a route back past 4, on my way to 7, encountering a few other people who were futilely searching for it.

The woods were soaked and steamy; glasses fogged and I was totally drenched. After finishing took a break and changed clothes and shoes while rehydrating for the next leg...

(time estimated, printer wasnt working yet when I finished; waiting for published results)

Next stage of the Mad Otter. This was billed as a "long green", and given the conditions in the forest, perhaps "green" was all too apt a description.

A lot of walking on this one. Went within a few meters of 3 without seeing it and headed to a trail to relocate. Aragon caught up just as I popped onto the trail, and doubtless assumed I was leaving the control for 4. I relocated on a nearby junction, then went straight to the control, where Aragorn saw me again and quickly vectored in.

I got out ahead of him and a good portion of the way to 4, watching him pass me on a parallel route. We came together where the control should have been (a pit), along with several other orienteers bashing around in the green. Standing on the edge of the pit, we all concluded we were in the right place and the control was not, and began to disperse toward 5. Just a few steps away, fighting toward the nearest trail, I caught a flash of orange, and there it was on an unmappably subtle depression. In fairness to the others, I let out a helpful shout of "I'm in control. It's here", then headed out for 5. I even got a "thank you" from Aragorn as he zipped past me on the trail, never to be caught again.

Made a mistake and parallel error on 9, actually ran to the wrong control and punched it; 2:30 or so back to the correct control, so probably a 5 minute loss on that one.

Going to 11, spent a couple minutes searching the roadside for the badly needed water stop that wasn't there, including peeking in the parked car (obviously one of the organizers) by the side of the road. Have up and started into the woods when I saw one of the organizers and another competitor coming out if the woods back to the road; she said there was water in the car, so back to the road where I quickly downed a bottld. 5 minutes lost on that fiasco, but the hydration definitely came at a good time.

On my way from 15 to 16, nearly fell in an unmapped cave opening (at a quick glance, I thought it was a well).

Very physical course, lots of green, and of course the forest was still wet, with humidity and heat now coming into play as well.

Clothes and shoes from leg 1 had completely dried out in the sun on the roof of my van.

I was feeling pretty beat but after substantial rehydration and nutrition and a chane into dry attire, decided to go out for a few easy controls on the rogaine portion...

Map hike might be a better description
- this was mostly walking with a few short jogs here and there. Got 13 controls and 25 points on the rogaine portion of the Mad Otter.

Also decided that I was going to try to relocate that cave opening and streamer it with some vetting tape that I'd picked up from a couple of the easier controls. It took a few minutes of searching, but mission accomplished - now Bruce or Ken will be able to go back and add it to the map.

A fun day of orienteering, but I like the park much better in winter - the thick vegetation made it decidedly less pleasant.

Stage 2 (Long Orange) - Splits

Stage 3 (Long Green) - Splits