Training Log Archive: syd

POCAR.

After that it was rough going. One CP was missing, we lost around 1.5 hrs searching for that one. Also couldn't find one of the other CPs, we were pretty conviced it was placed wrong, but they said other teams had found it. We found one without a reflector, so maybe it was just really hard to see? We moved very slowly through the night. Navigation was still a struggle. It didn't help that very few of the CPs were in the plotted circles. And the clues were useless. W4J just laughed everytime we asked her what the next clue was. Finished the loop at ~10:00 a.m.

The final loop was a little different. 15 CPs with point values from 1-5 and you had to rack up a total of 15 points. We were told the lead team finished in 4 hrs, and we did not want to be out Sunday evening. Given that we likely wouldn't finish the loop before dark we decided to call it quits.

I still had a great time. Made some new friends and got to walk around the woods for a day :) I learned a lot too, definitely practice with your team beforehand to get a feel for working together.

Clothing: Invest in waterproof socks! Other than that my gear worked great. Nike base layer, wick away t-shirt and red Northface jacket kept me warm as long as we were moving. Wore tights with my REI adventure pants. Had a light pair of gloves during the day and a heavier pair at night with hand warmers and my hands stayed warm. My feet were cold whenever we stopped, but that was a result of damp shoes/socks, with waterproof socks I would have been fine.

Event: POCAR
 

POCAR.

Got our maps early and marked in the out of bounds areas and some trails. Opened our envelope at 10:15 and started plotting the CP for the N loop, which was ~1/3 of the course. We were told to stop at the N aid station at some point to pick up "something." Headed out with Tizoc and I as the navigators...not the best choice. Us working together was the equivalent of taking 2 decent navigators and making 1 terrible one. The navigation was a struggle the whole race. The rest of the team was great about it though, no one ever seemed frustrated. About half way through we hit the aid station and received a single extra CP, so we went out and grabbed that. However, when we returned to the start to turn in our punch card we were informed that we had missed 3 CPs. The volunteer at the aid station had failed to inform us taht there were FOUR extra CPs, each one leading to the next. Ugh. Back out the 3 miles to that CP again to hit those 3 and then another 3 miles back on the road to the start. Actually finished the first loop at ~8:30 p.m.

Next up was the W loop, which we did almost entirely in the dark. The first few points went fine, hit them without too much trouble.

C • nav issues 1

Long sleeve w/ red jacket worked well at 12F.