Training Log Archive: bl

Event: Billygoat Run
 

BG #33 - rained on & off over night, hard in the early AM as we were contemplating the Great Out-of-doors & what it was providing us - rain all but stopped a bit before start time. I'd call this a B run - visibility got to me on several occasions. And the eyes are the brain's windows.

#1 & 2 were mostly follow, look at map a bit. Had decided to skip #14, never took time to look at all 36 legs - 14 looked good enough.
#3 & 4 began to navigate
#5 had decided I'd keep splits on 305 for an exercise; stopped to get water & recall pressing the watch but did I e-punch....? Plagued me for much of the rest of the way...wasn't going back, even when I first asked myself
6, 7, 8 one or two unknown runners in sight ahead
9 getting to be on my own for a short white
10 went by the three pools, down the reent, left on path - a group of maybe 4 kept on going on the path as if they were going somewhere else! That was cause for pause but cont'd round the green marsh, contours not yet providing reassurance - finally a spur &,yes, the reent, looking-marsh flat ahead, a rocky knoll & cp
12 believe this was where I saw Jeff Saeger
13 saw Glen leaving this, maybe 2' ahead - huge boulder!; saw Pavlina as I was leaving
14 skip
15 caught up to a lg gp by doing so; Angelica Riley asked me if I'd skipped like I'd had better had! Ernst, TP & others as well
16 & 17 keeping with this rather lg gp
18 noted TP taking a bit of a short cut & when we got to swamp, maybe 4 othrers just ahead having taking a bit of longer rte
thru 22 controls where I could see Alex J and Becky C a bit ahead, running tandem. Could not catch. JJ at 21/2
Approaching 23, I thot the refreshment tent was at 19/27, so I figured I had to go another 125m south but something was computing - went bk, looked at code & I was where I was supposed to be - phew!
24-26 alone;
19/27 saw Phil & Charlie but did not consider they were at 19!
28 by far, the worst, vis got to me. First left 90 deg wrong way - sorted that out before 100m wasted; then misreading of walls, never saw the green uncross marsh, came to expected path but where. Nothing really helping but finally marsh on right, stream exiting across path - should be on map! but was nearly 300m fm where I expected to be! finally noted 2 bldrs in the marsh, was sure where I was. Got to cp vicinity in mt laurel, did not find, wasted another 90" (alone, leaving heard 2 voices)
29/30 alone
31 mostly alone saw a fellow I'd seen earlier but he disappeared so alone again, but got it no problem
32 alone but saw color as I stood on top of spur thinking "down/over there?"
33 long trail run, ponds in fog. Leaving 33, heard someone behind...was Pavlina! Across road to 34, felt a bit of a rt thigh cramp, she disappeared in green & mist
34 3/4ths way there who should appear but Jeff, moving faster. Got to trail with him but he was gone

Finally the finish! Did not know how I had done. Being alone a lot made me wonder. Seeing Charlie & Phil at "27" made me wonder even more - later learned C was having big vision problems, PB hamstring problems. When Pavlina and Jeff showed late, that helped.

Really pleased my own hamstring (right this year) held up. Was worried before the start as it has been noisy all spring .

Was a really nice course/map, forest (another fairy land) & meet in general. Great job by WCOC; the refreshment station well in the woods with tent took a lot of hauling. Not sure how the 305 knew my heart rate w/o monitor.

Very nice time visiting with Steve, Betsy & Ernst...hours for chatting!

Any more?


Award MOC's


"Podium" finishers


"Can we go home?"

C • can we go home? 3

Billygoat - Splits

Event: Speedy Goat Sprint Relay
 

AM DP w/ paper as well. Good (no porcupines) & bad stuff! eg, cyber bullying right here in Concord, 13 y/o's Facebook post wishing her teacher dead vs. bin Laden's killing all those WTC people - 1st amendment vs threats/bullying (teachers count!), plus inanity/insanity in contemporary behavior. Right below same page, mother guilty for 2005 cook-baby-in microwave. Then state politics where two good quotes came up: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" (Derek Bok, Harvard) & William Buckley: "Conservatism implies a certain submission to reality" --- but not in NH.

Time to get out of town! Come to think, time to go to the BG.

C • BG 1

Drive to Bethel, CT with Steve Tarry, lady friend Betsy and Ernst. Stayed at Brautigam's. Put up tent in their yard (#8). Joe & especially Pavlina were most generous with providing dinner & breakfast at short notice in a preoccupied Head Goat household.

Mellow AM DP, newspaper & camera.

Sandskrit past and present

C • The meaning of life maybe? 2

Went to SPS w/ idea of 7' pace on track. There were several hundred kids
doing some sort of games around track & on infield. Went to a nearby soccer
field with idea of running perimeter but idea slowed to a jog and even less for some reason. Some Rt. hamstring guessing was part of it. Watched robins "shop" for worms amidst the dandelions. Prime May day.

South to Iron Works, Clinton, Langley, considered Memorial track but had to get back. Some 50 on 50 off. Ticks everywhere after the stewardship walk. One turned up on the oncall room bedspread at NHH. Beth had one crawling on her neck at the gym and placed it between the weights, a challenge which it might likely have met.

Route
(good distance est.)

PM DP as well as warmup for first of mini-O sprints. Z&M were thrilled to get so far afield compared to past DP's...well into the woods at one mile plus.
Mosquitos assured motion. Left 305 on car in garage - suppose it could/should be a near-constant companion at least for distance covered. Don't always get along with OCAD distance measure.

Mini-sprint, not hot. No compass necessary. Some query on way to one & two, rest were served by memory. 3 to 4 w/ a lot of blowdown to negotiate - tried west edge of big depression - east is bad as noted when streamering. It is filled with new growth. 5-6, 6-7 have rc options that should be fun/interesting to compare.

Mini course. QR will happen.

Mini-sprint - Splits

DP, quiet, gray, cool, no tracks.

SPS XC for first time in a month? 18:09 & 18:25, no interest in anything real. Same sole cluster of daffodils in the field. One near faceplant, tripping on a root, painted red but not the right red.

BOS stewardship walk of Titus-Lindquist ? conservation easement with Bob Dawkins & Ken Demain by Rte 3A.

Bob & Ken by Dow Road culvert

Desperate dogs with Beth at twilight.

Long Pond & Little Pond, longest lunch run taken.... Clearly OTL. Penacook Reservoir is a lovely place. Cool, cloudy.

At Memorial Field after work, countless HS kids doing sports. Hefty female softball pitcher threw a ball so hard/fast, it made me wonder if it could be hit - how times have changed.

On grass at Memorial Field & in woods behind. Tired, never got back to sleep in Burlington after the alarm went off at midnight (Jenn thought she set for 0450). Up at 0445, away 0500 as the sun was brightening the sky over the mountains in the east. Monday, Monday.

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #63
Cuna Indians, San Blas Islands, Panama, 1985