Yesterday we had rain, with short breaks of sun. Today we had sunshine, with short showers. This meant dry socks!

The morning races were the Knockout Qualifiers (with a quarter final for the elite men).  We were placed into random heats with 6-8 people per heat.  The top three went through to the Semifinal; the rest of us went into the Consolation finals. My heat had two World Masters medallists, and two speedy juniors. No pressure.  I resigned myself to hanging off the back.

It was a very compact school, and the arena was right in the middle of it. It was clear there were no long run legs, so speed wasn’t a huge factor.  Once I’d gone up the first flight of steps and got myself oriented, I found the best technique was to follow the various covered walkways.  There weren’t too many obstacles apart from some fences and walls, and I found the map very readable. 

Things were complicated by having a pivot control which we visited three times.  On the second visit, I got careless, and didn’t run far enough before I started looking for it.  On the third visit, I was so focused on doing it properly, that I almost forgot to punch the previous control – the closest I’ve come to a mispunch all week!  As I did yesterday, I left it on a bad angle, and found myself heading towards a control I’d already been to.  It took a bit of time to adjust my route,  From there it was downhill across the grassy slope into the spectator control, back up the hill into the buildings, then down alongside the fence to the finish.  I was, of course, Knocked Out.

Pete had a good one and finished third; Ilze also had a good one and finished running up the chute, always a sign that she’s enjoyed it.  None of us got wet.

A quick stop home for lunch, and we were soon on the road again for our final event.  This was at another high school, and turned out to be quite similar to the morning venue – a tight campus with lots of canopies to follow, complicated by some multi levels, requiring careful choice of ramps and stairs.

The organisers had gone to some lengths to engage the crowd with a spectator-friendly arena.  An unexpected entertainment was watching people leap over the creek between the map boxes and the start triangle.  I took one look at the creek and opted for the perfectly legitimate, and far less embarrassing, bridge crossing.  That earned me a few cheers – and I didn’t lose any time at all.  Others followed my example.

From the end of the bridge it was through a covered walkway and into the maze. Again, we were confronted by numerous stairs, and walkways in all directions.  Everyone in my consolation final had the same map, but the leaders had already dashed off while I was still figuring out a feasible route to no 1.  I was going to have to navigate on my own rather than try and catch the pack.

This was my cleanest run of the weekend, with no errors.  Again, it was clearly readable, and I found myself able to make route choices on the run, instead of standing still or moving slowly.  Once again, the final control presented a route choice of a creek leap or a flat run across a bridge.  No prizes for guessing my preference!

The elite Knockout races were fantastic to watch – in particular the semi finals threw up some really close racing and some incredible efforts.  Only the top two from each SF go into the Final.  One unfortunate runner was in second place at the last control, but he slipped on the turn, and was overtaken while getting to his feet.  He tried his hardest and came close, but couldn’t quite make up the gap.  We all groaned in sympathy.

All in all it was an exciting, entertaining day.  The organisers had given themselves a mountain of work, but they pulled it off. I was just glad not to be one of them for a change. We left happy.

Home, packing, and takeaway for dinner as we have eaten the fridge bare. Tomorrow – we fly.