Training Log Archive: Bash

I almost forgot to add this pic of DVOA passing the torch to the Ottawa Orienteering Club for the 2014 NAOC event. OOC meet director Anne Teutsch is on the right with the "torch" while everyone else has big sparklers. Lots of flames but none of the banners or orienteering flags involved actually caught on fire. It was a cool way to close off the awards. You can tell that OOC has a theatre director working on NAOC publicity! :)

North American Orienteering Champs Sprint
Pocono Environmental Education Center
Disaster in Sprintsville

It was a beautiful day for a sprint and an interesting location for it - a mix of forest, trails, buildings, recreational facilities and roads. The event arena was set up to give us views of several spectator controls as well as the finish line. The announcers were at work early to cover the elites who started first since many of them would be racing again in the national team relay later on.

There's no mystery as to what happened out there today. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a sprint, especially when you pass the spectator controls where people are yelling your name and you just want to move out of sight as quickly as possible, which sometimes means you don't think it through carefully. (At least, that's what happens if you're me!) It can be difficult to "feel" a 1:4,000 scale even when you try to prepare yourself for it. These are a couple of the things that got me today.

After an early spectator control, I lost my mind and went way off course on my way to #4 - looks like I lost 30 seconds there, which is huge in a sprint. But I got truly lost between #8 and #9 - the only time all weekend when I had no idea where I was on the map. In hindsight, I was aiming for a trail that I should have known would be hard to see with the fallen leaves - and I didn't need it anyway since the woods were nice and open. I popped out near the finish chute since I could hear the announcer and I knew I could relocate from there. Holy crap, that was a long way off the correct route to #9! Looks like I lost a good 2:30 there.

I'd been expecting at least one blow-out this weekend so I wasn't exactly devastated. It's funny how the numbers don't tell the whole story... Yesterday I was 6th and 2 minutes off the podium and really pleased. Today I was 7th and 2.5 minutes off the podium and knew I'd totally screwed up! Hey, we all have those days.



Meanwhile, my hotel roommate AdventureGirl! had an awesome sprint.





Then it was time for the National Relays - eight teams of three from each country: 2 Junior Men, 2 Junior Women, 2 Men, 2 Women. AdventureGirl! was representing Canada for the first time on Team Canada 2 for the Junior Women. She had to go into quarantine so she wouldn't see anyone's maps - including the relay maps and guide that we were able to buy once the athletes had been quarantined.



The relays were fast-moving and exciting. Junior Women started first and a new category started every 10 minutes. We'd see the runners at spectator controls, and they'd finish their leg after 15-20 minutes so there was always lots going on. I didn't envy the announcers trying to keep up with it all as well as the news from the radio controls in the woods!

Izzy B. led off the junior women with an excellent first leg.





Here are the men heading out on Leg 1.



There are some terrific crowd and racer shots on the main AP forum with some incredible action shots by folks with long lenses. Here's a pic of Cristina and me trying to start a rumour after her big "announcement" earlier this month on National Coming Out Day. :)


Photo by Ken Walker Jr.

AdventureGirl! did the anchor leg for her team and seemed totally calm before, during and after.





Her Dad had been more nervous than she was - and was over the moon when she finished her great run.



Here's Canada's #1 female orienteer at NAOC, Louise Oram.



Ken Walker Jr. powering into the finish. Mr. AP is not some deskbound IT genius!



Serghei (Runit) may have competed with a broken rib. He was really tough to hang in there after yesterday.



Canada did a great job, particularly the Junior Women's teams who finished ahead of both U.S. teams. Go AG!

Alas, the U.S. team took the Björn Kjellström Cup - the overall prize for the weekend. Canada has won this trophy in most years of its existence.



There was a tie between the U.S. and Canadian teams for the new Future Champions Cup based on junior results.



Great job by everyone involved in organizing this fun finale to the weekend, and congrats to all the racers who did so well!

GreenY - Sprint - Splits

North American Orienteering Championships
Long Distance - Egypt Mills

Gorgeous autumn sunshine, beautiful terrain, excellent map and a varied and fun course!

Two legs over 1 km long, mostly travelling off-trail. I really enjoyed this race. As it went on, I became more confident with the quality of the map and my ability to see features in this terrain. With the older, less-detailed maps available to us for most adventure races, I often take less risky routes but that wasn't necessary today. If I'd started out with that mentality, I would have made some different route choices early on. I felt focused from start to finish, which has not always been my strong point in long O races.


Photo by Adrian Zissos

I pushed harder than yesterday. If last weekend's 100K run was holding me back, I didn't feel it. Reviewing the splits, I was in the bronze medal position after 12 of 15 controls - and then I made a bad choice on the way to #13 which led to a slow slog through thick alders in a wetland. To add insult to injury, I emerged from the other side to see runners trotting happily on a lovely trail to my left. WTF? I moved my thumb to see a huge and extremely helpful trail that could have delivered me to the same spot. Oh well... That appears to have been a 3-4 minute error.

