Thursday, December 6, 2007

North American Cup Races

Hello everybody (y hola a mi familia en Costa Rica - gracias por visitando mi pagina). I had my first races of the season this past weekend. Consequently, they were also my first biathlon races on snow ever. The temperatures stayed very cold throughout the week and on the morning of the first race were hovering around the cut-off temperature of -20 degrees C or -4 degrees F. The 10 K sprint start was delayed one hour in order to let the temperatures warm a degree or two, but other than that the day came off without a hitch. My race was yet another learning experience and definitely had some high and low points. I skied well but my range times were slower than many of the other racers and I missed 7 of 10 shots. Each penalty loop is roughly 150 meters so I spent a substantial amount of time going in circles. Regardless though, I finished 9th and learned some important lessons.

Sunday was a 12.5 K pursuit format race where we skied five 2.5K loops and shot twice prone and twice standing. I recorded seven penalties out of twenty, which was an improvement over Saturday's sprint. I stayed in 9th place in the pursuit. Overall I was happy with how the first weekend of racing played itself out.

Monday of this week I traveled with the team to Bozeman, Montana and then from there to West Yellowstone, MT. We arrived in a white-out snowstorm and were happy to find nearly two feet of snow on the ground and substantially warmer temperatures. We race tomorrow and Saturday so I'm excited to get in the start gate again.

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