Umstead Park, Raleigh, North Carolina
April 9, 2006

One thing I've seen in the South, but not around the Midwest, is a peculiar hazard in the woods: It's basically a hidden hole in the ground, but it's not from a groundhog or a prairie dog. It's the rotten root of a tree, where the wood has been eaten away by wet ground, rain, heat, and probably insects or something microscopic like bacteria or fungus. They're undetectable until you step on them, and then you sink in. A man at the Day 1 start said he'd ripped ligaments in his knee because of these hidden holes.
I had the most trouble with them when I was walking—At running pace I could feel them giving way and just float over them by taking sort of a stutter step. Did anyone get hurt by these things?

It was a little cold waiting around before the start, but I took my jacket off at the last minute, something I find really hard to do, and was only cold for about 2 minutes. It was a bright, sunny day, with a completely blue sky.

After my problems with underrunning on the 2m course, I planned to just attack the transmitters, and not lay back and wait. My number one goal was to get the order right. When I got my map , 10 minutes before the start, I could see that the start and finish were in the middle of the map, with areas to the north and south for transmitters. Since the finish was to the north a little, it was obvious that I should go south out of the start corridor.

When I started, it was over a minute down the corridor, and since you're not allowed to stop to plot bearings in the corridor, I did as much as I could to check the bearing for 1 and remember it before it went off. Since 2 was about halfway done when I cleared the corridor, I plotted it first, then 1. 1, 2, and 3 were to the north.  My bearings for 1, 2, and 3 were basically identical. Since I had already committed to south it was reassuring when 4 and 5 came on and...were to the south. No surprises there.

Looking at the map, I decided to run down 5 and then run along a stream toward 4, allowing a good cross bearing, and avoiding the up-down-up-down getting to 4.

I got 5 in 18+ minutes (a little slower than Bob Cooley), and then 4 about 15 minutes later. I was really happy with these two times. I didn't stop to wait, I just kept moving and was really close when they came on right in front of me. (Well, I did delay about a minute for 4).

From 4, I needed to get to the north half of the map, and the best-looking way was about 2km along a public road. If I had one criticism of the course, it was making this road such a good route choice. I like orienteering in the woods or on trails. The one redeeming penalty of the road, though, was the powerlines. About 3/4 of the way up the road (uphill a bit), I realized the powerlines were affecting me—I had no null. I switched to tone mode and checked for peaks, and was able to find the peaks (for 1, 2, and 3), and plot them, but I was really worried—I plotted them because I had no cross bearings, and I needed something. Again, because I'm now M40, I had to skip number 2, but I still wanted to know where it was.

As I came up the road, I was looking for a way back into the park—There was a park boundary line, and most of the obvious ways in involved crossing private land. The best looking route for avoiding private land was to go straight off Ebenezer Church Road through a little wedge of private forest.  There weren't houses there, so I figured it would be the best way to avoid being seen.  But!, it also looked slower, so the way I chose went right past a bunch of houses, straight off the paved road, though a yard, and into the park along a powerline.

I was hoping Charles and Nadia prepared the owners—In the last few years, I've heard several stories of controls too close to private land that involved owners with firearms and complaints to the police. Some countries have laws that allow people to pass through private land, but not America.  It's always a little scary.  I was wearing a bib number, and O'Clothes with reasonably matched colors (red, white, and blue, no less), and I decided it was safe enough to just go for it. In the end, I don't think anyone even saw me.

As I neared the end of the road, 2 came on off to my left. I might have gotten it within a cycle, although as you can see on my map, my bearings were terrible. (See "Best Guess for 2")  Those powerlines, again!

I knew I needed 3 next, and then 1 last. My crossing for 3 was about 200m past the road, actually on the powerline, but I expected that to be wrong because of the powerlines. It was—about 700m and 4 cycles wrong. The first cycle I stopped too soon (stood around about a minute), so I kept moving through the second cycle. Near the end of the third cycle, though, I was heading downhill, and I didn't want to have to climb back up, so I delayed for about 2 1/2 minutes. Luckily, my gut was right, and it was behind me. I missed it by about 30 or 40m the first time by. (And when I say 4 cycles, I mean basically 15 minutes.)

Up to this point, I was in pretty good contact with the map. One thing I've learned about Radio Orienteering is that there is so much to do that you can lose contact to a level beyond normal orienteering. That's what happened to me here, although it didn't hurt me very much.

I knew the general area for where I was, but I had no solid fix. As I headed for 1, I couldn't find anything to let me relocate. I got turned 30 or so degrees really close to 1, and I missed it by a long way the first time by. Emily DeYoung ran by me like she wasn't interested in finding 1, so I figured she got it the last cycle. I probably should have turned around and ran, but I walked back looking for it. When it came on, I got it quickly.

Again, I wasn't really sure where I was (it was between two possible locations), but I planned a route that would get me there regardless. I did mess it up by about a minute, at the end of which I knew where I was. This last section was a pretty nice leg by regular orienteering standards. I like that.

When I finished, I knew I only had a few cycles of mistakes—maybe 10 minutes. But I was worried about the uphill road route because I wasn't able to run all the way—I did about half walking. I knew it was going to be close.

When I downloaded, Gyuri had beaten me, and had gotten all five faster than Vadim, the fastest M21. Gyuri was wearing a neck brace, and he wasn't supposed to be running. He said he ran really slow. Apparently, really slow for a world champion is about 30 minutes faster than my best effort.

I have real problems with 80 meters. I need to work on running at a control during the minute it's on, and then getting a good bearing to follow before it goes off. I think I was generally sloppy for 3 and 1, when I was more tired.  And I say that taking into account the problem with the powerlines.  Because I had no reliable crossings for 1, 2, or 3, the last half of the course was like a 2m course—Just run it down when it's on.  (And I'd also point out that most of the powerlines along that road aren't mapped, so I really can't fault Nadia.)

The only long-range bearing that was really off was for 1.  Maybe I’m getting better at the long-range bearings…

I have been running with only a map bag, but I decided to use a map board for this due to the penalty for getting the order wrong in a long course like this. I hate hate hate navigating with a map board. It's impossible to thumb the map, so I expend time looking for my location every time I look at the map. Other people use push pins, and leap frog them as they move.

I decided to avoid drawing long bearings across my map, although I did once or twice. I find that my eye places too much emphasis on the long line, and too little emphasis on the generally more accurate "up-close" bearings. I drew most of the lines just over 2cm long—the length of my thumb compass straight edge.

After the grueling course on Saturday, I was sure I was going to be out-of-gas, but I wasn't. I did walk more than I'd like, but the course setting for the OCIN Flying Pig really gave me a good endurance base (not that I don't need more).

I ended up second, about 30 minutes behind Gyuri, and 15 minutes or so better than Dave D'Epagnier in third. I think being aggressive, and not underrunning is responsible for most of that 15 minutes.

My goal was to lose 10 pounds by this event, and I didn't meet my goal. I was down 7 pounds during the event, but I seem to have gained back a pound... I'm still planning to be 20 pounds down by September.

Finally, the woods and map were great, and, again, Nadia and Charles did a great job both course setting and the event organization. (And I didn't see a tick the whole time!)