Then for my grand finale, I messed up the "go" control - the one connected to the finish line by a path marked with flags. I ended up finding the flags and running backward to find the control tucked in the trees behind a tiny hill. The go controls I've seen in the past have usually been out in the open and simple to find. I didn't give this control sufficient respect and lost 30-40 seconds on it. Lesson learned.

In spite of the bobbles in the late part of the course, I'm still very happy about today's race. In our category, former national team stars Pavlina Brautigam and Peggy Dickison are shoo-ins for the podium. (Pavlina didn't race yesterday, giving us all a break! :) ) So the only medal up for grabs is bronze, and today there were four of us who finished within two minutes of one another, all nibbling at Peggy's ankles! I ended up 6th of 21; hope one day I can be sharp enough to hit that podium!

It was so much fun hanging out in the arena afterward, chatting and cheering. DVOA did a fantastic job of organizing this event.

Hammer (who had an awesome race today, 1st/30 in M45) and Faceplant (Isak)



Eugene Mlynczyk



Ilona and Peter Dobos





Laura Smith aka Mrs. Mick



And Mick's #1 fan along the course, J-Lu.



And Mick - happy to finish this race after some troubles on the course.



Nev-Monster in the announcer's seat helping to make the experience more exciting by reporting on radio controls and current standings.



Clive Hayhow



Anton and Teo Mlynczyk



The unbeatable PeggyD (I've been trying to win just one race for 8 years but the difference between us is growing!) (P.S. Hi Peggy! :) )



This was the results tent with large flat screen TVs to track current standings in each category, monitor how long runners had been in the woods, track times registered at radio controls, etc. Extremely cool. There was also live video feed from the woods.



Mia Smith, AdventureGirl! and Faceplant



Ralph Lindzon and Don Ross



AZ and the incredible Valerie Meyer, SI results guru.



Here she is in front of one of the flat screen TVs showing results.



Here's what the results look like close up.



Barb Bryant - We've done a rogaine together and today we agreed that we should race together again since we are so well-matched. Our three races were all close, although she always prevailed - today by 17 seconds!



Cedarcreek in the finish chute



Sudden finishing up an excellent performance



Sudden, Pat-hectic and Hammer reviewing the M-Elite course



Bubo from Sweden - we'll see him at Vasaloppet 2014!



Cristina Luis - so fast she is blurry! She was probably in a rush because she heard I wanted to take home her awesome U.S. ski-O team jacket.



Mia Smith marking her route. She was mostly colouring in the control circles.



Charm (Charlotte McNaughton), Executive Director of Orienteering Canada; we sure are lucky to have her.



Wil Smith and Jon Torrance



Nick Duca



Nick and Val



Andrei and Serghei "Runit" Logvin (father and son). Serghei took the silver medal in M-Elite but may have broken a rib in the process.



PG (Peter Gagarin)



Pamtastic (Pam James)



Kissy (Kris Beecroft) - great performances during her comeback from knee troubles



Last but not least... a much-needed dinner! Alas, the restaurant didn't serve wine even though it would have gone well with my yummy shrimp pasta.

GreenY Long - Splits

North American Orienteering Championships
Middle Distance - Adams Creek

Fun day at Delaware Gap! It rained on and off - sometimes quite heavily - but it didn't dampen the awesome event atmosphere. The weather was warm, the people were friendly, the courses were great and there were a few tents to duck into when the rain got really hard.

It was so great to chat with old friends and new. I finally met my Swedish Attackpoint friend Bubo, and I had several nice conversations with athletes who introduced themselves after recognizing my messy hair from photos on my AP log! It was also nice to chat with Cristina after reading about her adventures in Norway.

My goal this weekend was to be in the upper half on average over the three races, probably with a disaster in one race; I haven't been orienteering competitively enough lately. Today's technical Middle Distance was the most likely candidate for the blow-out. It turned out to be very challenging nav with many areas of low visibility due to leaves on saplings crowded close together. Even when two controls were 100 m apart, I often took a bearing to be 100% sure that I was heading in the right direction. There were lots of controls in the woods that belonged to other courses so accuracy was essential. In many cases, there weren't big features to catch you if you made a mistake or to relocate from if you got disoriented. A lot of good orienteers had troubles today. The maps and courses were excellent; it was just really easy to mess up.

I moved cautiously - no hard running other than the finish chute. My nav wasn't perfect, e.g. I overshot #3 and arrived first at #4 a short distance beyond it, but there were no huge disasters. I was very happy with my result - 6th of 21 in my very competitive age category, and 6.5 minutes out of 2nd place. But I couldn't have touched Peggy's awesome 1st place performance - 16 minutes ahead of me! Ironically, if I had entered any of the next three age groups younger than mine, who all ran the same course, I would have won a North Am Champs medal but I didn't stand a chance against my talented contemporaries. (And it would be cowardly to hide from them!) Actually, it was a real treat to chat with Kissy and PeggyD in person - it's been a long time.

As expected, last week's 100K race played no role whatsoever in this race. Maybe I'll feel it in the Long or the Sprint but I think everything this weekend will be dictated by nav skills (or lack thereof), not the fatigue in my legs.

