Training Log Archive: Mr Wonderful

SmartBlast Fast & Furious - 8th of 31 teams

Paddling canceled on account of sustained 30 mph wind w/ gusts to 50. That'd be one thing on an open lake in June; another on a chilly October morning.

I felt good at first, and was possibly first back with my easter egg hidden in a sand volleyball court. Struggled a little find #1, but got it and got on our way.

By the way, there are an incredible number of lazy asses who send their partner into stuff they can't see (100' max or visible, whichever is shorter) to save time and energy. LAME.

Then a short bike up to the O section. O section was not terribly complicated; points were easy to find and organizer thankfully added gps trails to the USGS map. Not so much route choice; I'd be surprised if anyone took any really crazy routes as the points didn't have much between them except trails.

Then onto the bike. Bike was a long shot up the Polly Ann trail. Struggled a little with the "outer loop" point on some paved trails - not familiar with system, and with no trails on the map - are there two loops around the lake? No, it's a system solely north of the lake. A couple oops moments in there before we just went around.

Then the last point at the end of the Polly Ann trail section tricked us. I thought it was further up a reentrant, but after flushing a half dozen deer, it clearly wasn't. So we continued further, thinking maybe the sub entrance was newer than the map, but a No Tresspassing gravel pit had us turn out. Turns out we were 20 meters short of the point, which was flagged but on the outbound side of a tree. Grr.

Then back down the Polly Ann trail. One point was in a "building", so when I saw a small 4x4 concrete object, I stopped and checked it out, finding the flag. I had to yell for Jeff to come back. I think others missed it as well, expecting something more substantial.

The final point was out by an electrical station. Trails were not mapped, and we didn't see the entrance to the railroad grade. We ultimately went to the road, spotted the grade, then reentered the area and found the entrance to the grade. When the grade became unridable, we dropped bikes and walked to the powerline, then followed it out to the tower with the flag. We punched it and hustled back, but missed Cooper by three minutes. Presumable he punched #22 when we were out on the road?

I felt fit enough during the foot o section, but was really dragging on the bike. I couldn't keep up with Jeff. ARGH. Maybe this will be the inspiration I need.

Truck broke down again. Car shopping is a PITA. Where's my tax refund, Feds? It's only been six months, interest free.

Hit snooze button too long for Hawaii 5-0, but did manage a Tosh.0. I really should be getting on the bike!

Event: SMOC Waterloo Rec HQ
 

SMOC Waterloo HQ

Upon arrival, the HQ felt very familiar, then I remembered that when my truck was broken down here in the spring, I stopped at the HQ for a beverage when I was biking the ~30 miles out to pick it up.

Well I had no huge, game ending mistakes, but two small costly errors. I guess that's improvement! I anxiously await the splits.

#1 - I appreciated the easier one out of the box. Took the trail down, past the junction, then cut straight south to it.

#2. I went mostly east, and slightly north, which was fine by me, just trying to string together the most opening running. Hit slightly north as planned, and then was aided by Alex punching it.

#3. Tried to vaguely run a bearing down to it, but stayed too much south and hit that swamp, so then I cut through that and was very slightly south, but it was visible when I got near it.

#4. Picked up the trail to the north, then took the lake trail, starting cutting in about one peninsula early, but just continued to it.

#5. Just tried to stay on the flat roughly along the bearing, then drift up when I hit the area near it.

#6. I was intending to end up slightly south, but I was amazingly accurately due east, so I walked right to it.

#7. I took the trails north, using the clearing to get to the road at the first trail bend. Then continued up the trail to the giant clearing, headed west, and cut a diagonal after the last green stripe. I cut in too early, and went too far west, so I looped over the top. Trying to avoid my situation at #10 last week, I decided to cut back to the trail and take another crack at it, as soon as possible. But then I stumbled on well worn grass, and followed that back. The perk of arriving at 1 pm! So a five ish minute loss here??

#8. Straightforward - I followed the trail to the north of that open area, then cut ESE after the third green stripe, and walked right to it. On the way back, I went more directly to the trail as I was starting to tire. It was hot today, and I'm just not in 10k shape like I should be.

#9. I took the trail along the top of the clearing, then stayed west when it broke south. I didn't do a good job of reading things, because I hit #9 before I was expecting it. I got confused by the number of trails - I think there are a couple new ones in this area??

#10. I was going to follow the heavy trail line, but decided to skirt around the elevation, so I went west of it between the hill and the out of bounds olive. I eventually picked it up at the junction where the road bends, and then followed that until it went back down, instead staying high, and counting off the gullies, and following the ditch to the point. I arrived about 5 meters west of the flag. Close enough for me!

#11. I bore NNW to the rock pile, then crossed the swamp there - great way to break in brand new shoes, by going through ankle deep muck. There may be a better way, but I don't know where it was. I should go back sometime and learn more about it.

#12. I recrossed the swamp, but slightly to the south. It was deeper here - I hit a spot knee deep, and a huge splash of mud hit the map. Luckily it mostly obscured the area east of #10, so I was able to follow trails to the area for #12.

Here was my most bone headed mistake - I looked for 12 in the circled # instead of the circle. In my defense, the circle was a bit little muddy to the northeast, thanks to my swamp crossing. #12 was trivial to find, once, you know, you went to the actual location.

Then I ran as hard as I could in - we'll see if that gets me a stage win for that. I was tired and it was hot.

C • Yes, splits to twelve are w... 3