Training Log Archive: Charlie

Morning walk all around Wetzlar again, then off to Limburg for a walking tour and lunch. Very old town, very intricate. Fascinating architecture.

Then a drive past Koblenz and down to walk around Burg Rheinfels, supposedly the largest castle along the Rhine. Kind of interesting, but really more of an archaeological ruin than a castle, so a bit of a disappointment. Then back to our hotel in Boppard, and out for a walk we ran into Doug Henderson and his wife Maureen on their walking vacation. They are staying in a hotel the next block from ours. They were returning from the day's outing, 17K coming down from Vierseenblick at the end.

Rhonda and I were headed out that way, and walked up under the chairlift line to the top, which took about 3 times as long as walking down again.

Left Bad Harzburg mid morning, after a couple of golf course loops with Louise. Drove to Kassel, where we planned on lunch, but it was pouring rain, and we couldn't summon the energy for dealing with a city that size, so we pressed on to the old walled town of Fritzlar. Beautiful! The sun came out as we arrived, and we had a very nice lunch of salad and pfifflingen with pasta, and a walk throu the intricate paths and lanes and along the wall with its many towers from the 12th century.

The first sprinkles as we got back to the car, and then it poured again as we drove to our hotel in the old town of Wetzlar. Not quite as old as Fritzlar, but a little bigger and even more intricate. Once again the sun came out as we arrived and we walked all over the town, in and outside the walls. This would be a fantastic sprint venue, with narrow twisting alleys and stairs, and gardens and parks all around the outside of the walls. It is built on a hillside and quite steep. Our hotel at the top side and the great cathedral (Dom) nearer the bottom. Lots of lovely open plazas and outdoor cafes.

C • Sounds like a fabulous trip 6

Long final in M65-D. This was the nicest map and most fun running of the week. Very fast. Controls 1-9 were generally a series of gentle downhill running, followed by a short up to 10 and a long, steep climb to 11 and 12, then a long run in. Good visibility in the forest, and I was able to keep moving with confidence. Only control I didn't hit dead on was #4, where I was a line high, but checking downhill to be sure and saw it right away. I give myself credit for a spike on it because I had the #4 split on it in the group. From the splits I confirm that I was slow up the hill, and I am not a strong climber anyway, but first overall in the D final, and one of my best races ever.

I had 4 fastest splits, at 5, 9, 13 and the finish, and none worse than 9th. A lot of fun. Not as fast for 13 and the finish as Rick Worner was in his section, though.

I told Rhonda afterwards that if I ran like that more often I would like orienteering even more than I already do. She was a little alarmed at that prospect.

C • Nice Finish 7

LQ2 at Clausthal Ost. Starts a little after noon for me and Dennis, Rhonda and Louise staying home, relaxing and preparing for the party.

Not much in the way of info about where to go, but the area map indicates going W from the event center and eventually heading S. so we do that for a while and don't encounter any signs, and eventually we are heading out of the mountains and turn around. Head back to the event center, and now we have burned 50 minutes and missing our starts looks like a real possibility. Then back past town and headed S on 4 toward Braunlage, then W on 242 and eventually we see orienteers off on our right headed to the start. I offer to drop Dennis off, but he is not dressed, so we press on, past the assembly and on into town. We park, Dennis dresses and runs (his start is 1203), and I pack up my backup and start jogging. More or less 15 minutes to assembly, drop my stuff and a nominal 25 minute walk to the start from there. I get to the start with a few minutes to spare, sweaty tired and fogged glasses. There is a 10 minute per-start today, so time to calm down. The map is much nicer than yesterday.

Straight to 1, through flattish open woods, headed for a distinctive reentrant, so an easy leg.

Then across through yellow, a bit of fumbling, but ok for 2, then across the yellow area and through green to the yellow bit to spike 3. Hard work going through the field with all the drainage ditches to 4, but hit it right on.

Longer leg to 5, bearing a little right, crossing two rides and running parallel to the second one toward the depression. After a bit I crossed a stream where only a trail is shown on the map. Could I be someplace else? So I slowed down quite a bit, approaching carefully. I was in the right place, but it might have cost 30 seconds. Then 6 was easy, around the lake and the hill visible from a distance. Straight to 7, checking off a hill And pit with a flag on the way. Hard to find the control when I got there, a little further than I thought and tucked in. Off to 8, got sidetracked on trail, and then followed it down to the fence near 9 to make sure I knew where I was. At that point around on the road would have been good, but I tried to go straight. Hard to keep a line in the thick growth, and eventually bounced out to the road. Map really unclear there, with green, white and yellow not representative of what's on the ground. After quite a bit, back to the road to scratch my head and PG showed up, sized up the situation and headed east on the road. We dove back in and I found the hunter stand, which led us to the bag. At least a 6 minute loss.

A bit of a train on the short leg to 9. Trail along the dam top until the steep climb down to run along the ditch toward 10. Thought I was looking for a knoll for a while, but it turned out to be a depression. PG showed me a clean pair of heels here and I only caught a few more glimpses of him far ahead. Next 4 legs all short, on compass through easy running, even saw 13 from 100 m, which got me running faster.

