Training Log Archive: Lori

For all of the kind people who were very worried about us taking a 14.5 year-old dog on the Billygoat, just want to let you know that Presto is sleepy but doing great after his day in the forest! He was scampering around the house in excitement over his after-bath snack and then running up the driveway after his evening walk :-).

Event: 2022 Billygoat
 

Billygoat with Sam and Presto! Fun, fun! Yesterday was for racing (or at least me-time in the forest without distractions). Today's goal was to have a fun family outing in the woods (and get a t-shirt!). It was another gorgeous day for it!

Presto was on a harness attached to Sam because Presto seems to enjoy getting dragged in the harness (or at least he spends all his time in the harness wagging his tail). We were hoping that Presto would run with us off-leash, but we weren't sure what would happen. Presto seemed a bit confused at first - it's been a while since he's been around so many people at once. And Presto then pooped twice on the way to 1, so we basically lost any chance of staying with a pack at that point. We also tried taking Presto off the leash briefly, but I think he can't really see well enough anymore to tell which people were us and was just kind of super confused at the top of the steep slope down to 2 when we were at the bottom of it, so I had to run back up and get him. Back on the leash for Presto. The beginning was super steep and muddy and slippery and the going with Presto was slow, slow, slow. On the way to 6, Sam told me to just take off on my own. I sort of hemmed and hawed about it, eventually went off, immediately made like a 90 degree error and bumbled around in confusion until Sam came past me with Presto having already gotten 6. I went back for 6, then got stuck in a marsh, nearly lost my shoes, fell over backwards into the mud, started feeling a bit like a character in an old movie when quicksand was like the standard scary danger (why does no one care about quicksand anymore?), and eventually made it to 7, and then 8 where I caught back up to Sam and Presto. I then had to decide once again if I would stay with Sam and Presto or go off on my own. At this point, Presto weighed in and started pulling Sam to keep up with me, so we grouped back up again. This was the correct decision because from 9 on, the course was tons of fun!

We took the right fork to 10, and had a great time running along finding flags in the forest. We figured out that the best way to get up the super steep hills was for Sam to drag Presto and me to give Presto a boost from the back. I'm sure we looked ridiculous, but Presto enjoyed it, so that's all that matters. We had water and a shotblok at the aid station, which was totally fine for fuel and hydration for the course. After much debating, we eventually decided to skip 16 and run on the trail along the railroad from 15-17. This was a great choice for us because it was easy for Presto and was a nice mental break in the middle of a more technical section. Also because it was completely flat, it was a nice physical break from climbing up and down. We spiked 17 and 18, and then bobbled every control between 19-23, but didn't have any giant blow-ups. Then it was just fun running into the finish. Great day to be out in the forest and go Presto!! Oldest dog Billygoat finisher!!

Normal stretching back home.

Billygoat - Splits

Event: ROC - Overlook NRE
 

Green at Harriet Hollister! Woo! Super fun! I'm not actually sure when the last time I did a standard orienteering race with controls was. I think I did a sprint down in Raleigh after my sister's wedding. And then before that? Just before the pandemic started?

Anyway, I had no real expectations for this and was mainly interested in having a fun weekend hanging out in the woods with friends, especially after yesterday's 13h workday and more generally a semester of 70h work weeks. In this vein, I spent too much time chatting and almost missed my start. Oops. This seemed like a positive, though because I just sort of ran through all the start lines, got my map, and set off for the first control, which I spiked. Then also the second control. Excellent.

The rest of the course was a bit sloppier - more careful contour work and less point and shoot compass work, but aside from 7 where I lost a minute and a half checking out some other lumps and bumps, no big blow ups. Anyway, awesome course and a great day to be out in the woods!

Normal stretching at the hotel.

Green - Splits

Running with Sam and Presto after lab! Woo! Made it out before it was completely dark! That's pretty much all that I recollect from this run. It seemed like my life would get significantly less busy once my grant was turned in (and to some extent that's true), but I am still quite busy. I am crossing my fingers that I will have some more time once grades are submitted!

Normal abs.

Normal stretching.

Running with Margaret! Nice run in the middle of the day around the Botanic Gardens and the Park Park. Good to chat and get out during the daylight for a really nice temperature run!

Normal stretching back home.