Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

Night Orienteering, Englewood, Ohio (MVOC)

MVOC "Adventure" Night-O. "Adventure" means the controls were mostly on trails. It was a a joint event between MVOC and Ohio River Road Runners Club (or something like that). I'm not exactly clear if the woods was out-of-bounds or not. I won't say whether I actually cut through the woods, but I will say it was the best route a few times. I asked if the river was out-of-bounds, and a lot of people laughed, but I would've crossed it, and I think a lot of other people would have too.

I really surprised myself by running as much as I did. I did walk a fair amount, but I ran a lot more than I expected I would or could. The map was 1:12500, and that always screws me up. When I looked at the map, my brain was in 1:10000 mode, and I figured I had a decent chance of getting all 24 controls. I think I might have planned better if I'd realized the scale sooner. I only realized it on the way to my first control when stuff was going by *way too slow*.

The map was decent, but I think it let me down a few times. Once, there were some indistinct trails that just weren't there, and when I popped out on a road, the features on the road were just a little too sloppy to let my brain figure out where I was. I probably wasted 2 minutes.

Another place I messed up was by choosing an indistinct trail by the river instead of a larger trail. When i got to the river, it was a lot steeper than I expected from the map, and where I'd normally expect easy going due to fishermen knocking down the vegetation, it was steep and nasty. I ended up going back 200m uphill to the trail (when I should have aimed left and gone 100m uphill). Anyway, I got third in M40-and-up Solo (the oldest age group).

My two biggest mistakes were: (1) Not arriving early enough---It was a mass start, and I wasn't prepared enough. Didn't have time to change batteries in the LED headlamp, or to buy batteries for my big light (handheld). I'm hoping to get a proper O' Headlamp this year. And (2) not understanding the scale as it related to route planning. If I'd realized the distance, I would have planned a less aggressive course than I did.

My biggest positive decision was to bail out early (1:10 into a 2:00 hour event) and skip some controls with large distance penalties to focus on some less risky, closer to the finish controls.

Ran at Eagle Creek Park (East) in Indianapolis. I ran with a map, but I was having trouble running and reading the map, so I walked a lot. I did all trail and road running, but I chose to run in the flatland of the park, and there was lots of standing water.

The first 5 minutes were just terrible. My body just didn't want to run. Once I got moving, though, I had a blast. I was reacting to the trails, and bouncing around, and just having a great time. I ran by a deer who just watched me go by, and didn't even flinch when I tried to get it to run.

In the past (because I didn't have a map), I always ran along the lake (less navigational risk). There's a lot of drainage there, along the lake, but often mud. Had a blast. Two things:

1. The map needs better contours. Right now it's a 5m interval, and 2.5 is badly needed. Some of the reentrants are amazingly detailed, and the map doesn't really show it. I think if the map were improved, some parts of the map that are bland today might end up being really interesting. There is so little relief that 1.25m (4 feet) might be reasonable. I know Indy has full-county lidar coverage, so...

2. The trails were mostly okay, but a few of them are way off, primarily by angle. Some of the relative placements are off too, like when one trail joins a trail at a bend, and it's not mapped in the right part of the curve. One 100m long linear trail was off 20 or 30 degrees. It seemed to be limited to one section of the map, and other places were much better. If I were setting a white course there, I'd be really careful to pick well-mapped trails. Errors like these can really confuse beginners. I found a site with really good color aerial photos of the whole state of Indiana. I'll have to find the photos for this area and see if these trails are on them. The vegetation mapping isn't the best. A large part of the map is white, and I'm not sure I believe that...

2m ARDF at Mitchell-Memorial. It was the annual "Field Day Weekend" for hams, and Dick Arnett was the setter. There were technical difficulties with the hastily-assembled gear, so we ended up with 3 MOEs and no MOH or MO5. The MOEs (Number 1 Transmitters) were all on top of each other, and although it was interesting, it wasn't the best sort of practice for a real event. We put out a notice on OCIN's weekly email Friday, and we ended up with Mike Minium and 2 first-timers (both orienteers). One was Gerald, an attackpointer (hkleaf). I explained the radio (an Ackerly), but the keyed-carrier signals from our new transmitters are so difficult to DF, I did most of the course with him, walking mostly and running a few times. It was 85-90F, but it was really hot in the sun, and although I started out really well hydrated, I only drank a pint of water after my course, and the second time around just took it all out of me. I played catch-up the rest of the day.

I also slipped several times on the wet slopes. Once I planted my elbow into a rock hard surface---It didn't give at all. I've got a bump and a couple bruises on it, and it hurts a little.

A funny story: Because it was field day, and everyone was focused on bringing the field day gear, we only had 3 O' Flags, so Dick used 2 orange T-shirts for flags. Once, I was waiting for the transmitter to come on, and I knew I was close, so I was walking around looking for it. I turned to my right, and jumped (hard), because about 10m away was this T-shirt in an aggressive pose looking right at me. Definitely freaked me out.

I saw a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, although I couldn't verify whether they were M-F visually. They drummed in a chorus once--pretty cool. I also saw 2 little turtles in the woods.

2nd time around, with Gerald. Mostly walking, but a little running. I'm calling it a 2 because I was wiped out when I finished.