Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Round 4, Shoreview Park. Matched up with Graeme, Peteris, and Kai, yikes! Graeme again led the way out of the start, but then made the wrong choice to 2 which put me ahead starting the long leg to 3. Right looked better than left, but I was unsure how to get down the hill to the ballfields so I ended up sort of defaulting on a route straight down the steep slope to the parking lot and in from there. Some part of this was apparently not ideal, as I reached 3 behind everyone, but not by much so I spent the next four controls catching up (including all of us blowing 6). On the other long leg to 8, Graeme was in the lead with the rest of us close behind, although he ended up being stronger over the rest of the course so got away from us. Meanwhile Peteris had jumped ahead of me on a micro route choice, and for the next few legs I was able to keep up without going all-out, so I resolved to gather some strength and make my move at the end, which I did and finished second. It turned out that our whole heat was faster than the other heat, so Peteris came through to the final as well, with Kai just seconds behind him. A very tough race!

Combined

Round 5, Shoreline CC. Le final, with myself, Graeme, Peteris, and Adam. I was with Adam for the first 6, then was alone for a while. Almost got tripped up by 11 on the upper level but got it with just a couple seconds' hesitation. Graeme popped from nowhere ahead of me at 18, then I was just behind him till I was able to sneak ahead just after leaving the campus. Pushed as hard as I could for the last couple controls and came first! Fun course, not too technical but there were a couple tricky ones with the levels. Just tried to stay clean. This hereby concludes my slightly inaccurate four-year attempt to sequence my SART finish places in a descending order of prime numbers. 7 8 5 2 1

Seriously though, it's not been a great year for a number of reasons which have pushed orienteering down on the priority list, so it's been a nice surprise to have my best NAOC finish ever, then run well in Wyoming and at SART. Perhaps I have some fight in me yet.

Event: 2018 SART (9/8/18 & 9/9/18)
 

SART Time Trial. Pushed pretty hard and came third behind Ian and Peteris.

Combined

Round 1, North Seattle College. I took this one at a notch below full speed, which I don't think actually hurt my time much at all as it allowed me to nail all the tricky stuff in the campus. Also helps that I know the venue quite well. Third again, after Ian and Graeme.

Round 2, South Woods/Shorecrest HS. Went pretty hard and was in the lead until I made a mistake on 13; lost track of myself in the trail network. Third for the third time. Leg 3-4 was particularly sneaky and well-set; so sneaky and well-set that I don't think anyone took the best route. Instead, we all saw the first heats coming back out of the woods at the same place they had gone in from the start, so we assumed there was no other option. Well-played, SART overlords.

Round 3, Hamlin Park/Kellogg MS. I was matched up with Graeme in this one so things were getting real. He took a bad route to 2 and fell behind, but then I took the wrong route to 3 such that we met back up and he got there just ahead of me. I was right behind on the way to 4 until he overran it, which allowed me to forge ahead and reach 5 first. At that point I did something real crazy which I still haven't figured out; long story short, I got totally mixed up in the trails and eventually found 7 and backtracked to 6. Graeme was of course long gone by then and I had to push hard for the rest of the course to make sure I advanced. Got the other long route choice (10-11) right and won the split which I was pleased about.

SART predictions*, presented without my usual tedious preamble:

1. Graeme "Graembo" Rennie
2. Adam "Tiger" Woods
3. Ian "Higher" Collings
4. Will "Me" Enger

5. Peteris "Parker" Ledins
6. Eric "Jonesaw" Jones
7. "Cobra" Kai Mihata
8. "Big" Ben Smith

*Heats consist of 4 instead of 5 this year.

***Edited to reflect Bonesaw's lack of faith, which I find disturbing***

C • Bonesaw... 2

As of Monday I had orienteered 10 out of the previous 17 days. Excellent!

C • Good job Will! 6

Event: CascadeOC Wednesday Evening Series #6
 

Had our final Wednesday Evening Series event today; disappointing turnout with only 46 starts. We had a similarly low turnout at the equivalent event last year, so it may be that early September is too late for these.

RMOF Day 6. RG

Blast, another close defeat. Bonesaw and I were both clean so it was close throughout. I took 1:30 from him in the first 20min, he took a minute from me in the last 10min, and our speed was even for the middle 25min, so the difference was the fact that he got me by 1:30 on the long leg. We had similar routes though slightly different at the beginning; his was less rocky and used a trail, so seems to have been faster.

Western States Day 3 Blue - Splits