Last two races in Wisconsin

So my last attempt at a blog post failed miserably due to some problem with the app I've been using to post to my blog. I hope the problem has been resolved and this post will go off without a hitch.

We are now in Minneapolis. We're staying at a pretty fancy Hilton hotel. We got here around supper time today and were disappointed right away by the lack of dessert in our supper menu. Apparently, the organizers had to make some budget cuts and dessert had to go. So a few of us took a little walk to the nearest Target store and picked up some cookies. You gotta have dessert after all those races! Other than the lack of dessert though, the food was very good and the hotel is super nice.

My race this morning was a 5 km skate, and I skied it with all my might. I thought it was a very good race overall: we went out appropriately fast on the first lap and kicked it into as high a gear as I could on the second. I had a bit of asthma on the last climb, but got it under control on the downhill and then raced to the finish as fast as I could. This was the first race that I couldn't stay standing at the finish - I fell to my knees after the finish line because I was so exhausted! I was still 6th, passing only one Russian, but I got World Cup points and feel that that was a solid race.

Yesterday I raced the 10 km biathlon, which did not go as well. My shooting started out well (I shot clean on the first lap) and then went downhill from there. I missed 2 on the second lap, 3 on the third and 4 on the fourth. Despite this horrible shooting, i felt that I skied the race well. Brian paced me properly over the 5 laps and there were no asthma attacks in sight. However, with all those penalty loops I had to do, there were no World Cup points either. I believe I wasn't able to shoot well anymore because my supporting arm and shoulder were getting really tired. I need to practise with a rifle in order to shoot consistently well. I found out that the rifles we were using belong to VANOC and will try to see about borrowing or renting one from them to practise with. After all, the short biathlon was by far my best race here so it might be a good idea to get more consistent at shooting.

We don't have a race tomorrow morning (thank God, I really need a break). So we will just be going out to look at the race venue and the courses for our two races here.

I had better go to bed. Good night from Minneapolis!

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Location:14th Ave S,Minneapolis,United States