Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Pawtuckaway Blue, 7.1 km. Moderately stupid. Only two serious mistakes, but they were pretty awful, about 10 minutes each. Missed #3 on the hgh side, and went too far before relocating on a lake, and then it still took some fumbling around to find it. Then on #10, I was just about there, but too far up the hillside, but I couldn't make sense of where I was so I had to go down to the big marsh to sort things out, and even when I got into the vicinity, it took me a while to spot the flag despite the wide open woods. The rest was okay. I kept missing to the right, though. I'm probably holding the map crooked or something.

Pawtuckaway, Wicked Hard Night-O, 6.7 km. I took the three butterfly loops 2-3-1, thinking that maybe at the end of my second loop, the leaders would pass me if they were doing the obvious 1-2-3, though that didn't happen. Jeff and I were together off and on for the whole first loop, and I was on my own for the rest. Saw Ernst at the common control after the first two loops, and ant the end of the second one, I saw somebody (Alex?) heading off for the finish. Lost a little time on #9 when I got close but then drifted and found myself starting to go 180. Lost more time on #14 when I didn't know where I was on the trail when I hit it, and ran about 200 m along it to figure it out -- turned out I had been right where I had hoped to be. Ended up in fourth place, not too bad. Watch battery gave out on the way to the penultimate control, with about 13 minutes to go.

I had one of my most awesome AOWN moments ever, when an owl swooped through my headlamp beam about 2-3 meters in front of me, then perched on a branch just off to my left where I was able to get a better view and confirm what it was. I don't know birds that well, but looking at a few web images, I'll guess that it might have been a barred owl. Pretty intense.

C • Owl 7