Middle Final

Well today was a very exciting day all round with some good and not so good results, but a lot was learned and everyone is keenly awaiting the long. So long as it isn't as hot as today was. The day started with Simon and Scott setting off into the bush forst. Both confident they would nail their 2.3km course in the C final, with Jack, Tom and I staring soon after. Unfortunately it wasn't to be for Jack and Scott however Simon managed to "flop it out" and came in with a very impressive 5th place. in the B final Tom also made a few mistakes and ended up around the middle of the field. For the girls, those of us in the B final managed to make it through our course. Georgia, Angela and Tessa all made a few too many mistakes and were disappointed with their results. However I think with such a strong field of girls this year and in unknown terrain they are all doing incredibly well, especially Angela and Georgia for their first JWOCs. I managed to have a relatively clean run after I restarted myself at #4 and managed to come in 2nd place. For Kate and Lizzie in the A final it was not to be their day, despite our premonitions this morning. Both got caught up on the same control and managed to get very impressive double digit splits. However it was Lizzie's superior sprint finish that pushed her in front of Kate as they were tied at the last control.
Unfortunately we had a rather serious casualty today, Jack managed to roll over his ankle in the last downhill of the finish sprint and had a rather large lump 50m later at the finish. I'm really hoping it wasn't me yelling at him from behind on the way to the last control to "go faster" that was the cause of his injury. It was quite a good sight when Angela, Jack and I all ran down the finish chute together. He was taken to hospital with what they suspect might be a broken ankle however he is yet to reappear so we all have our fingers crossed it isn't that serious. Luckily he is in the very capable hands of Norm and Todd so we are sure we will see him sometime soon, preferably sooner rather than later.
Everyone struggled with the heat today as we were told after our run that it was around 30degrees both during and after our runs. It made it rather hard to cool down afterwards but when we were actually racing it didn't seem to affect anyone too seriously. It also wasn't too bad in that all the good looking Scandi's seemed to undress as much as possible in the heat so both the boys and girls enjoyed that. Hopefully it will get a bit cooler for the long on Saturday as we are all running around the middle of the day which should be rather interesting.
Tomorrow is our rest day and I think the main plan is for just that, rest. The boys are planning to head into town and I think there was some mention of finding a beach to swim at but other than that we are all looking forward to catching up on a bit of sleep. As the computer queue gets even larger there is some pressure for me to get off but if you want to look at photos I think there is a link to Norm's picassa album and most of the racing photos are there or there might be some on the official website. The photographers seem to hide up trees or behind rocks and as we aren't really used to that all us Kiwis probably look rather surprised in those ones.
Greta