Training Log Archive: CleverSkyIn the 1 days ending Jul 15, 2017:
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Saturday Jul 15, 2017 #
Note
(injured)
In the words of Charlie, "This is way too fucking hard".
I had been to Manitoba twice before, the first time in 1992 to Hartney with Charlie and Jim Baker. Then I went by myself in 2013 to Spruce Woods. As challenging as it gets, so I was psyched to go back and see if I could keep my concentration and perform better. I managed to talk Charlie into accompanying me on this boondoggle, for which I both apologize and offer my gratitude, because the trip was a lot more enjoyable with his companionship than it would have been otherwise.
In this writeup, I will refer a few times to "the yellow rope". This particular area is completely devoid of man-made features or any other handrails that could be used for setting non-advanced courses, so the White Yellow and Orange were all string-Os. There were yellow ropes laid out in the terrain, must have been several km of the stuff, I think with some branching, to create a temporary trail network. These ropes were shown on the beginners' maps as a narrow ride, but were not shown on the advanced course maps. This was sometimes annoying and frustrating, as you'd encounter the only distinctive feature there was and you couldn't use it, other than to note that if there was a control on the yellow rope, it likely wasn't yours.
Charlie and I went out on the model map in the morning, and after locating one control, Charlie said he'd had enough, and saw no utility in gratuitously stomping through more poison ivy, which the model area was choked with. We did note that the 1:5000 map (which would be used for the Sprint) was reasonably readable, but the 1:6500 less so, and the 1:10000 (which I would have for the Middle and Long) was pretty hopeless. I made sure to put the magnifier on my compass. We chatted with Fritz, who wanted to go out a little more on the model map, so I joined him and we tried doing one longish leg that had been suggested. We got confused halfway there (but I recognized the spot from having been there with Charlie), and then when we got to about where we thought the control should be, we spotted a yellow rope up ahead, and Fritz surmised that we were off the map and into the Middle area, so we turned around and shortly stumbled into the control. Not an auspicious start.
I had been to Manitoba twice before, the first time in 1992 to Hartney with Charlie and Jim Baker. Then I went by myself in 2013 to Spruce Woods. As challenging as it gets, so I was psyched to go back and see if I could keep my concentration and perform better. I managed to talk Charlie into accompanying me on this boondoggle, for which I both apologize and offer my gratitude, because the trip was a lot more enjoyable with his companionship than it would have been otherwise.
In this writeup, I will refer a few times to "the yellow rope". This particular area is completely devoid of man-made features or any other handrails that could be used for setting non-advanced courses, so the White Yellow and Orange were all string-Os. There were yellow ropes laid out in the terrain, must have been several km of the stuff, I think with some branching, to create a temporary trail network. These ropes were shown on the beginners' maps as a narrow ride, but were not shown on the advanced course maps. This was sometimes annoying and frustrating, as you'd encounter the only distinctive feature there was and you couldn't use it, other than to note that if there was a control on the yellow rope, it likely wasn't yours.
Charlie and I went out on the model map in the morning, and after locating one control, Charlie said he'd had enough, and saw no utility in gratuitously stomping through more poison ivy, which the model area was choked with. We did note that the 1:5000 map (which would be used for the Sprint) was reasonably readable, but the 1:6500 less so, and the 1:10000 (which I would have for the Middle and Long) was pretty hopeless. I made sure to put the magnifier on my compass. We chatted with Fritz, who wanted to go out a little more on the model map, so I joined him and we tried doing one longish leg that had been suggested. We got confused halfway there (but I recognized the spot from having been there with Charlie), and then when we got to about where we thought the control should be, we spotted a yellow rope up ahead, and Fritz surmised that we were off the map and into the Middle area, so we turned around and shortly stumbled into the control. Not an auspicious start.
10 AM
orienteering race 58:04 [2] ***** 4.9 km (11:51 / km) +1m 11:50 / km
spiked:7/12c (injured)
Western Canadian Champs Sprint, Cypress River Sand Hills, 2.4 km, 80 m, M35, 15th, 3rd in category (DFL). The Ugly. I had told myself to walk, walk, walk,and my knee was bugging me, so that was available to keep me slowed down. First control wasn't terrible, intentionally wide to the right to get around some green, then a small bobble at the end. OK, settle down. The next leg was mostly through open land, and I tried to be careful, but I started being unsure of where I was halfway through, and when I got up near the control I wasn't able to match the map and the terrain. I was pretty sure that I was near the long line of dunes on the north edge of the map, but I had to bumble around a bunch until I finally found a big green depression that I could identify, and worked my way back from there. On #3 am M21 passed me (same course), and I got to the circle just after him, but I still wasn't reading the map well and did a little fishhook with a bit of extra climb. #4 you could just about see from #3, so at least I did that one well.
