Training Log Archive: JanetT

Walk to start of middle course at Cle Elum/Salmon La Sac, advertised as 1.1 km, 140 m climb. Went early because I wasn't sure how far it was or how long it would take, so we had about 30 min wait. Temp in upper 60s (got up to 80 by the time I finished).

Time is NOT my total on the course, just the good part.

First part of the middle/brown course. I did FINE up through control 10, then blew up. Good routes through the not-so-great woods, concentrating on reading the terrain. Didn't use my compass as much as I should have but did use it to leave the controls in the right direction.

The rest of the course. I never found # 11.

Part of my problem was that I don't pace count and hadn't checked my time/distance from # 10. I actually thought I'd gone too far when I turned down a likely spur.

I checked just about every other piece of rock in the general area north of my control, but (based on my Forerunner track and OGPS, to be loaded later... maybe...) I never did go far enough, or actually high enough.

After not finding 11 for the longest time I decided to have my first Ameet dnf and bailed to the trail to finish. Didn't find 12 and 13 along the way, either.

Tomorrow is another day. :-)

[I think was actually on a pretty good pace to place pretty high on brown if I'd done the course correctly.]

Matt & Brittany's wedding

Sprint 2 (F50) near Sno Park in Cle Elum. On the walk to the start we had to cross a stream, but before getting to the stream crossing I managed to fall over some downed log/sticks and arrived at the start with scraped knees and hands -- silly me.

Not all times were posted before we left (we started at 6:40 and hadn't checked in or eaten yet!), but I was about 1 minutes ahead of Clare; 3 min. behind Tatyana; the 2 F20s whose times were up were faster. No F50s posted at that time.

Did a 180 out of # 5 (45 sec), poor route to # 10 with no attack point (2-3 min?), and overran # 11 (45 sec), not reading the vegetation very well. It was a woods sprint, and I think one of the keys on sprint 2 was to use the trails as much as possible, which I did for many of them, but didn't go far enough on # 10 to have a safe attack off a fence corner. Sprint 3 (Red/Blue) apparently stayed farther away from the trails.

Now that we have internet service (well, slightly; it doesn't quite reach our room at the moment, so I may have to move my computer to the lobby) I might post more about what we did Wed through today, and upload more photos. It was nice that the skies cleared up enough today that we could see the mountains (tops were shrouded yesterday and it was rainy the day before) including Mt. Olympus. :-)

Salmon Run Sprint 2 - Splits

Got up early to get to Second Beach near La Push at low tide (actually, a super low tide at 2.8' below mean). Saw tons of orange and purple sea stars, and whelks, anemones, barnacles, mussels, and a few limpets, in and around the tide pools there. The driftwood on the beach is something to behold, with bleached logs up to 5' in diameter in places. We have a photo of an extra-large 'rootstock' that I'll get posted eventually. :-)

Went to Rialto Beach to walk to the Hole in the Wall, a natural arch in a seastack near the beach. Because the tide was near high, we had to climb over the headland for a better view of the arch. Saw cormorants, but no seals or eagles or whales. :-)

From Vancouver we headed towards the ocean and stopped at Ruby Beach, and the Hoh River valley and rainforest trails. Though it showered a little on the drive, it was dry in the temperate rainforest, May-July being the low-rainfall months there. :-)

Strolled on beach and trails, 1.5 mi or so at Ruby Beach, and 3.5 mi at Hoh River valley.

Event: WCOC BBQ, Sprints, Meeting at DeWeese Farm
 

Green long course on Gold Rush Hills map, Idaho City, ID, temps in upper 40s to mid 50s at our early starts (just after 9 am).

Good routes to 1 and 2, then apparently did well to 3 -- others I talked to had trouble, I think trying to follow the beeline. I went slightly left of the line and hit a trail junction and was able to figure out which junction it was.

Twisted my left ankle (again!) in a pothole in a field on the way to 4; sat for 30 seconds, got up and hobbled for a minute or so, and then continued, but not reading terrain well. I hit the stream bed beyond the control, corrected back to a trail, and followed it to closer to the control (by which time there was another runner heading in).

Good routes to 5, 6, and 7; at 8 I dropped a contour too low on the wrong side of a thicket (but did well reading which spur to descend). Lots of ups and downs to 9; climb to road for 10. On the way in to 10 started hearing a sound that didn't quite sound like cows -- turned out there were several hundred SHEEP in the 200m between the stream and my control in a little reentrant, including one no more than a dozen feet away. I saw a person (shepherd?) and a border collie on my way out. Glen also had that control, though much earlier in his course, and had also seen the sheep.

CLIMB to the next control; I took the wrong reentrant and ended up even higher (a couple of contours and several hundred meters away) than I needed to be on a spur NE of my reentrant -- ugh. And then I visited the finish before the go control which was 60 m away up the reentrant. Still managed a first place (of 3 on F50) finish, 20 or so minutes ahead of Ardis and Sally Dow.

Then we started our drive across Oregon, finishing up just north of Portland in Vancouver, WA for the night. We're skipping the mid-week O days.