A few photos from the day...

Here's the view from our hotel near Delaware Gap. A good reminder that these maps have a lot of cliffs to watch out for!



Live results were displayed on flat screen TVs. In addition to finish times, we could see how long current runners had been on the course. Unfortunately, the heavy rain put a kibosh on the network after awhile but it was great while it lasted. Awesome work by the organizers to provide this for us in the middle of a field half a kilometre from the nearest road.



Sudden and Hammer both ran too fast down the finish chute for me to get good pics on a cloudy day. Serves them right.





Isak and AdventureGirl! were happy to finish.





And no wonder... Turns out they were both North American Champions in their respective categories!





Here are just a few of the many familiar faces. Sorry I missed getting pics of Valerie, Mick, Nick, Cristina, Clive, Kissy, Peggy and many other friends. Maybe tomorrow.

Glenn



Mia!



James, OOA Treasurer Extraordinaire



Cathy



Sudden and Isak


True to his ARK roots, Pat-hectic arrived at the finish line with his heel outside of his broken shoe.



He seemed pretty cheerful when I saw him, in spite of a race that could have gone better.



But had clearly lost his mind by the time he ran into Wil Smith later.



And last but definitely not least is a guy to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude: Ken Walker Jr., aka Mr. Attackpoint who works hard in his "leisure" time while juggling work and family to give us the best training log / social community around. Thank you Ken, and congratulations on your North Am silver medal in the elite category on today's tough course - yay!



Speaking of which... the control numbers from my course auto-magically appeared on my Garmin download. Cool! :)

Middle - GreenY - Splits

Event: 2012 North American Orienteering Championships
 

Such a beautiful autumn day that I had to do a brief tour in the Palgrave single track. Unseasonably warm, or - as we would have said a few weeks ago - unseasonably cool. I'm about to pick up Sudden, Isak, Hammer and AdventureGirl! for the looooooong drive to Milford, Pennsylvania (close to New York City) for the North American Orienteering Champs. 700 athletes from 20 countries - wow! And they'll have live results and live video coverage of the finish line - see the main AP forum for deets. They've even arranged to have wi-fi hubs at the event venues! This will be a totally new experience.

It's also the first time I've competed against 22 women in my 5-year age group, 4 of whom are past members of the U.S. national team. I'm not sure how many Canadian team members there are. This will be very humbling indeed, as in "arse handed to me on a platter" humbling. I could blame last weekend's 100K race but the truth is, this is a competitive field and I haven't orienteered nearly enough this year, or - let's face it - in my life. I've printed out the sprint map standards since I really need to study them in particular. I think a top 20 finish is achievable! ;)

With more than $600 million raised, this cancer foundation associated with an inspiring athlete hero is a model of how to keep administrative costs down and give the most to the research that counts.

That would be the Terry Fox Foundation, of course.

http://www.timescolonist.com/health/Terry+Foundati...

And it had to happen... Lance Armstrong has resigned as chair of the Livestrong Foundation, and Nike has severed its relationship with him but will continue working with Livestrong.

Btw if you haven't read the Outside article on Livestrong before, it is interesting to read about what the foundation does. Some people have felt that Lance shouldn't be punished because his charity does good work. Clearly, the distinction between Lance and the foundation needed to be made, and Lance has now done that. But what is less well known is that the foundation's work is not what many people think it is.

"If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the famous nonprofit donates almost ­nothing to scientific research. BILL GIFFORD looks at where the money goes and finds a mix of fine ideas, millions of dollars aimed at 'awareness', and a few very blurry lines."

I finished the Oil Creek 100K in the dark but it appears that the 6th place runner finished in time to get some important things done before dinner!

So... remember that 100K race I did Saturday where after 15 hours of pushing hard, I finished 92 seconds over the Western States 100 qualifying time? Well, haha, funny story... I last read the website in June and it said (and still says):

"In completing a qualified event, one of the following minimum times must be met:

a) 50 miles in under 11 hours
b) 100 kilometers in under 15 hours
c) 100-mile trail race within the official cutoff

No adjustments or modifications can be made to the qualifying standards to accommodate non-standard distances. For example, the maximum qualifying time for a 55 mile event remains as under 11 hours, the 50-mile maximum."

The Canadian Death Race was on the qualifier list but it is 125 km - a non-standard distance - and only a few top men finish under 15 hours.

But when I checked the list of qualifiers for the 2013 WS100 just now, it says: "Canadian Death Race - 22 hours". I was 21:45. I'm in the lottery, baby! :)

Rodney Yee Power Yoga for Flexibility plus some Frog Pose, as per Ang.

I'm feeling good and if there weren't so much else going on, I'd definitely be biking; I even considered a short run today. My Inferior Extensor Retinaculum is improving but I suspect it would act up again if I tried to do a long run right now. After the North American Orienteering Champs this weekend, it is time to visit Thumbs-of-Death and talk rehab for my gimpy foot. Ski season is coming and I need my retinaculum to function flawlessly, now that I know I have one.