#5 was the long leg with a band of dark green about 75% of the way along. I had a plan, and although I got wobbly, I'm pretty sure I identified the band of green and successfully followed it to the narrow spot that was my intended crossing point. Unfortunately, instead of popping out into the yellow, I went at the wrong angle and thrashed through a whole bunch of green. When I did reach open land, I stayed with it instead of diving deeper into the gunk, which did at least get me to a place I could recognize, though quite a way off my line. Not too bad reading my way in from there. But on the next control, I was just slightly off in terms of bearing, and it didn't take much for nothing to make sense. The leg was less than 100 m, but it took me over nine minutes, a lot of circling and I was within what should have been sight of in (in most terrain) at least a couple of times.
Six controls down, six to go, just under 49 minutes elapsed, and a 60 minute time limit. What were the chances that I could do the rest in 11 minutes? The legs were comparatively shorter, and there was no reason not to try. I wasn't perfect, but I was close enough, taking just over 10 minutes for the rest of the course, and coming in with nearly two minutes to spare.
Not a great feeling when the download guy says, "Wow, did you have some trouble out there?". Well, yeah! At that point I had the slowest time of anyone on any course, though later two people came in slower than me (and a couple more on other courses).
Results
Map
RouteGadget
#5 was the long leg with a band of dark green about 75% of the way along. I had a plan, and although I got wobbly, I'm pretty sure I identified the band of green and successfully followed it to the narrow spot that was my intended crossing point. Unfortunately, instead of popping out into the yellow, I went at the wrong angle and thrashed through a whole bunch of green. When I did reach open land, I stayed with it instead of diving deeper into the gunk, which did at least get me to a place I could recognize, though quite a way off my line. Not too bad reading my way in from there. But on the next control, I was just slightly off in terms of bearing, and it didn't take much for nothing to make sense. The leg was less than 100 m, but it took me over nine minutes, a lot of circling and I was within what should have been sight of in (in most terrain) at least a couple of times.
Six controls down, six to go, just under 49 minutes elapsed, and a 60 minute time limit. What were the chances that I could do the rest in 11 minutes? The legs were comparatively shorter, and there was no reason not to try. I wasn't perfect, but I was close enough, taking just over 10 minutes for the rest of the course, and coming in with nearly two minutes to spare.
Not a great feeling when the download guy says, "Wow, did you have some trouble out there?". Well, yeah! At that point I had the slowest time of anyone on any course, though later two people came in slower than me (and a couple more on other courses).
Results
Map
RouteGadget
2 PM
orienteering race 1:33:57 [2] ***** 7.35 km (12:47 / km) +55m 12:19 / km
spiked:11/13c (injured)
Western Canadian Champs Middle, Cypress River Sand Hills, 4.4 km, 140 m, M35, 4th, 2nd in category. The Uglier. The first control was maaaaaybe 250 m. And it took me over 26 minutes. I went out dead slow, and almost as soon as I left the triangle, I couldn't get anythig to match up. I was in a flattish area with scattered blobs of green in the yellow, and subtle contour features, and I had no idea where I was, and I managed to overshoot considerably and found a distinctive feature, but couldn't find it on the map. Went back once to where I could see the start flag and tried again, still no luck. I was generally too far north the whole time and eventually stumbled into #11, so I knew where I was. Took it dead slow from there, being extremely careful, finally got into the area where I belonged, and fouund the control. Sheesh!
After that, I actually held it together pretty well. Routes were chosen in order to stay in the yellow, because going into the green was pretty deadly. The big loop at the end of the second leg, for example, was to get around a big green depression. I did kind of spiral in to #7, because as I was heading in what looked like the right direction, up a narrow yellow depression, I was puzzled because it looked like there was more contour detail on the ground than was shown on the map (a little hard to tell, because two purple lines crossed right at the critical spot). In fact, that's impossible, on this map there is no detail however subtle that escaped the mapping process, and I was in fact in a parallel yellow feature just a few degrees to the right. I realized this before getting too confused, and came at it from behind.
In the last little loop, I was just behind Ross Burnett (on a different course, but with the same last set of controls), managing to not get dropped even though we were taking different route choices, all the while undecided as to whether it made sense to run. One of my M35 competitors (Tim) had the best time on the course, and the other (Gilles) DNFed after two controls. If I had done the first control as quickly as Tim, I would have been only about six minutes behind him, and less than a minute out of second place.
Results
Map
RouteGadget
After that, I actually held it together pretty well. Routes were chosen in order to stay in the yellow, because going into the green was pretty deadly. The big loop at the end of the second leg, for example, was to get around a big green depression. I did kind of spiral in to #7, because as I was heading in what looked like the right direction, up a narrow yellow depression, I was puzzled because it looked like there was more contour detail on the ground than was shown on the map (a little hard to tell, because two purple lines crossed right at the critical spot). In fact, that's impossible, on this map there is no detail however subtle that escaped the mapping process, and I was in fact in a parallel yellow feature just a few degrees to the right. I realized this before getting too confused, and came at it from behind.
In the last little loop, I was just behind Ross Burnett (on a different course, but with the same last set of controls), managing to not get dropped even though we were taking different route choices, all the while undecided as to whether it made sense to run. One of my M35 competitors (Tim) had the best time on the course, and the other (Gilles) DNFed after two controls. If I had done the first control as quickly as Tim, I would have been only about six minutes behind him, and less than a minute out of second place.
Results
Map
RouteGadget