Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Event: ROC - Genesee Country Museum
 

Short Advanced course at Genesee Country Museum. Not many mistakes but lots of slow moving through the woods.

Got there way later than I had expected, and unfortunately I had a portion of the short advanced maps with me, so a few people weren't able to do the short advanced who would have liked to ... my apologies.

I had hardly any navigation issues, amazingly. But I did virtually no running other than on trails. I've taken a couple of falls lately, some but not all while running. It seems that as I'm getting older I'm becoming more fall-prone, and the potential consequences of falls also increases with age. Much of the ground was rocky, which would have increased the likelihood of a spill. Thus, no running in the woods ...

Started out to #1 shortly after Tyler. I was thinking of going around the hill to the east but I saw Tyler climb it w/o much trouble so I decided to do the same. Climbing wasn't too hard but coming down the other side was very slow as it was very rocky, in addition to being steep. Going around might have been a better choice. Then getting out from #1 to the trail to the west was a bit of an ordeal. Vegetation looked kind of bad on the map and was in fact a little worse than it looked.

Took the trail along the S. property boundary until I spotted the hill that #2 was behind, then headed to it, tried to read the contours on the hill, and surprisingly came out exactly where the control was. Then N to the trail, cross the small bridge, headed NW to the next trail and continued on to the very shallow reentrant. The description did indeed say shallow but the map made it look anything but. Then on to #4, no trouble. From there I headed S and then E to the area of #5 and found it OK, but it may have been a poor route choice or maybe I was just slow, because AP said I had some lost time (43 seconds).

Straight line to #6, then took the trail right next to 6 to the small bridge again; followed more or less the ditch to the mapped fallen tree, used that as an attack point to find #7.

Followed the bottom of the hill to the 4-way trail junction, took the right trail to the next trail junction system a bit south of the famous pit (#8 on my course). I got confused with the mapping of the trails coming together, and I wound up on the wrong trail, the one that has a distinct bend just south of the pit. I fortunately figured out what trail I was on, and the green didn't look too bad, so I headed straight towards the control and came out almost right on it.

Then trails virtually the whole way from 8 to 9. Straight shot throught the woods from 9 to 10. A little bit of woods, then more trails to close to #11 (the bird house), found my way through the fields OK. Re-connected with Tyler between 11 and 12 -- he outran me to 12, and finished faster than me from that point to beat me by about a minute. From 12, kind of a straight line to 13, which involved some unpleasant vegetation.

Advanced Short - Splits

Very short run before we have to leave to pick up Fred and Teddy (dog).

Short run with Hanna on a chilly, overcast day.