I plan on racing in the 2005 December Chill ADventure Race on December 3, and wanted to get some practical, hands-on experience in navigation before heading to the East side of the state. In the past, I have been able to stay close to the leaders in adventure races until orienteering skills were tested. This is where I would fall far behind. Many of the top adventure racers that I have competed with have simply taken their time to look at the map…carefully…then plot a course and move seemingly straight to the control points. I, on the otherhand, would typically become impatient with plotting a course and start running in the general viscinity of where I THOUGHT the control point was located. As it turns out, this is NOT a good strategy. More time was wasted circling back and re-tracing footsteps, then actually moving toward the desired location. Bottom line: Spending a few minutes plotting an exact course to your destination will save you MUCH more time in the long run. A simple 1.5 km travel to the next checkpoint (as the crow flies), will turn out to be 3-4 km when poorly plotted or planned.

Last weekend, I traveled to Yankee Springs State Park to compete in a SMOC orienteering meet. They had 5 levels of difficulty beginning with “beginner” and moving up to “expert”. Because I have very little experience with orienteering, I opted to try the first three courses starting with the beginner course. I did very well on the first two courses because most of the checkpoints were located within site of a marked trail. The intermediate course (3rd course) took me quite a bit longer because I was up to my old tricks of simply looking at the map and running. I rarely used my compass, and that is what took me so long. As soon as I began to study the map closely, and recognize some of the clues, I came to the control points much quicker. I plan on returning to Yankee Springs to try out the expert course sometime next week. I’ll time myself, but will really spend the time to learn the symbols, clues, and details contained within the map guide.

I’m looking forward to learning much more about this type of racing.

Clermont, Florida…..home of the unofficial triathlon season opener for me for the past two years. To be racing in April, when you live in Michigan, is a wonderful feeling!

I arrived in Clermont shortly after 6 a.m., received my race packet, then began to set things up in the transition area. The temps. were very cool that morning (about 50 degrees), and the winds were howling (20-30 mph).

After a quick warm-up ride and run, I made my way to the start in Lake Minneola. The water was hovering at 69-70 degrees, so I felt better in the water than standing in the blowing wind. The lake was very choppy, so I felt the need to conserve a little energy for the first 2/3 of the swim. I saw Spencer Smith at the starting line looking like he wasn’t planning on conserving anything out there. As it turned out, he crushed the next closest competitor by over 8 minutes.

Sticking with my strategy, I took the swim conservatively and managed to come out of the water 22nd overall and roughly 3rd in my age group. Still, I felt that I should have pushed a little harder coming back into shore. I had a quick transition, and headed out onto the blustery and extremely hilly bike course. The sun started warming things up a bit, but it was still struggling to hit 60 degrees.

I have been working hard in the weight room this winter, which helped me with a very good bike split. Through the hills and wind, I nearly matched last year’sbike split set on a calm day. I managed to move into 1st in my AG and roughly 6th overall coming of off the bike. Since we started in heats, I wasn’t sure where everyone else was, so I just ran my planned strategy. My first mile was around 6:17, then a 6:10, then a 6:03 to round out the 3rd mile. I saved myself slightly until the last 2.5 miles of the run, then poured it on finishing the last two miles in around 5:50/mile.

Later, I found out how I had finished and was very pleased with the result. Mark Allen and his coaching staff have provided me with excellent workouts, and a solid strength training plan since February.

I feel that things are progressing nicely, and I’m looking forward to my first peak race of the season….the Sylvania Half Ironman on June 12! I’ll be racing the Borgess Half Marathon on April 30 - mostly as a training run - so look for another race report soon after that race as well