Orienteering on Newcastle Island

After Sage Stomp, I had a busy but good week. I got lots of errands and work done, got in some good training, kicked Gary's ass on the road bike, you know, all the usual things. :)

So, by the time the weekend hit, I was ready for some great but tough orienteering up on Newcastle Island which is just off of Nanaimo. However, on the Saturday morning, I was greeted with a flat tire on my car. Luckily, John, a friend and fellow orienteer, was also going up to the events and just got my message from the previous night. As one of my lugnuts was seized and thus, I couldn't remove the wheel, John came by and picked me up.

A short ride and ferry crossing on the 'harbour pickle' ferry and we arrived. The weekend is put on by the Victoria Orienteering Club and consists of two courses; one on Saturday and on Sunday. There were four categories to race in ranging from beginner to advanced and the winner in each would have the best combined time between the two days.

My main competitor for the weekend was Thomas Nippen, a very skilled and fast orienteer who trains with the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club. I think in all of the orienteering events that I have done, I have never been able to beat Thomas even in a fun training event. So, I had some stiff competition.

DAY 1

After a nice warm-up run, Thomas and I worked out that he would run first and I would leave him a good time buffer so that we wouldn't overlap in our course. Starting closely behind someone is definitely an advantage since you can shave off course time if you manage to catch the person who will be giving away some route choices and control locations simply by their presence. However, since I don't particularly like to follow at all, I wanted to leave a big enough buffer that I would be on my own and allow myself to make all my own decisions. Thomas left the start and once I arrived I started in with an 8 minute buffer which I thought would be more than enough.

While I won't describe the whole course, I will say that I had one of my best runs ever. I was really focused, raced extremely smart, and was just dialed in on the map. One of the things that helped me was in the warm-up, Thomas gave me some great tips that were particularly relevant for this terrain. Since the bush is so thick with salal in areas, you are forced to really slow down which gives you an aerobic rest and time to read the map. So, once you hit any open areas or trails, you need to book it as hard as possible to gain time. This was an awesome tip since, in the past, I would really tend to work out my route on the trails and slow down. While slowing down on the trails can still be useful in certain terrain to take in the map, it's not the way to go if the bush is rough.

Everything was just going well and once I got to Control 9, I had Thomas in my sights! I couldn't believe it! I had almost gained 8 minutes! I pushed hard to the next control and finally caught him. From here, it was a push to control 11 and 12 and then into the finish. Thomas managed to pull away going to control 12 due to a slightly longer but easier route choice, but I was still super happy to run in just behind him and take 1st place.

Day 2


Day 2 did not go nearly as well for me. At the beginning of the course, Thomas and I both agreed that we would do a chase start; Thomas would start 8 minutes after me so if he caught me and finished first, he would win the weekend overall. I agreed and headed out on the course first knowing that he would be pushing hard behind me for the win. I hit the first control bang on but then had trouble locating the second control. I didn't feel quite as dialed and also made the mistake of not picking suitable 'attack points'. 'Attack points' are features that are close to the control that you navigate to first and then 'attack' the control by that known feature. Instead, I used the 'I'll just run into it' technique on a couple of controls which just never works well. I had another similar mistake at control 6 and coming out of control 7, I made a location error which took me on a much less preferred line that the one I had intended. At this point, I had made enough mistakes that I knew that Thomas would be right behind me.
I came into control 9, punched, and was just 30 feet away from the control when I saw Thomas coming. Shit. I knew that he had me then. From here to the trail was thick salal and while Thomas seemed to follow me at first, he started to pick his own line and was soon out of sight. I got to a trail, put on a hard push, and then only to blow it by again not attacking the control well (I was looking for a rootstock in a sea of many). I eventually found it, knew that Thomas was way ahead of me by now, and slowly picked off the last controls.
Lesson 500,000,000 (same as almost all my previous lessons): never give up or slow down
I came into the finish and Thomas was nowhere to be seen! Apparently, he missed the control that he saw me at, went all the way to the trail, and had to go back in. This was a big mistake and while he still ended up with a better time for the day, I ended up having the best combined time for the weekend!
Thanks very much to Richard and the Lay family, to Alan Philip, and to everyone who helped make Newcastle another successful weekend. Hope to see you there next year!
TNO

Sage Stomp 2008

This past weekend, Kim and I headed up to Kamloops with the Lay family to get in some nice open forest orienteering that surrounds the area. This would be my second time at Sage Stomp and it will definitely not be my last.

We had our first camping trip of the year and it was a great one. We stayed a Lac Le Jeune Provincial Park which is just adjacent to the Stake Lake cross country ski area where the sprint and middle distance events would be held. The weather was overcast on Saturday but it was still very warm with enough UV getting through to give a good tan. Here's how it all went for me.

