As is traditional, the Friday of the Australian Easter carnival was part of a four day cumulative time event for the elite runners, but a stand-alone event for the rest of us.
The elites ran first.
We arrived at the oval of the University with plenty of time for our courses, but the finishers were already starting to arrive by the time we found a spot with the other SA people on the stepped side of the oval with a view out across the finish chute.
Two 6mx3m shelters joined together long-ways gave plenty of space for spectators and results if the weather turned bad (which it didn't). Two finish teams on either side of the finish chute past the finish control were in place, as well as the registration tent. Anyone attending today who didn't get to pre-register the previous day needed to check in here and pick up chest numbers.
It wasn't long before we heard that Angus was close to the finish, so I hurried over with my camera to the final control (the flag and control stand was in front of a metal sculpture of Tamanian tigers (Thylacines).
He was too fast and I only got a shot of his back running full pace down the finish chute. As it turned out, for some reason today most of my action photos, which usually go really well on this camera, were blurry, so very few survived. This meant that I spent a lot of time alone watching finishers punch the final control with very little benefit to show for it.
I was particularly keen to capture a shot of Alyce, who has just moved to this Uni to study, for her Mum, who wasn't here. This was one of the few shots which worked!
Nick Dent was on the microphone, so we were treated to a pretty good commentary as we waited for the finishers. It was quite a long wait for our older elites to appear, and I got into the groove and nearly missed my own start waiting for them. Luckily the start was not too far away and I actually made it with plenty of time to spare.
The starts were at 30 second intervals, with written instructions about what needed to be done at the next step.. (in 30 seconds, when you hear the next long beep, move forward and collect your control descriptions).
There may have been something written somewhere, but there didn't seem to be any instruction to follow the pink tape up and around the corner and across the car park to find the start triangle, which did cause a little confusion. Personally, I sorted that out OK, but did allow myself to be quite rattled by the fast and structured start, and took a while to figure out my map orientation and plan my leg to the first control through some fairly complex areas.
I messed up the leg from 8 to 9 , choosing the fastest choice (the paths through the green) but going wrong at the junction near the clearing, and heading along the track which went north-east, instead of the one to the north-west. I then had to navigate back though the bushland, and wasted about 2 minutes with this mistake. Trevor, on the same course, messed up 14-15.
Trev placed 32 of 70 runners
Erica placed 34 of 71
SA had some good results and lots of juniors running elite courses and getting some great experience.
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