Sep 27 in Birkhead Wilderness

First of all, I want to apologize to everybody for being late with the controls this morning. Tanya and I miscalculated time to drive and left home later than we should have. As a result we came half an hour late and delayed the start... I am sorry.

But, as Joseph noted, it gave everybody a chance to socialize :-) In fact, Birkhead start/finish area is very good for socializing. The table rock virtually forces people to huddle together and talk. I like this place. And, of course, the forest is quite challenging.

This time I believe that two controls were misplaced. I got lucky with the first one, but to balance things out extremely unlucky with the second misplaced one (lost about 20-22 mins there). But at the same time I am quite happy with my performance. With the exception of the misplaced controls I was taking the rest of them cleanly, was running all right and felt quite good at the Red/Green switch point (so I ended up choosing Red), my knee held fine even after 90 mins. And I suspect that I was right among the leaders before my disaster at misplaced #14. All those are good signs for me: it looks like I should be able to come back to running Reds and be competitive there.

Fell down 3 or 4 times today (one time with a roll :-)) and got a few scratches - Birkhead forest is not as white as the map suggests.

All right, here is how I ran:

#1: used the trail, noticed an opening on the left and turned into the forest shortly after; crossed the re-entrant and proceed along the slope. Control wasn't there and I didn't see a knol either. But I did see a lot of people running in circles. I went a bit further and saw the re-entrant - I clearly was too far, so I turned back and checked the slope again - no control. Looked around and saw someone sprinting up the hill, correctly guessed that the person saw the control and followed. Indeed, the control was there, about 50-80 meters from the place it was supposed to be.

#2: continued up the hill and followed it north till the rock piles, then took a compass bearing and went for the control, saw re-entrant forming up on my right, went down there and took the control.

#3: easy, over the hill, crossed the re-entrant and followed the slope.

#4: walked up the hill, then ran to the big rocks and saw re-entrant on my right, crossed it, passed the top part of the gully and then reached the re-entrant with the control.

#5: aimed straight east, walked up the hill and down to the creek, then proceeded north to the control.

#6: used eastern slope for a bit and went up using the first re-entrant, from there crossed south to the creek and went up the re-entrant with the control

#7: tough one. Went east over the hill and then down at the top part of the re-entrant, went down to the creek while going north-east, noticed the creeks crossing, continued along the creek, past the cliff and up the re-entrant with another creek. Up and up, over the hill and to another re-entrant, went east along the creek to the trail, used the trail, then walked up another re-entrant and went east to the control using re-entrant to the south as a catching feature.

#8: west past the rocks and hit another old trail. It was somewhat confusing there, but I simply proceeded further west, knowing that in worst case, I'll hit the big creek. But I was still on the right bearing, saw re-entrant stating to form on my left and followed the slope to the control.

#9: up the hill and down to the creek, up another hill aiming south and watched two re-entrants on my right. Then went down past the knolls to the creek, and went east to the control. I felt really good at that point and decided to finish on Red.

#10: cut over the hill, and followed the slope, noticed dry-ditch, a small gully and cliff before reaching the control.

#11: along the creek and then around the green area, from there followed the slope to the re-entrant with the control

#12: north, over the hill to the re-entrant and further north to the parallel re-entrant, then followed it up to the control.

#13: south-east, crossed the re-entrant and walked up the hill to the top, then went down to the creeks crossing. Had hard time getting through rhododendrons there (should have gone around...), but went through and followed the creek up to the control. I was at 58:32 mark then.

#14: oh well. Just went south crossing everything until I reached the little side trail and than the big trail. Followed the trail until it started to go down and turned to the forest trying to stay on the same elevation contour. Saw rocks on my right and eventually reached the place where the control should have been. No control. OK. Continued further south till I hit the big rocky ridge and the trail. Used the end of the trail as an attack point. Still no control. Went north looking around until I reached the trail, followed the trail to the crossing and went south on another trail until I got to the knolls. From there I walked east very carefully and very straight. Found big double rocky teeth and used them as an attack point. Still no control. At that point I was certain that the control was misplaced (and not just hidden) and started to thing about moving on. It was a pity though, as I lost so much time there after such a good run. Then I saw someone running further north and figured that this person is either going to or from the control and moved north to the line he ran along. Looked both directions and saw Holly running toward me on the same line. Aha. I went up and saw the control. It was about 80-100 meters north from the place it was supposed to be.

#15: went down to the trail and followed it until the re-entrant on my left, then went west, reached the dry ditch and followed it to the control.

And then walked to the finish and more or less straight line. Result time: 97:46.

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking.



