Training Log Archive: CleverSky

In The Dark, with the Howl variation. By the time I finally got around to going out, the temperature had dropped to 40F, so I wore a LS shirt and a jacket, which was maybe a bit much, but I was able to adjust with the zipper. I don't think I've done the long version of this in quite some time, since before the addition of the bridge, so this is somewhat longer but more civilized than it used to be. Figured I ought to do a little more than usual because I hadn't done much all week and tomorrow is supposed to be all rainy. Kept it to a pace that I ought to be able to maintain for a long time, probably the speed that I should be doing the Jukola so that I can keep my wits about me. Wore the Active Ankle again.

I had borrowed Charlie's Lupine Wilma to try it out, with an eye to bringing it to Finland, but when I tried it in the yard the night before, I was underwhelmed, as it didn't seem noticeably better than my cheap Chinese ebay lights, and the only difference seemed to be that the Wilma gets pretty hot. Certainly not enough of a difference to be worth 50 times the price. So I used one of my own lights for this run, and will probably stick with that. What I really need to start doing is getting out in low light with a map, to make sure that I have the combination of headlamp and glasses worked out so that I can read.

Site of the future rail trail in Townsend. Started at the plaza and went east almost to the Cooperage, then on the way back I took a little detour to avoid a spot with poor drainage. Construction hasn't started yet, so the rails and ties are still there, and the path is next to them, occasionally switching sides. I was pleased to see that the encroaching abutters, including the auto body shop, have moved their stuff off the right-of-way. Although I spent some time loitering in this area as a teenager, I'd never gone down the railroad line (it did still have active trains in those days). West from the plaza wasn't so interesting, except that I did visit the trestle, which was a popular swimming hole back in the day (kids would jump off the trestle), but which I had somehow never been to. The structure itself is barricaded now, with police warning signs (though it's easy enough to walk around the chain link fence), but you can still go down to the river. Any question of whether the rail trail could continue across the river there were answered when I saw that the trestle no longer reaches the west bank.

Billygoat, Blue Mountain, 11.2 km, 29th. 32nd shirt for me. Not too bad a result, pretty clean overall. With a pretty big crowd through the first nine controls, including a little hiccup on the way to #7. We passed very close to #8, close enough that a few people went and looked at it and called out, "This is number 8!". (No kidding.) But a few of us swung pretty wide to the right after that, and came at the control from the SSE. As I was coming up the broad reentrant, there were a lot of people standing around looking kind of confused, but I knew exactly where I was. The pack thinned out some from there to #11, maybe because some people skipped #9? Behind Alex and a few others going to #12, and they were out of sight by #13. On my own through #14 (though I could hear a few people), and I saw a bunch of folks up ahead as I approached #15, but only Daniel was with me for the next few controls. He and I were at #19 together, and were both skipping #20, but he went on the small MTB trail while I backtracked to the road and took the larger trail around. I think it was probably a decent skip, but I maybe didn't execute it optimally. Our paths merged about 60% of the way to #21 -- I was behind, due in some part to the fact that I stopped briefly to fiddle with a shoelace. He wasn't aware that I was behind him, and he missed #21 high and to the left, while I spiked it, arriving with Dave Pruden and Alex. The three of us were together for the short leg to #22, then Alex went straightish toward #23 while I went left and around on the trail. She ended up ahead of me by almost two minutes. Don't know if Dave went the same way I did, but he was close behind me at #23, then he skipped and was gone while I went to #24. Pretty smooth route to #24, and spiked it, and nobody else in the vicinity as I came into the finish.

Decided to wear the Active Ankle, and I don't regret it. A little bit of rain near the end, no big deal. Quite a fine event.

C • Wow 1