First Biathlon

i took the Biathlon training course a few weeks ago during a slow day at SPNC (the nordic center) and have carrying the gun certification card around in my wallet since, taking it out and wondering why i didn't have a rifle on hand to take advantage of my newfound freedom. freedom to carry a gun while skiing. yeah baby! this is America!

actually, its a very Euro sport thats just catching on here, and like Cyclocross, its an amazing combination of elements that seeks to up the limits of fun and pain. both are good, can't have one without the other. cycling and running/hurdling/slogging through mud ups the heart-rate and the sport transcends mere cycling to become something different. cross-country ski racing combined with rifle accuracy is like having sex while writing a letter to your mom.

and ironically there are way more gun issues and hurdles dealing with Biathlon here in the US where gun freedom is a basic right that is protected in our constitution, laws much more liberal than anywhere else in world, while in Canada and Europe Biathletes have less troubles skiing with and transporting their rifles. so i'm told. as per my own experiences, i think this has to do with levels of personal responsibility: while we will die to protect our right to maintain gun ownership, we remain wary of them and experience way more irresponsibility concerning them. anyway, i digress... i just want to race report!

i spent 10-hours driving on Friday -- Wintrop to Olympia via Seattle to drop off guests after a week ski-tour in the Methow, then after a couple hours of unload and reload, I drove to "Nordic" and crashed upstairs in the "apartment" -- so i was pretty whooped being cooped up so long and I wasn't even sure how excited I was going to be about racing on Saturday. but it was a perfect mid-winter morning in Mill Valley, crisp and clear, and the competive juices started flowing when the racers started rolling in. Or maybe it was my desire to ski with and shoot a gun, I'm not sure, but I was excited to give it a try. I was last to register and last to start which turned out to be a nice reward for my signup tardiness: my 30-second man was Dave, a seasoned Biathlete, a hell of a skier, and a good guage for me to set my sights on. No, not rifle sights, strickly skiing sights because I didn't have any illusions about shooting well at my first Biathlon on a borrowed rifle.

i skied well enough to take 2nd on the day despite only scoring 1 out of 10 shots. so today i went out 2nd in the pursuit portion of the event and i started 50-seconds behind Aaron and about 30-seconds before Sean who was starting in 3rd. Aaron's combination of marksmanship and fast skiing helped him to ski away from the rest of us, but the fun started after the second round of shooting when Sean pulled ahead of me as I went round-and-round in the penalty loops. thankfully the ski course was long enough to give me some place to make up for my bad shooting and i caught and passed him on the long Mainline section of the course. during the next two shoots i only scored 2 hits and so as i skied my penalties i watched Sean as he pulled into the penalty loop and hoped he didn't come out of it before me. turns out he shot a bit better than i, i think that he said he hit 6 or 7 out of 20 whereas i only hit two in the standing-position, and since he only finished 20-30 seconds behind me those two hits were vital for me to maintain my 2nd place.

more commentary on this later. what a cool sport!