Andrew Schrauben

Today I went for my weekly "long run", although usually I run those on a weekend.  It was just 30 degrees F and somewhat windy, so I wore long underwear and my long trekking pants.  I also carried my hydration pack with 2.5L of Accelerade, which I was trying for the first time.  My legs feel pretty good so maybe that stuff works, but it sure tastes nasty!

I set out from home and headed for Seidman Park, since Amanda was going to meet me there so that she could try some of the orienteering course that I had run on Sunday.  It was an 11.4 mile run out to the park.  The first four miles I felt awfully slow, but then I found my groove and ran a nice, steady ten minute pace all the way until mile 10, where I called Amanda for her cue to suit up and drive out to meet me.  After I got off the phone my legs felt rather tired (I walked while talking) and it didn't help that the last 1.5 miles were all uphill!  But I finished in 2:16, not too bad for a cold, windy day.

Amanda showed up about five minutes later and we each ate a stick of string cheese while I changed into my hiking shoes and put on a coat.  When I ran the o-course (orienteering course) two days earlier, orange and white flags marked each point.  Those markers were only there for the GRAAR event, however, so there would be no flags today.  The plan was for Amanda to carry the map and compass and do ALL of the navigation while I tagged and along and merely verified that she had found the correct location where the flags used to be.  Amanda loves to navigate with the compass and keep it simple - follow the bearing.  She was walking pretty fast and my 11.4-mile-old legs were struggling to keep up.  Sure enough Amanda hit every CP right on except for one, where she missed by only 50 feet.  She was quick to point out that she nailed CP2, which my team had struggled to find earlier! 

After an hour we had found the first five CPs and were getting hungry, so we nav'ed back to the parking lot and headed out for lunch at Noodles & Co.  Mmmmm!!!  I had leftovers so I can eat that when Amanda eats her leftover chinese food from dinner last night near Kalamazoo with friends.