Biathlon Camp: Day 3 - Sprint Race

I haven't posted an update yet, because I've been waiting to find out our results from this morning and the details for tomorros's race. Sadly, I haven't really got either.

We don't have a start list, but we know the races start at 10:00 a.m., and it's a persuit race, so racers will start in the order that they finished today. This means that the Paras will be somewhere at the back of the pack. But things will go fairly quickly, as the intervals between skiers will be 5 seconds. I'm guessing we should be out there by 10:30. As far as we know, the girls are skiing 10 km tomorrow, and the boys 12.5. We're all shooting 4 times, so shooting will determine how well your race goes.

Oh I guess I should tell you how my race went today. It was a 7.5 km race with 2 shootings and penalty laps if you miss. I shot pretty bad: 50%, which means I missed 5 out of 10 and skied 5 penalty laps altogether. Hoping for better shooting tomorrow. It's really different in a race, when your heart rate is through the roof and the gun is shaking like crazy. I will really try to calm my HR down tomorrow before I shoot. It sucks that my Garmin heart-rate monitor has met its maker, so I have no idea what my HR is when I get into the range.

As for the skiing today, the course did change, and the first loop was now a long climb and then a steep down with an S-shaped turn, which became pure ice during the race. A lot of biathletes bit it on that hill today! I stayed up the first 2 times around by sticking to the inside of the turn, but got carried onto the ice on the outside of the turn on the last lap and wiped out. I just scrambled out of another girl's way; I think I gave her a pretty good scare! I got up pretty quickly though and kept going, so it was alright. The turn will be in tomorrow's race as well, but they were making snow out there today, so maybe some of that white stuff will end up on that killer corner.

The race course and range were actually not as busy as I'd anticipated, and John and I had no trouble manoeuvring around everyone. Either that, or John is so good a guide that I didn't notice all the other people! That is entirely possible.

We were also noticing that, in comparison with the cross-country crowd at NorAms (North America Cups), the biathletes seem much more polite and understanding. They tell you where they're passing and don't yell "track" at the top of their lungs. We were very impressed. Way to go, biathlon crowd!

We're leaving Canmore at 2 p.m. tomorrow, so if I have a bit of time and an Internet connection at the Airport, I will tell you of my last day of racing in Canmore.

And with that, I bid you good night from Canmore.