And, of course, thanks to Josef for hosting the event! It was fun.

Results for the Sep 20 event

Published the results: http://backwoodsok.org/results-from-09-20-2009-at-south-umstead

Took me several hours to reconcile the registration cards with the downloaded results spreadsheet. At the end I still had 2 registration cards not assigned to any entry, as if those two people never started...

The event was a blur. This was the first time Tanya and I were doing the September event, when renewals are due and usually many people come. What can I say, it was the tough one. I can hardly remember anything from the first hour and a half. And I am so grateful to Artem, Eugene, Mihai and Bill for taking care of the controls pickup - you guys are great!

Controls wise, I was surprised that nobody complained about #44 - it was the one I had troubles setting correctly. The other one was #53 - which was indeed a tough one, I did checked it from 3 different directions just in case. #48 "the pit", well... you know :-) And, of course, #50. Actually, I didn't think much about that one - it was quite easy to find and get to from the top. But Tanya did tell me after she set the control that I was cruel to others by placing the control there. But it was fun, wasn't it?

Ribbons are set for Sep 20 event

Spent last two days setting ribbons for the Sep 20 event. Had some troubles finding exact spots for several advanced controls. What can I say? Don't expect an easy run through a clear forest. The advanced courses shaped out to be rather "greenish" and controls not easy to find.

Also couldn't find a good way to put RGB courses on one map. So I'll be printing them separately. You'll need to choose a course right from the start. No switching.

Courses for Sep 20 event are approved

Sent Sep 20 event courses for approval to Umstead this morning and got a very quick approval.

Despite the approval, I am not entirely happy with the Orange course. While trying not to repeat old South Umstead courses, I am always bumping into the limiting number of controls we have available... And the Orange course usually suffers the most. This time I couldn't get many intersections between RGB and Orange (because RGB goes behind the river and the rest of the controls are quite hard too) and it resulted in Orange sharing two controls with the White course... So the course will start as an easy one (White - Yellow - White) and only after that will become a real Orange.

After I get the controls, I'll check how many are working. If I find an extra one, I'll replace one of the Whites with a new Orange one, but we'll see.

August 22 in the Bond Park

It was very gratifying to see the Bond Park map finally used in an event. It was the biggest mapping project I undertook (so far) and I was glad to see the map being used.

Patrick set two good (and unusual) courses in the south east portion of the map, so north west portion wasn't used at all (a part of it wasn't even printed). It means that the map is big enough to potentially handle two sprint events in one year! What was unusual about the courses is the way controls were hidden, Patrick did really good job hiding them :-) In fact, I don't remember such degree of "control invisibility" in any of the events we had. But all controls were set accurately. Josef had some valid complains about 3-4-5 "dog leg" on the course A, though, I personally used different routes on this stretch. The only other control I didn't like was #5 on the course B. This control was set right by hardly visible barb wire. Both Tanya and Michael got caught into this barb wire while approaching the control. IMHO, it was too dangerous a place to set a control in.

Anyway, I liked both courses, so thanks to Patrick to setting them up!

Just like 2 weeks ago I ran the first course significantly faster than the second one. 17 mins comparing to 20 mins. I suspect that I might have won the first course and got 4-5th place on the second. Again, I didn't have enough stamina for the second course and again I made a costly mistake on it. A pattern? Maybe.

Here is how I ran:

Course A

#1: used the road, cut a corner at the end, then ran by the shelter and went down to the creek; didn't see the pit (it was truly invisible!), went right a bit then returned back and followed the creek to the pit.

#2: straight, crossed the road and went up the re-entrant

#3: back to the road and used it all the way to the control

#4: back to the road, cut to the re-entrant with the dry dicth from the curve and followed the ditch to the pit, looking to the right so I wouldn't miss it.

#5: went south to the bridge, continued up the hill and saw the control on the right

#6: south to the field, alond the field and used the trail, then down to the re-entrant

#7: to the field and around it, cut to the trail and used it for a bit, then went to the cutting and from there to the creek junction

#8: returned back to the cutting and used it till I crossed a small dry dicth, then went south loiking for the dry dicth with the control, found it and followed it to the control

#9: back to the cutting and used it to get to the trail, used trail to reach the control

#10: used the cutting to get around the green area

and from there to the field and used trails all the way to the finish. It took me 17:21

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking.




Course B

#1: through the forest to the parking lot and attacked from the corner of the parking lot

#2: to the field and to the control from course A, from there repeated my route to the #2

#3: used the trail until I saw creek on the right and went down to it

#4: did not cross the creek but somehow thought I did!!! so when I reached the cutting I thought the creek is on my left, didn't see the control and went toward the supposed creek to attack from there... Crossed the dry ditch and only then started to realize what happened. Returned back and ran toward the real creek this time, took the control on the other side. I think I lost about 90 seconds there.

