Training Log Archive: JanetT

Found some of the Chinatown Street Scramble control locations from last fall's event. Couldn't answer all the questions because conditions had changed (for instance, one clue referred to Halloween decorations near a house, which were no longer there--imagine that. ;-) ).

Time's an estimate. We were out all day (from about 9:00 am to about 9:40 pm), with most but not all of it on our feet. After the Street Scramble control finds (which took us from our lodging near the Marina district via the Moscone Center to Nob Hill via Russian Hill), we headed down to the Embarcadero where we had lunch in the ferry terminal building/Marketplace. Then towards Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square before heading back to Columbus to find dinner. Walked down Grant through Chinatown to the gate, then looked up the bus schedules to get us back to the motel. Feet felt okay most of the time but we'll see how they are tomorrow.

Typical SF weather, which started off cloudy/foggy, got sunnier and warmer (low to mid 60's), and then cooled down to upper 50's. Tired now. :-)

Made a stop at the cable car museum. While we didn't ride the cable car (lines are crazy-long and cars are packed even on a weekday, and we've BTDT), it was interesting to see the machinery that moves the cables along and learn about how the system works. Cables can stretch up to 100 feet over their life which is on average 70-250 days.

C • Moscone 2

Event: Scottish 6 Days
 

EDIT: Added FR track

Back to Little Truckee Summit for the Long Distance Brown. SL 5 km/95m

Good run on all but two controls, one of which was an unnecessary ~4 minute circle. I was near a control flag but didn't think it was mine, and didn't check the code. Hey, haven't I been here before?? After a little wander which included a few meters off the map I did finally check the code and of course it was mine. The next leg was a long run across a slightly marshy flat (but mostly just grass), a lot like the ones found in Laramie. Identify the proper wooded spur then find my boulder attackpoint, and then I even pace-counted the 100m I needed to go to my thicket. Spike. Very satisfying. Drifted left on the next long climbing leg but corrected off a boulder along a trail short of, and to the left of 8, a nice relocation point. Good last set of controls; boom, boom, boom, and in.

Because of my boo boo to 6, losing about 4 minutes, I was over a minute behind Ardis. And Penny DeMoss, who had run Red on the middle, ran her age class and beat us both by over 10 minutes. I think I was 6th woman on Brown today.

Brown - Splits

EDIT - Added FR track

Brown middle at the Sierra Summerfest, at Little Truckee Summit. SL 2.3 km/65m
1:10000/5m Another warm day, and starts closer to noon didn't help. I decided to carry water despite there being one water control and am glad I did. These have been pre- and post-race Vitalyte days, for sure.

A good race, except for errors on the first two controls. Trouble finding the start triangle, determining the direction to the first control, and then reading the different vegetations mapped (on a less than 200m leg). I managed to miss it (a boulder cluster in the light green) a bit high but I hit a pair of boulders about 40m away and relocated from there. [PG would never have climbed an extra 1.5 contours...] Then a bit left of the line to 2 (low and beyond, vs high and beyond on #1). Controls 2, 3, and 6 were in a triangle about 80 or so meters on a side, and I hit a boulder which I identified as my #6 and again relocated.

Settled down after that and did better on my compass and distance estimation. Green had a lot of similar legs, so despite the far spacing of starts there were often other at or near many of my controls (including a couple of potentially tricky lone trees). Probably at least 4 min of error. When we left I was 1st F on Brown, about 5th or 6th place overall.

Tomorrow's the Long day. Then I think I'll skip the TrailCross on Monday and let my feet have a rest.

Brown #2 - Splits

Western States A meet sprint at Donner Memorial State Park in Truckee, just down the road from the motel. 1:5000, 2.5m contours. SL = 1.5 km

Fast, mostly flat open park with lots of boulders of various sizes. The ones used for controls (6 on the Brown/Orange course) were all 2m high or larger. A lot of: point the compass and run. Took a little bit to get into the map, missing #1 off to the right (it was behind a form-line hill! from the direction I approached), and then also to the right headed to #5 which was along a trail. The leg was about 200m through the woods, but I must have gotten pushed a bit by the vegetation and hit the trail maybe 50 or so m north of where I intended. Perhaps a total of 30-40 sec on the course. Happy with my time in any case (and any time it's close to 10 m/k on a sprint). I think I ended up 7th overall on the course, first female.

Registration/download was not far from the Donner Memorial. There's a bronze statue atop a 22'-tall pedestal, depicting the depth of the snow at that spot during the winter the Donner party was stranded there. Wow.

Scramble results on the BAOC website

Sprint results

No intentions of racing this, with two A meet days still to come. There were 4 loops, so I decided to do the two shortest. Each loop seemed to have a theme in that all the controls were the same or similar features; I did the "tree" loop and the "knoll/hill"loop. :-) (The others were the "boulder" loop and the "man-made object + a boulder" loop.) Jogged a few times but not at all in the woods. Trashy woods getting to #9 with a lot of downed tree trunks not depicted on the map; the "ride" was NOT the best way to attack it.

EDIT: The Motala took place at Burton Creek, scene of the A-meet in 2000 where I "destroyed" my left ankle (hurt it badly enough that it hurt to walk on for the subsequent 2 weeks plus; I spent a lot of time with it iced and elevated and didn't restart any training until at least 2 weeks after). The two loops I completed didn't take me quite onto the same trail where I tripped and fell twice back then (near the end of the course on day 1 of 2 and needless to say I didn't start on day 2), though the start and common control were not far from there.

Brown/Orange Sprint - Splits

Event: Sierra Summerfest
 

Spooner Scramble at Spooner Lake. Ten of the points were set in the relatively flat area around the lake; the others required climbing, sometimes steep ups. Twenty checkpoint locations and 340 possible points; I got 150. Didn't necessarily choose the best routes to 111 and 102, but maybe they were more fun--yeah, that's my story. :-)

Route: 101-112-100-106-105-110-111-104-103-102-109

In the morning we went to the beach at Sand Harbor on Lake Tahoe. Water Temp was listed at 68F but it may have been a degree or two warmer. I swam out to the buoy/marker placed to keep boats away from the swimmers. Gorgeous clear water. T-showers threatened and there was some thunder once we were at Spooner Lake, but there wasn't much in the way of showers.

In CA, at Mt Diablo, on the nature trail. Good views in most directions. Noted that the fog that started the day over the city remained all day--we could only see part of the north tower of the GGB.

We encountered several CA experiences, the most notable being sitting in traffic (traveling at the wrong time of day). We also had at least two detours due to closed roads, one of which was caused by someone hitting a power pole (we learned later), and the trucks were just responding as we approached the park road (south gate). So we had to go all the way around to the north gate entrance. That of course delayed our leaving (via Rock City and the south gate; we naively figured the earlier hang up would have been cleared up, but we ended up having to U turn and go 4 miles around. Then freeways at 4:30 ... Anyway, we finally got to Truckee after 10 pm.

Other CA experiences so far:
. Eating at In and Out Burgers. Verdict: Five Guys is much better.
. Saw some spilled produce at an intersection in So. SF which turned out to be avocados :-) How Californian can you get?