Around right side of the pond to 15, on the bridge to cross the forbidden stream. I did see one guy leaping over it and scrambling the bank. Where are the DQ monitors when you need them?

Then a bad error on the short leg to 16, drifting far right where there was a big train, even though I knew I was going off line. Just dumb. 2 minutes.

And then it was a track meet for the last controls, including the 300+ meter dam crossing before the go control and the 200m + finish chute. Gritting my teeth for it, but losing energy. Not bad, 36th in my group, but not enough for the C final, dropping to the top of the D.

LQ1 on Ottofels map, same group M65-5 as Peter and Rick W, and a very similar course to Dennis's for group 6. Long and intricate approach to the assembly area. 45 minute drive to parking, then 15-20 minute walk to train station in Elend, wait for train, then steam train ride to Drei Annen Hohne. Finally a bus ride to the assembly. By the time we got there, Rhonda was in a high state of anxiety and eventually decided not to go out. Not that bad a decision. She would not have done well in the complex rocky area in the NW part of the courses.

And then off to run. Had my map upside down at the start, so a bit of confusion about why the track I wanted to follow was on my right instead of my left, but soon resolved. Sandy had warned me to seek trail routes, but certainly not easy to implement. Track to trail, then skirted E side of the marsh and headed north, slowly and on compass, looking for the hunter stand S of the control. The stands are big and very distinct, but I never saw this one, perhaps off a bit to the left. So I missed my control and on a bit further where I found Dennis's on a small cliff. A little difficult to relocate because the cliff was under the line from 1 to 2, but I found it and then headed back to mine. Down 2-3 minutes already. Then fairly straight to 2, checking off the SW end of the ride and the v shaped track on the way. Then the crux leg was 2-3, and it didn't go well. Trails to the junction with the first aid sign, then regrettably didn't follow the stream N which might have been safer. Instead straight across, seemingly on course, checking off streams to the N-S trail, 200 m to go. Pretty sure I was at the yellow patch S of the marsh. Shape was right, and then in, hitting a large E pointing rock feature at about the right distance. But which one? Then a long hunt, punctuated by a lot of sad looking men asking me where we were. At one point I found my #6, which gave me some confidence, since it was only 150 m away, but that only led me to find #64, which I found again 3 or 4 more times in my travels, from all the directions of the compass. Eventually headed uphill from there into a very well protected area of rocks and clambered in to punch. It seemed much longer, but probably only 12 minutes or so lost.

Then dropped another minute on the short leg to 4, examining the larger rocks on the S side of the circle. 5 and 6 ok, especially having been to 6 before. Then a little shaky on 7, but recognized the clearings near it and found it fine. Stitched together a long trail run to 8, using rides, clearings and trails, probably my best leg, and used trails well to 9, also successful. N of the line to 10, seeing the big green patch to my R, then the boulder, and hiring the ditches above the control, hesitated for a bit just because I didn't see the flag tucked in right away, but ok. Across to 11, fighting through a bit of green, and checking the end of the yellow before the trail. Heading into what should have been easy, but distracted by a flag on a similar feature to my right, and then 2 minutes of searching. Easy from there, although it seemed to take a long time to get to 12.

Pretty tired, but the adventure not over. Huge crowd waiting for buses. Much pushing and aggressiveness. Buses filled, but not leaving, and more buses lined up trying to get into the pickup area. We got separated from Dennis,many someone directed people to cross over and get in the waiting buses, but either they filled, or the drivers were not opening doors. Unwilling to go back and get I. The scrum, we walked back along the tracks to DAH, then waited for the train, and walked back to the car, where Dennis was waiting, having eventually caught a bus for the whole ride.

Exhausted. But a very nice dinner engagement with Angelika in town, and then very late to bed.

C • We got quite lucky. Left a ... 4

A stroll around the model map with Rhonda. Fairly crappy woods, map a bit iffy. Rhonda was quite intimidated by it. Of course, one should expect the model to be the worst map you will see. Highlight was a climb up Schnarcherklippe.

Then we had a very nice lunch at Waldbadschenke, near the train station in Elend.

Brisk hike up above our rental house. Feeling a bit twisted. I had an upper back spasm shortly after getting up. Now spasms also in L lower back and L glute.

C • Sprint Final? 5

Sprint final in the old town of Goslar. M65C. Went very well for most of it, until I took a long and ultimately unsuccessful route left on #9, and had to go back around and take the long (and as it turns out only reasonable) route to the right, at a cost of about 2:30. Rainy, a bit slippery, lots of runners going in all directions. Quite a fine time.

Event: WMOC 2012
 

WMOC sprint qualifier in Bad Harzburg. Really not my best work. Lots of mistakes, most small, one where I eventually had to go back to the prior control. There is just no explaining it. A fun course, though, and nice to see all my friends.

Jogging on path around the golf course, with a side trip down the hill into the sprint model area to visit a control site we went to yesterday. Today the flags are out.

Another trip around the sprint model map, with Rhonda.