Training Log Archive: TomN

I arrived at about 11:30 a.m. and found the NJROTC event in full swing. This was remarkably gratifying. The start and finish were grandlly streamered and running like clockwork. Starting runners were being called up on 2-minute intervals. Finishing runners were entering the arena one by one to great cheers. Basically, it was an A-meet. The parking lot looked oddly empty, but it turned out the buses had all parked in the overflow area in the field left (east) of the parking lot, where several of them immediately proceeded to get stuck in the mud.

I headed over to the Nature Center parking area to see how the controls were working. My big water stop control for Y-O had been moved to the proper location (thanks, Eddie). I should have known something was up the previous afternoon when Valerie couldn't find the streamer for it, but by then it was dark. I went up to the next common Orange control. Everywhere I looked, runners were going in the wrong direction, off on impossible route choices, or standing stock still with the control in plain view. One kid was hollering to see if anyone had seen a rock, because he needed it for Green. (There were no rocks.) It was chaos.

Checked in again with Valerie, and went off to have a lunch at Wegmans (I admit, I was actually looking forward to doing this). When I got back, it was all work. I visited all 4 water stops with a backpack full of water, cleaned up the trash and replenished the water supply for the next day. At dusk I met Valerie and Sandy, who reminded me that there was a White control that needed water too. Unfortunately, it was at the top of the ski slope. We left that one for a volunteer tomorrow.