Sort of like mountain biking at night, orienteering in the dark is supposed to really increase your technical proficiency... the only problem is, its terrifying. Who is going to know where to look for your body when you run into a tree and knock yourself out and then the rabid coyotes of eastern Mass drag you off to their lair to eat you? Even chipmunks look menacing when you're running alone at night. Luckily around Boston, most of the parks where we orienteer have lots of trails, and are bounded by roads, so its hard to get really lost, and the trails give you a very nice feeling of safety. But in Pawtuckaway, where they host the wicked haahd night-o, well thats a different story. I was too scared to try it this year, maybe after enough urban night-o's I'll be confident enough to brave the bears and moose and attack badgers of Pawtuckaway.
CSU (the orienteering section) has been alternating street orienteering training with night orienteering recently. Last week, we were running on a map of MIT, I wasn't running hard or fast but I kept running into Lori, who was running hard and fast, and she was utterly confused until she figured out that I was cutting through buildings. Apparently, when she said "you can't go through the buildings", she meant, that's against the rules, not that it was impossible - because I definitely found many shortcuts...
Last night we were at Cat Rock Park, in Weston, and for the first time ever, I enjoyed myself thoroughly at a night-o! I was a little nervous about coyotes (why do things that don't scare you in the daytime make you shiver at night?), although some people might debate about whether or not there are coyotes in this area (there are), but it was cloudy, so the city lights were reflecting off the clouds and actually giving a fair bit of light to see by. This meant that in the open areas, you could actually move pretty quickly, and in a straight line to boot! My light isn't very bright, so most of my orienteering at night is pretty slow - like 12 minute miles slow - because I just can't see far enough to be able to simplify the map. I need to figure out a way to rig my mtb light to my head without a helmet.
Anyway, I caught up to Mark at number 2, and then threw away many minutes overshooting 4, caught back up to him on the way to 5 and we were together to 10. We overtook Ed on the way to 7 (which I also messed up, I kept trying to lose Mark, but its impossible to lose people at night because you can see their lights. It did occur to me to turn off my light so that he couldn't see me, but luckily I ruled that out as stupid early on). I kept trying to drop Ed, but it just didn't work. We lost Mark on the way to 12, taking a different (faster) route, and then I almost dropped Ed in a couple places, but each time he'd see me and sprint to catch up, and with a recovering ankle, there was no way I was going to run faster than my safe little trot, in the dark, off trail...
Anyway, we finished, everybody came out of the woods, nobody had gotten attacked by rabid deer (gotta look out for those aggressive suburban deer), nobody had broken a leg, poked out an eye, twisted an ankle, all these things that I am always SURE will happen when I run at night. I think I just moved one step closer to being comfortable with the scary darkness...
1 comment:
One time when I was a freshly minted mountain biker, I went out into the desert outside Tucson at dusk. I was riding back to the parking area when a large dog creater was standing in the trail staring at me, not far away. I stopped, wondered if it was a wolf or coyote. Then I heard something to my left and right. I was surrounded by coyotes staring at me. I was sure they were sizing me up for dinner. I pannicked and bolted. They ran with me, in front, to the sides and behind me. Thought I was dead meat for sure. I popped out at my car where a local woman was walking her small dog. I'm sure I was hyperventilating when I told her my story. She laughs hysterically. She said only if I was a cat out at night did I need to worry. The pack of coyotes were just having fun with me, maybe not much different than a pet wanting to go ride with you.
I've done a lot of night riding in eastern Mass and southern NH, often solo. It is quite spooky to see a large pack of eyes reflecting back out of the darkness at you. The coyotes are more currious than anything else. I got used to it after a while. The things that scare you the most are owls that fly off two feet from your head when you didn't know they were there. You about fall off your bike when that happens.
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