Training Log Archive: syd

Nitrogaine III - Part II

Dropped in to grab 47 and then headed back out to the road. KFish suggested attacking 71 from the N, so we took the road around and cut in from there. Turned out to be a great idea. It was really thick and we got pushed around in just the short distance we had to go from the road. Trudged back out to the trail, so thick. We were getting further behind schedule so decided to drop a point. I was looking at 64 since it was a long out and back on trail, but KFish suggested 69 since that was just as far, but off trail. Excellent idea! Saw Tizoc at some point in here. Biggest bobble of the night was to 82. Hit the swamp and we weren't sure which way to turn to hit the CP. It was so thick. KFish popped out into the swamp and saw some trees to the W, so we headed that way. Wandered around in the green for a few more minutes before spotting the flag. Whew! Very glad we decided to skip 69. From 82 it was relatively nice woods to 51 with some swamps to correct our bearing along the way. Hit the road after 45 at 5 h, which put us right on schedule if we dropped 48/58.

Stopped to refill on water at 41 and saw Igor while we were there. And then we saw Cooper as we were headed back out to the trail. Asked KFish to navigate on the way to 49, so I could eat a snack. Didn't listen to his advice so we ended up going down the hill on the trail and then back up the gully to the flag. There were a lot of trails throughout this section, so we tried to keep up a steady jog when we could. Saw Igor again on the road headed to 42. We hit our next time cutoff here at 6.5 h, so still on track! This never happens at Nitrogaine...

At this point we decided to go for everything we had left, with the exception of 48/58. Quick out and back to grab 33. Looped around the swamp for 52 and then decided to go for 81 first in case the swamp crossing was slow, but it was a pretty firm marsh. On to 56 and then back toward the finish. Made an effort to keep the navigation clean through here, I tend to get sloppy toward the finish. It paid off, no bobbles on any of the last flags. After 74 we just had a long trail run back, stopping to grab 53 and 38 on the way. Finished with 8 minutes to spare.

Super excited with how we did! Our first navigation race win :) I have finally figured out fueling, felt good throughout. We were able to run a majority of the time we were on trails/roads and also kept up a good pace in the woods. Navigation was really clean. I only had a few bobbles and they were all minor. KFish was awesome. He carried all the gear and I just had my small running pack with the extra batteries. Definitely going to make him carry the weight in the future!

47/50 CPs. 1/21 overall.

Event: Nitrogaine III
 

Nitrogaine III - Part I

Topo the Mountain with KFish

Maps were handed out at 8 p.m. and the whole course fit on a single piece of paper! Planned a CW route that included all the CPs and hit the highest density of points first. Seemed optimistic to clear, but we made time estimates based on scalex distance that hit everything within the 8 hrs. It was an easy choice to drop two points (48/58) later on that would give us an extra 30 min if we got behind.

We were with a big group for the first couple flags. Started to clear out as we headed to the SE section with Igor. Hit the point on the power line and it was so thick to get out to the trail. I think we could've gone swimming in the greenery. Missed the trail on our way to 57, but quickly realized and turned around. Found $5 at 54! Punched just before Eric who we led to the flag. Took a bad bearing to 68, and it was super thick, so we ended up too far W. Thought we had drifted the opposite way so turned W to look for the flag. Realized what had happened when we hit the spur at the end of the swamp and turned around. Finished up the Silver Lake section after that. Didn't see a whole lot of people, which I thought was surprising given the shorter races offered this year. Thanks to hosting in the area before we found the indistinct trail on our way to 78, but when we came back out headed the wrong way down the trail for a bit. Decided to cross the swamp from 80 to 60. It was really wet, but saved quite a bit of distance. Hit the road after 34 at 2 hr and 50 min, which was close to our goal time of 2.5 hr. And we had 30 min to play with, so I was really happy with how we were moving.

To the start. Followed the directions correctly this time!

Igor's streamer course at Brighton.

Focused on navigating to the feature, which went pretty well. Only big mistake was on 9. I overshot and took a while to relocate. Started to hear rumbles of thunder about half way through, got pretty dark in the woods and then it started to rain just as I got to the finish.

Great practice for Nitrogaine. Thanks Igor!

Back to the car. Pretty dark and raining hard - creepy.

Zoomed around Maybury with KFish and W4J. Fun fun!

Didn't really feel like running.