Here is my Susquehanna Local Event map.

DVOA's first regular event was on a map called Susquehanna. I think the map is a joke -- the veg is wrong, the contours are overgeneralized, and some trails are new/missing. Its like running a rogaine at O pace. Also, a pair of controls seemed off, tho both only by a few meters (the second one, #10, was also 2 lines off, which made it a bit of a lottery). I think DVOA needs to consider taking this map out of the rotation, and not bother updating it unless it can be updated to an IOF quality map.

I generally have done poorly in these sorts of conditions, but did well on this day. Knowing the warts of the map helped, tho a couple times I was thrown by the contour and veg picture.

The course setting was decent, with route choice rather than navigation being set. My only complaint was leg #8, which was a joke -- thick brambles all the way, and a warning about a hostile landowner which we had to stay out of sight of, not just off his land.

In response to my interval training, I got this note from a reader training at the Latvian national team level. Thanks much!

1. There is no reason why you couldn't run intervals in the park, interval training is not supposed to be a track training, just the opposite, I have been runiing many interval trainings in terrain, deliberatelky avoiding paths.

2. You should indeed make your intervals shorter because it is close to impossible to run hard for four minutes. I recommend running something like this: 10 minutes warm-up and then repeat such a cycle for four times: 1 minute hard, 45 seconds rest, 2 minutes hard, 45 seconds rest, 3 minutes hard, 1 minute rest, 3 minutes hard, 45 seconds rest, 2 minutes hard, 45 seconds rest, 1 minute hard. 5 minute jog in between such intervals is recommended.