Sprint Distance:
Course: 2.5 km (straight line)

Chris Koch Sprinting out of the control

I started out doing well but once I hit an area of the map that was a little confusing, I got out of the map, relocated myself as quickly as I could, and then found the control. While it wasn't a huge mistake as far as mistakes can go, I did lose about two minutes here which is a huge loss in a sprint distance event. The rest of the course went well although the next two controls after the mistake cost me time since my confidence was down and I started to hesitate moving into the next controls. There is a certain amount of gumption that you gain while orienteering and any mistake will lower this. If you make too many of them, or if your mistake is large, this can lead to a downward spiral of mistakes and a complete loss of gumption. In the end, I came in at 18:16 which was good enough for 5th place. Had I not made the one mistake, I would taken at least 3rd or close to 2nd. Thomas Nippen cleaned up the course in around 15:00 to take 1st.

Eric Bone working the sprint course

Middle Distance:
Course: 5.1 km (straight line)

Benoit re-orienting himself in the middle distance

The middle distance start was right in the same area as the sprint which made the logistics easy and made for some good socializing. I didn't start this course as well as the sprint and ended up making some mistakes in the same area that I had trouble with in the Sprint. After talking with several people after the event (with some who had big mistakes) it was confirmed that the area in question needed some reworking on the map since not all of the features were mapped; or the ones that were needed some reworking. I definitely had a loss of gumption in that area and took awhile to regain it. The main section of the course involved some detailed orienteering in some good open runnable forest. It was also very easy to get out fo the map. I did ok in this section but did have some bobbles which cost me some time in the end. Close to the end, I choose a straight line bushwack over a longer trail run which was a mistake due to the density of the bush that I had to go through. I finished with a time of 47:40 which again put me in 5th place.

Long Distance:
Course: 13.2 km (straight line)
This was the longest course that I have ever done! It was also the course setters longest ever designed course which says a lot since he has done many many course in his time. The map that we were on was in Grasslands Provincial Park which is a combination of open grasslands and nice open forests. Sweet!

Kim and Rima naving together through some nice forest

I knew that the area was highly detailed with many subtle features so I started out on the slower side and also tried to pace myself as I was in for a good ~15km run with lots of elevation. The first two controls went fairly smooth but then everything fell apart at the 3rd control. My control description that I had on my armband showed that the control was supposed to be at the top of a knoll (small hill feature). I naved very well right into the feature, got to the top, looked around, and could see nothing. From here I proceeded to check every other knoll in the area. Again, no control! I relocated to a distinct boulder, naved in again and ended up on the same knoll that I was originally on! F!%$! I eventually stumbled on the control which was in a small reentrant. At this time, my gumption was about gone to the point that I almost quit. I later found out that the control had been changed and that the control description that was printed on the map was in fact the correct one (my control description on my forearm was incorrect). While this sucked as it screwed up my race and added a good 6 minutes to my time, I'm glad that I kept going.

They need to make the control stands taller for me!

The rest of the race went well with only small mistakes being made here and there. Orienteering is really a sport that is impossible to perfect; you could always have done better. That being said, the more you do it, the smaller and smaller the mistakes become and the easier it is to relocate yourself. I've made it to the point now where I'll still make small mistakes but can now recover quickly by a quick relocation to get me back on track.

While I had the issue with control #3, I was still able to take 5th place in a time of 2:04:10.

For those of you who missed out, you'll have to wait till next year! It was a great weekend and the events were great. Thanks to everyone who helped in making the events happen!

On another note, the Sage Orienteering Club is going to be putting on a 24 hour Rogaine either in July or September. This is going to be an absolutely amazing event and held in a similar area to Grasslands Provincial Park. For those of you who have never done a Rogaine, I would highly recommend it! The format is one where you do as much as you want so you can take an extended break at the hash house, or push through the night to get as many controls as possible. This is also a great intro to those looking to do a longer adventure race as it puts you into the night and is much easier to do (limited gear required and a low price point). I will keep people updated on this. Please let me know if any of you are interested.

TNO

MOMAR Squamish Race Report

First, I must apologize for being such a lame blogger lately. My work schedule has been busy and the amount of spare time that I have had lately has been pretty slim. In the last couple of weeks, I have participated in some great orienteering events including the Camp Thunderbird 3 hour Score-O that I did the course design for. The event went on without a hitch and everyone loved the control placements and the multiple route options that were available. Click here for the results.

