Training Log Archive: David_Waller

Event: OCIN New Year's O' Fest
 

Fun Night-O at Rentschler. My controls went: 68, 33, 64, 63, 59, 60, 61, 62, 35, 37, 44, 68, 65, 67. I was quite clean and moderately fast through the first 7 controls, My glasses fogged shortly after punching #7, and I removed them, right before the hardest leg of the course, from 7 to 8. Even so, I think that I executed most of the leg pretty well, veering south of the line to try to stay in white (which was not always white). I probably mistook the long reentrant west of the control for the short one next to it, though. After struggling though the woods there, I ended up on the indistinct trail and decided to bail down to the main trail to get a fresh start. From there, it was relatively easy, although even when I saw the correct downed tree, I stupidly went around it instead of heading straight to the rootstock. I easily lost 8 minutes on this control. I also screwed up the next control (2, #35) quite badly, which is a shame, because it should have been very easy. Lost another 4-5 minutes on that one. The rest was relatively clean. All in all a very fun outing.

Field checking at Gov. Bebb. Checked southern control locations first, then northern ones, and was surprised that I could tell that different people had mapped either region.

C • Congratulations! 1

3 x 1-mile repeats on the Talawanda H.S. track. Snow drifts on the backstretch slowed me down somewhat. But my general lack of fitness probably slowed me down much more. Time is approximated, and includes 0.5 mile warmup/cooldown.

C • Mudrocks on a track... 2

Nice run at Hueston Woods. I felt pretty strong, but was thwarted somewhat by wind and bad footing.

Hill repeats at Hueston Woods

A little bit harder-than-usual run at Hueston Woods, trying to keep a strong pace. Some trails have only been travelled recently by animals, and I found myself inadvertently following their tracks and veering off trail, into the woods occasionally.

Relatively slow run around MUNA.

OCIN's Billy Pig. A great course set by Mike Minium at Miami Whitewater. I felt okay but relatively sloppy through the first 10 controls. A lot of runners punched #1 together, then diverged into three separate routes to #2 (nice design, Mike). The adventure racers stayed on the road; a large group took the direct, hilly trail, and a small group (including me) took the flat, less-direct trail. Oddly, all three groups more-or-less converged again on #2. I nailed #3, ahead of all of the people that I had punched with at #2, thinking that the footprints that went to #3 were Mike's. Now, I think that they were dersu's, whom I never saw until the end.

The next several controls were more-or-less sloppy but not seriously bad. After #10, though, I got lured out of my gameplan by the small group I was with on the long leg to 11. Thankfully, half-way there, just as I was feeling completely uncertain, we ran into Orunner and DahGimp who led me back onto the map. I drifted way-right out of #11, and Orunner again got me back to #12. Geez; this wasn't going very well.

The next couple of controls (13, 14A, 16, 17) were solid. I took my skip at #15, but still saw tracks on the way to #17 and #18B. #19 was easy, but by then I was quite tired, and I was disheartened by hearing Orunner's loud mouth (no profanities, of course) in the distance behind me on the way to #19. Crap! I thought I had left him behind. I was a bit flustered and completely screwed-up my leg to #20. I ended up on an unmapped though thoroughly-traveled trail east of #20 at control #35 (deadfall). If I had had any sense, I would have looked for deadfall on the map and headed West to my control. But I was stupid, and started heading North to try to get a glimpse of the lake to reorient. On the way, I ran into Orunner and DahGimp again, who were clearly going in the direction of #20.

So Orunner saved my butt three times, and I re-payed his kinkness by beating him. I guess that's one of the (few) unfortunate side-effects of a goat race.

C • footprints 1

Event: OCIN / TROL / Billy Pig & Piglet, Miami Whitewater
 

Billy Pig - Splits

Slow run by the lake at Hueston Woods.

Event: OCIN / TROL England Idlewild
 

Time is estimated, and includes some time with control pickup.

Red - Splits

A well-designed and fun OLOU goat course. I made very few navigation mistakes, but more than one bad decision and/or idiodic errors. The worst mistake was the "Orunner at Sebald" special: I finished the course and started chatting with Helen, who had beat me (we had been leap-frogging several times during the race). She had had trouble getting to 22, and asked me: "How did you get to 22"? I thought about if for a second, and realized that I had completely forgotten to visit #22! Annoyed and dazed, I stumbled back into the woods to puch #22 and finish properly. Luckily the error did not affect my place (4th), but it did cost me probably 8 minutes.

I am (and was at the time) pretty confident that my race was lost between #1A and #2A. Although I may have (one of) the fastest split(s) on that leg, and I was the first to reach 2A (and 3A), taking that fork was really the wrong decision. A few times thereafter, I almost caught up to Dan Mattingly, whom I saw at 8, 9, 17, & 18 (and since he skipped #16, I was evidently ahead of him for a spell.) But catching Mike was hopeless.

Helen is an impressive runner, and when she caught me on the way to 17, I could tell that, if she didn't make a major mistake, I would not see her again. Coming out of #16 really killed me physically. I think that Helen did a very impressive job extricating herself from #16, and probably caught 6-7 minutes on me there.

I hope that Dan and Helen can make it up to Miami Whitewater next week to give me a chance for some retribution!

Hueston Woods on a cold morning, not a soul in sight.

Event: ICO - Bear Creek Scout Camp
 

A surprisingly physical course, made tougher by the snow. Footing was an issue, and my feet slipped out from under me several times, especially when contouring around hills. There were also two or three controlled butt-slides down steep hills. I made a dumb mistake on #3, getting lured away by a control on another course. I was pretty sure that it wasn't my control but had just enough uncertainty about my location to feel the need to check it out. Otherwise, my navigation was pretty solid, although I was fairly slow, still recovering from a cold. It was fun being on a 1:5000 map; the last few weeks I have had to use 1:24000s.

C • map correction at number 4 3

Brown - Splits