Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC Fountainhead
 

Fountainhead Regional Park, VA. Warm-up from the parking lot to the Start of QOC's event with one false start--I had to go back to the car part way to the Start to get my glasses.

QOC: Fountainhead Regional Park, VA. Nice terrain on the southeast side of the park--we hadn't been there in a long while so I was happy that course setter Victor Lin took us there. The reason we hadn't been there in a long time was that the map is far out of date. The coutours were not sharp, the new biking trails weren't on the map, and the vegetation mapping wasn't representative. I started off going down the trail to #1 and that was probably a good thing. I probably should have done it going to #2 too. I didn't make an error going there more directly but stopped a few times along the way being unsure which reentrant/ditch I was at. It went like this for several controls. I figured I'd go slower and not make any errors. I went direct toward #10 instead of backing up and using a trail route. When I finally did hit the trail, it wasn't what I expected--instead of being in a clearing, it was intermittant under forest. I turned incorrectly, stopped watching my compass and went down the wrong side of the big ridge/spur. I actually recovered from this pretty well but the damage was done. I lost about 6 minutes. I was a little off going to #11--off to the right. I went directly from a "trail" intersection toward #13. Crossing the many ridges, it was really evident that not enough was on the map. I passed Kathleen Lennon who was looking around one ridge short. After popping over into the right area, I didn't see the control but saw someone in orange running up the reentrant. I figured she was leaving the control but after going down that direction and not seeing it, I ran back up. Still not seeing it, I ran back down again but further and found it. Soon after the person in Orange showed-up and it turned out to be Peggy. I ran through the rest of the course fairly well. I was just over from the control on the other side of an unmapped reentrant but saw #14. I crossed the ridge at the saddle going to #17 and almost got sucked down one reentrant too soon. I wasn't running that fast for much of the race, being somewhat tired from other workouts but I was finishing strongly, passing two others in the last 4 controls which were common to most advanced courses. I felt that I was getting more used to the increased running and recovering some speed that's been lacking lately.

Blue - Splits