I was really looking forward to the MOMAR Squamish race although I was a bit hesitant on how I would do on my legs as I have had to take a good deal of time off running due to my subluxed cuboid in my foot. I'm sure both Gary and I were a bit nervous as well as we were the defending champions from 07 and knew that a few select teams would be out to push us to the limits. Our main rivals at the start line were none other than Justin Mark and Jeff Reimer of Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island. While we outraced them in the Suburban Rush only a couple of weeks prior, we knew that the hilly course with lots of technical riding would be to their advantage. We also knew that with an early navigation section in the race, that they would do what they could to trail us through the checkpoints and then try to drop us on the bike.

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I was exited about a completely new course and the Le Mans start provided for an interesting start. After a quick hop on the bike and gruelling climb, we headed into the navigation section with no less than four teams all hanging together and waiting for us to make a move. Both Gary and I had expected this although we weren't completely sure how we were going to shake everyone. Gary suggested pushing really hard to drop everyone but with other strong racers present, I figured that everyone would still hang on. Once we hit a point in the road where I knew we wanted to head into the bush, I started to hesitate and waited until a good moment. At this point, Shane and Garth of Pain is Temporary led out the pack as they are decent navigators and were confident in their route. I briefly looked at Gary and in seconds we were out of sight. We found out after the race that both Justin and Jeff had tried to follow us once they knew what had happend and literally thought that we were hiding in the bush since they didn't think that we could have gone too far! I had a few bobbles with a couple of controls but otherwise picked off the controls well. We came out of this section in first place but knew that there was a lot of course left and to keep going strong. In the end, we ended up putting less than five minutes on Justin and Jeff as they managed to hook up with Bart Jarmula (an excellent navigator) who lead them through the course. Cudos to course designer Jen Segger-Gigg who planned out the course so that all controls were easily accessible from the trail but bushwacking would be the quickest way to clean the course; this is how it should be done!

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The bike sections of the race were really the determining sections as the trails were very technical and a good rider could put in huge time over those who were not as confident. I've been riding a Ti hardtail for quite some time now and while it has treated me well, I knew that the downhill sections of the course were going to punish me. I was planning on having a new 29er dually from Niner bikes ready to go before the race but due to a delayed frame shipment, it was just not meant to be. I was doing well at the top of the downhills but once I hit the Powerhouse plunge, my legs were just starting to seize from not being able to sit down on any technical section which is about everything. When we got close to the bottom of the plunge, my loss of muscle control let my front wheel fall off one of the many plank bridges, it dug into the dirt, and I endo'd pretty bad. I was lucky that I didn't hit any rocks, got up as quick as I could, and continued to ride; albeit I was pretty shaken up and it took awhile to get my focus back. This section definitely slowed us down.

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It wasn't further down the course while climbing Fartherside that Justin and Jeff managed to catch us. They were looking strong, passed us, and then I just tried to hang on. Again, the rough trail sections, especially the part of the trail that is a cobble strewn creek bed, really slowed me on my hardtail and I just could not keep up. While I won't say that the race outcome would have been different had I had a different bike, I will say that it definitely taxed me over the brutal Squamish course and I'm sure that I would have been able to put in a better time and been fresher during the second trek. To me, it was the main limiting factor for my performance for this course.

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We started the second trek and exchanged leads with Justin and Jeff several times. We actually got to the rappel site first but had some bad luck as our rope was extremely slow. Both Gary and I had to literally feed the rope through the ATC with two hands to be able to move at all. When we finally got off the ropes, we had lost some good time and tried to make it up on the run back. Justin and Jeff put in a solid effort at this point as we were pushing hard to catch up but we just could not get them back in our sights. As we approached the bikes, they were just leaving. We had a sloppy transition and I spent time taking in fluids as both of us forgot to pick up water off the bikes at the beginning of the trek and were both dehydrated. Stopping to hydrate cost us additional time and this was a huge mistake on my part as we knew that the race time was dwindling away. Nonetheless, we pulled out, put in a strong ride but were greeted at the University finish area with Justin and Jeff running up the final climb to the finish as we got to the bike drop. They were so close!

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While it was hard to see Justin and Jeff take the line and Gary and I take second, it was good to see Justin finally take an overall win after years of racing and never quite getting there. To me, it was the hardest MOMAR yet mainly due to the additional time on the legs (no paddle stage) and the huge elevation gain over the course. Both Gary and I took home a lot of lessons that I'm sure will make us both better racers over the long term.

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Thanks to Bryan for putting on yet another successful event, to Jen Segger-Gigg for putting together an awesome course, and of course to all of the volunteers who truly make the event happen!

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See you at Shawnigan Lake!

TNO