Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Qualifier for the knockout sprint at Flinders Uni. I obviously wasn't going to qualify (although I thought that last time I was here, too) and was happy to settle for just getting round a course feeling reasonably OK after last night's debacle. That more or less happened, although I was blown away for speed by the people I expected to be blown away by. Got the key routes right, I think.

Apparently a sign on the way in (I didn't see it) said Flinders was a 'top 2%' university, on unspecified criteria. Not sure if it's in the top 2% of Australian campus sprint venues but it's still well above the median.

Usually on these weekends you end up finding someone who's running on the same level as you. This time it seems to be the South Australian junior Leith Soden, who beat me today by the narrowest possible margin after being 15 seconds or so ahead of me in the night event. Comparing splits, he blew me away on the downhill legs at the end, confirming what I already knew - I'm not much good at stairs (in either direction) at the moment.

Mass start for those who weren't in a semi-final. To my less than overwhelming surprise, I was dropped immediately from a mostly junior lead pack, did the unconventional mass start thing of doing a different route on #1 to everyone else (seemed to come out fairly even), then settled into things. Once we were through the butterflies, got into a bit of a scrap with Tyson; another split separated us but we came through my second-last (his split meant he had an extra control to get) and I thought we were still pretty close. I hit the last control a few metres ahead, which I didn't think would be enough, and it wasn't. Don't think either of our finish splits would stand up against the sprint finishes in the actual semi-finals.

Another mass start on the final course. I wasn't sure how I'd come up after the break (which I spent doing not much; Dante found other ways to keep himself occupied between races), but it turned out more or less OK (probably a bit worse than the morning). Once again, fell off the main pack immediately and found myself in a three-way battle with my two main competitors from the two morning races. For the most part I was at the back of this group and I doubt I would have been able to win a running race, but I didn't need to because it was decided by the two route-choice legs at 13 and 14; Tyson took the sub-optimal option at 13, then Leith followed up at 14. (Martin Dent lost the A final on the same leg).

A good event, and good to be able to give people exposure to this format, before it starts getting run regularly at international level.