Training Log Archive: oxensd

Event: Harriman Orienteering Festival
 

Fall Goat at Harriman, organized by Greg Ahlswede. No Hudson Highlander this year. Great to be back in the tough Harriman terrain, site of WOC93. Greg has even set out WOC93 courses with streamers, so I will run the Middle next weekend!

Pretty good attendance, 77 registered for the full goat (also Mini and Baby goats), 11.6 km. Weather was cool, low 40s at start and felt it.

Met a nice Swedish lady (Linda) at the start, was here on vacation and decided to race.

I started pretty far up front and just ran with the crowd to #1.

#2, about half way the crowd thinned out (=I fell behind). Somehow, I folded the map wrong and thought I was going to #20. Hadn't really read the map too carefully thus far, but now the stone fences started not making much sense. Took me a while to realize my mistake, didn't stray too far off course but got into some thorns that slowed me down. 1.5 min.

#3, straight through and pretty fast.

#4, the crowd rushed to a control close to the top of the big re-entrant, not ours. I went a little too far to the right down the hill, 30s.

#6, started moving with the crowd to #5 but decided this would be a good skip as 5 looked slow to get to (more on the skip later). Turned around, through the large reentrant, caught the small cliffs which led me to #6. Saw Linda just ahead of me.

In hindsight, skipping #4 would have been better as would have avoided losing 25m vertical.

#7, plan was to follow the rock fields once down the hill, but got pushed down more than expected and then started going the wrong way. Quickly realized direction was wrong and then lucked out finding a runnable path. Following the rock fields and gaps in the mountain laurel was easy after that. Lost 1.5 min.

#8, mostly on paths, bit of a slog through mountain laurel towards the end. Still no one with me.

#9, very fast and open.

#10, I heard quite a few people missed. I followed the contours which were distinct and spiked. Now accompanied by a group of West Pointers.

#11, straight on, easy to navigate by the large boulders.

#12, no issues.

#13, no issues. West Pointers pulled ahead, I was just behind someone from HVO (not sure who).

#14, fairly open and runnable just to the right of the green area.

#15, only major mistake on the course. Looking at the GPS track it looks like I made a sharp 90 degree turn just after the middle and ended up 75-100m too far north, passing the control. I thought I was on the larger rock field to the south, but clearly didn't read the contours right. I passed the stream but though it was the one just before the control. It took me a while to relocate, the guy from HVO was also in the same area and realized where he was faster, I hesitated, looked at streams and couldn't figure them out. Went S a little too look at the prominent hill and then got it. 7.5 minutes.

#16, judged the contours just right and spiked it. Caught up with 4 or 5 West Pointers, I think the same ones that pulled ahead around #13 so they must have lost a lot of time somewhere.

#17, walked up the steep hill. Noted that West Pointers could walk up faster than I, which was annoying!

#18, I heard a number of people skipped it, can't figure out why. Very easy along the runnable path.

#19, forked control, decided to go straight south to 19a. Looking at the map after the finish I realized that by far the best skip would have been 20, so do 19b and then run on paths the whole way to 21. Next goat race, study the skip options earlier...
19a went well, swamp was pretty runnable, didn't catch the path south of the road immediately but saw #12. The indistinct path was indeed thus, never really saw it. Across the rock field and saw the opening in the mountain laurel, luckily the path was now more distinct and fairly runnable.

#20, similar to last years HH control, but I was very tired now and veered too far to the right after the path, ended up by the big boulder and then had to turn around slightly up the hill as the "white" was actually inpenetrable E of the boulder. 2.5 min. Met Nadim at the control, hadn't seen him the entire time.

#21, very tired and no one behind me so took it easy through the mess up the hill.

Lost 13.5 minutes in total, 7.5 of which on #15. Very sloppy navigation.

Felt quite cold at the finish and took me hours to really warm up. Strange.

Map and GPS:
http://www.oxenstierna.com/davidoxenstierna/orient...

Fall Goat - Splits