#5: used the cutting to get to the creeks junction, crossed the creek there, went up to the dry dicth and followed it to the control. Did notice the barb wire because I was looking for it.

#6: went back to avoid the wire and crossed the creek again at the junction, went to the trail and used it to get to the eastern corner of the field, went up to the field and ran by its side and further on using the trail to reach the control

#7: basically retraced my steps from course A (now thinking about it - I retraced my steps several times on the B course, apparently the courses were too similar, it could have been avoided)

#8: down to the road, through the intersection and to the re-entrant

#9: this time it was easy, used the road until I saw a wide road shoulder in front and went south across the cutting and creek, then followed the creek to the pit

#10: up to the shelter, then used the road and the field as much as I could, then went to the forest to the control.

and straight to the finish. Total: 20:34.

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking.

August 9 in the south west Umstead (Showers and Spiders)

As Josef put it: "Showers and Spiders" :-) It was very hot and very humid - peak of the summer. I did very well again, but made a mistake of spending all my energy on the first sprint so I had nothing left for the second one and instead of making 18/18 mins I ended up with 16/20 mins splits. Controls were from the "advanced" category, but quite honestly it didn't make any difference for me. Both sprints felt just like regular "Orange" type sprints, I only made one mistake on the course B (on the first control). Other than that it was very straightforward. And the forest was very open, so it was easy to run through.

Tanya dropped me by the start, and had to go back home to drive Michael to the urgent care with flu symptoms. However, when she came back, Michael woke up rather refreshed and decided to wait till Monday. Which is good, but Tanya had to skip the event.. Oh well, maybe next time, in any case she wasn't very upset seeing what kind of weather we got. And yes, we are guilty of not un-registering late yesterday evening when we decided about that urgent care visit.

OK. Here is how I ran:

Sprint A

#1: straight over the re-entrant

#2: east, keeping on the same elevation until I crossed the dry dicth, then through the green area (jumping over fallen trees) to the upper part of the re-entrant; down the slope on the other side into the big re-entrant (all this time weering a bit south, to be below the control); crossed the big re-entrant and went north on the other side to the control.

#3: straight, noticing a pile of rocks and the first tree along the way

#4: going north north east so to appear on the right of the control; then went left on the slope, crossed a few unmapped dry-ditches and found the pit

#5: up the hill to the west west north till I saw the upper part of the small re-entrant; then turned north to the control

#6: straight looking for the re-entrant

#7: down the re-entrants and used creek crossings as an attack point

#8: gradually descendend the slope so I reach the bottom further south, went over the hill right there and then went up the side re-entrant

#9: over the hill and then followed the slope to get to the control

And up the hill to the finish.
Spent 16:09 on this course and felt really bad and dizzy after the finish. The last sprint up the slope to the finish was definetely not needed.

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge.



It took me more than half an hour to catch my breathing and recuperate. I even conpemplated on not doing the second sprint but at the end decided just to take it easy and walk more. And so I did. Suprisingly the time for the second sprint wasn't bad either despite my walking and making one 90 secs mistake. At the end I felt much better after finishing the second sprint comparing to my condition when I was starting it.

Sprint B

#1: went south instead of weering to the east a bit more and overshot; didn't see the re-entrant forming (ir was very flat), but finally noticed that I was going unexpectedly up, plus I hit a trail which wasn't of the map. Stopped and decided that I overshot, so turned back and indeed saw the re-entrant right there.

#2: simply followed the slope

#3: down the re-entrant, walked over the hill; then walked uphill to the control

#4: crossed the re-entrant and walked up the hill, then ran in the same north west direction till I saw the rocks and control

#5: north east to the upper part of the re-entrant, then to the eastern corner of the hill (it was possible to see how the hill shapes out)

#6: straight down and up

#7: used the upper ground for a bit then gradually went down to the creeks crossing; followed the re-entrant then walked over the hill, noticed dry-ditches and took the control from there

#8: followed the left slope to the control. The control was on the ground, but the pit was not hard to find

#9: walked up the hill along the tiny re-entrant then followed the slope to the control

And the went accross the re-entrant and up the hill to the finish.
Ended up with 20:28.

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking.




Huge thanks to Josef and Joseph for making this extra event! It was great.

Results

Posted the results and short report: http://backwoodsok.org/07-12-2009-results-sprints-at-north-umstead

I guess I need to learn how to make sprints a bit easier... Don't know.