Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: DVOA Fall Orienteering Festival
 

French Creek Park, PA. Warmup from Campground Loop A back and forth to the start of DVOA's Fall Orienteering Festival. I forgot my eyeglasses and had Togo back to the car.

DVOA Fall Orienteering Festival at French Creek State Park. The event was on the North map. I ran the Red course as M45+. I had zero expectations going into the event; I just hadn't been thinking about it. I may be too complacent about it but it was just good for me to get a run in. Overall, my errors weren't big or bad. I was running too slowly and a lot of that I'm hoping was due to profound fatigue. I didn't feel all that tired starting out nor during the race but upon seeing my finish time not breaking 10 min/k, I was surprised. I think the total of 8 hours of sleep that I got over the past 3 nights had a lot to do with that. I also had some less than optimal route choices.

I did lose concentration twice during the race. The first was after I ran up the trail to #1, and punched it. I'd felt like I was just starting out when I headed into the woods for #2--after getting to #2, I thought the code was wrong despite the features matching. I had been looking for #101 which was the code for control #1.

Going to #3, I was lazy. Instead of going up toward the trail, I ran straight to save climb and distance. I navigated well but the forest was slower than using the trail.

I spiked #4 by trying to keep level &straight and attacking from the boulders.

I wanted to run through the valley toward #5 but I felt it'd be too green. I was worried about not having an attack point if I ran along the edge of the reentrant. I decided to compromise but I drifted down into the reentrant anyway as I was climbing it. I did a sort of S-pattern going out again and not seeing the control until I was on it due to some unmapped vegetation around it.

I ran straight at #6 and was pleased a third of the way there to come across a charcoal terrace that I hadn't seen earlier (all the map symbols were smaller than they should have been). The charcoal terrace was right on the straight path. Another third of the way there, I saw some mountain laurel which I interpreted as the mapped light green splotches that were also on the straight path. I saw the control soon after.

I debated going straight to #7 and started to do it but later reasoned that I could run the trail to the right better. The trail however, was slow with leaves hiding rocks. I left at a bend, crossing to another and turning left. I didn't see the ditch that I was looking for, to lead me in but saw some weird contours in about the right place. Going down, I soon saw the ditch, saw the stream reentrant, and spiked the control. The trail route however, was a bit on the slow side.

I took off trying to run the flat going straight to #8, and to leave a guy who'd started out of #7 about when I had. A guy was ahead of me too but I couldn't see him ahead. I spiked the control.

For #9, I ran around to the left past some vegetation that was on the straight route.

For #10, I ruled out going low for the trail route because of the green terrain I'd have to cross to get to a trail. I climbed to a higher trail, then cut across to another. I was only on that for a short while before I headed on bearing again. I tracked my progress fairly well until near the end. I got more left than I thought was correct as this took me to a control. It didn't look exactly correct but I went to it anyway because of the location of it relative to a stream. When I found out it wasn't mine, I stopped to tie my left shoe. I was a bit worried because I couldn't see another stream. When I finished with my shoe and looked up, I saw the correct control not far away, across a sort of deep and narrow reentrant.

For #11, I just kept plugging away at a steady pace to get to the top of the hill. From there it was easy to attack off of the ridge.

For #12, I started out well, going on bearing, and staying off of the ridge to my left. Before I'd gotten to #11, I'd seen Jeff Seeger seemingly closing in. I didn't know what course he was on but I thought he might be running Red. As I headed to #12 and looked to my left, I could see Jeff moving off fast. At the same time, I checked my compass bearing and it was wrong--I incorrectly concluded that I was following a wrong bearing and I turned left to follow a correct bearing that also happened to be somewhat in the direction that Jeff had run. At some low vegetation areas I couldn't tell for sure if it was the clearings marked on the map. I couldn't see any rootstocks which were mapped into the clearings so I went on. Very soon, I hit a trail. After 40 seconds or so, I relocated at a trail bend. Correcting, I went past the clearings, and then paused again because I hadn't seen the control. I soon saw the control but I'd lost about 3 minutes--worst of the day.

Going to #13, I ran straight initially. I should have cut left and used the trail that I'd relocated on earlier. I was getting confused because I was going uphill when I thought I should be going downhill--this was due to the way I'd folded my map. I hit another trail, went left to an intersection, then turned right until I saw a charcoal platform on my left. I then went on bearing but not seeing the control until I was right about on it. I was slow to read the control description (rootstock); it would have made me a few seconds quicker by letting me know that I should have run toward the green.

For #14, I was getting tired and running through the rocks made me feel it more. I knew not to go to the control to the right on the depression and soon found the boulders. I was expecting 3 but it seemed that there was only one of mappable size for this map.

For #15, I took off on a poor bearing but corrected before getting to the road. I adjusted my route to use the more open gaps that connected the different campground loops and got to the control pretty well.

Being out of shape, I didn't think running in hard would benefit me the next day so I ran an almost regular pace. I was surprised when I looked at my watch, realizing that I didn't break 10 minutes per K. Oh well.

French Creek - Day 1 Red - Splits

Carderock, MD. I got myself out, having missed some opportunity the day before. I've been busy. It occurred to me that I hadn't ever run Section C of the Billygoat Trail. I'd heard Peggy talk about having run it many times. Since high school age when I began coming here to run, I've always opted to run on the towpath or Sections A and B which are longer. As Peggy had told me, Section A was the least rocky of the 3 sections but it still had places that required me to walk over boulders. I got out on Section C as the sun was getting low in the sky and it happened to be directly upstream. With the rocks in the water and the autumn colors this made for really nice scenery. Maybe that kept me slower too; my eyes were distracted to my surroundings instead of watching the rocks under my feet. I started from the southernmost parking lot and when I hit the big bend, I stayed low following the river for another quarter mile or less on an unofficial trail. This brought me back up to the towpath less than a quarter mile from the American Legion bridge. I headed north, then got on the proper Billygoat trail to go back down to the river retracing my steps. When I hit the intersection near where I'd started, I stayed along the river and followed the Section A Billygoat Trail to the north to just before where it hits the C&O towpath again. Parts of this were hillier than I'd expected. From near the northern end of the trail, I followed the main park road back to my van. I was tired during this run but it was good having gotten out to do it.

C • billygoat trail 5

Event: Mid-Atlantic Championships