The start time for my event (division 1 women’s épée) is 8 am, kind of a painful hour to be moving that much. I was kinda hoping it would be noon. There are about 150 fencers in women’s épée.

After asking around, it sounds like the format is pretty much what I remember. We start out in groups (called pools) of 6 or 7 fencers. The 7 (or 6) fencers fence each other to 5 touches. Everyone is listed in order depending on how well they fenced in pools, and the bottom 20% (I think) are dropped, done, finished fencing. I’ll be happy if I make it past this initial cut.

The rest of the day is all 15 touch, direct elimination (DE) bouts. Once you lose, you’re out. The first round should be to get into the top 64, then 32, then half and half and half. Think March Madness brackets.

So my realistic (I hope) goal for the day is to make it to DEs. Beyond that? We’ll see. I haven’t really earned even that much, but it’s a world of infinite possibilities. My best hope is a fluke.