Training Log Archive: barb

I have been orienteering for about 11 years. Early on I became aware of some of the stars of orienteering. I remember getting excited about Pam James sightings on the New Zealand 2000 trip. And overhearing Peggy D complaining about people following her. I learned a lot by following Sharon Crawford, which I could only do because she was injured and moving more slowly than usual, in a Highlander. But Sharon seemed more approachable somehow; there were still all these great orienteers I just admired from afar. Then at some point I got this crazy idea (hubris) that I'd like to do a rogaine with Peter Gagarin. Getting up the guts to ask about it was tough, and waiting for his response and then reading it once I received it both took a while. In fact, I think I made someone else read it for me. That all worked out pretty well, but I still hadn't had much interaction with my other heros like Peggy and Kissy and Valerie and others. Attackpoint to the rescue! I have so enjoyed getting to know Cristina and all the rest of you through AP. It was great doing that O marathon with Valerie.

Anyway, this rogaine this past weekend was like a dream come true to get to partner up with the elite women orienteers of my generation - and to have it go so well. It was nice to have Peter along again, of course - he's steady and inclusive and reliable, outside of the orienteering itself. From what Peggy was saying ahead of time, I got the impression that she might complain a lot or be sarcastic or something but she and Kissy both turned out to be super friendly and positive and just nice to be with! They have my vote for persons-you-want-around-when-the-going-gets-tough.

C • Stars 7

To North Station then Beverly to Manchester and then back in the dark. Barely made the outbound train; got to ride down the platform. It was cold; there was a broken layer of ice at the high-water mark in the salt marshes. I went to Manchester for a meeting at our CEO's house. We talked about how to do good science next year.

We each had to punch our wristbands.

To school and back for an early morning meeting with grade 1/2 teacher Linda, to plot how to spread orienteering to the rest of the school.

Bike ride to work from airport. It was particularly slow today. Maybe the combination of traffic, big backpack and rogaine recovery?

C • I'd say 1

There are things that you want to be doing. And then there are things that you want to have done. The best are things that both feel good at the time and leave you feeling good after. Rogaines are in that class. At least in retrospect.

I hate to go running. It's boring and it hurts. Rogaines used to hurt more. They are beginning to feel pretty good.

One of the very interesting aspects of this rogaine for me was the start time. Starting at 4 pm, not long before the 14-hour night, meant that we were fresher than usual during the dark. And when we were becoming physically tired, 3rd quarter, it became day and past the time our bodies are used to waking. And that helped.

The sunrise was phenomenal. We were walking up a (kilometers) long path sloping up a steep east-facing hillside, heading to the trail bend which was our attack point for number 10, one of the bingo controls. A few battered, balled snowflakes flew past. To the left through the dark trunks we saw the sunrise behind many clouds all orange and purple and right at the crux, edged in bright gold, and we watched it come and go, all as we walked up that path. From 10 we climbed to the narrowish ridge and along it - very cold and noisy windy up there, exhilerating. Lots of ridgewalking. Coldest part.

(Click for larger photos)



See, they're happy. Rogaining is fun.

The hash house:










Heading into the nighttime part of the race...





Would you orienteer with a man dressed like this? What if you'd just traveled a really long way to team up and planned for weeks? How could you possibly back out? Actually I don't think any of us were embarrassed by Peter. Maybe for Peter. Just kidding. But Kissy did have to hide her face at the Burger King when Peter shouted across the crowded dining area to Peggy, who was up at the counter demanding more napkins because the napkin holders were empty. Peter waved a huge stack of napkins at Peggy, and half stood up, and called out, "It's OK, Peggy, I've got a bunch of extras, in case we need toilet paper!"

C • The Burger King Incident 6

Approximate time we were actually out in the woods. Also spent time at the hash house around 4 am, transitioning to the next quadrant (i.e., plotting UTM coordinates). It was great weather. Moon was out after a few hours of just bright stars. I enjoyed walking without my headlamp some of the time at night, by the light of the moon. The night was long, and navigating in the dark was both fun and successful.

Before we set out on the race on Saturday, we talked to a guy who was heading out to hang a dozen controls for quadrant 2. He was hoping to be done before dark (it was around 2:30), and it was clear that he was not an experienced navigator. But he had a GPS, and had been instructed to use that to set the controls. Actually, we did not have complaints about control placement in other quadrants, which was done by the guy in charge, and could be relied on. Anyway, this other guy had a lot of trouble, so quadrant 2, which was the last we were to do, only had 4 controls, and they were all on trails, and so it was easy to blow it off at the end when we were deciding whether it would be fun to go out on our 4th foray or just bask in the glory of what we'd already accomplished.