CLEAN!

There is so much to catch up on, I am not sure where to start. It has been a crazy couple weeks here in Minnesota. I have been fortunate enough to have the first step of the Olympic qualifications held in my hometown of Grand Rapids. This means I was able to stay at my parent’s house, the house I grew up in, during all of the races. This was priceless and am very thankful for it.
We have had five races over the last two and a half weeks. The top four girls from these races move onto the second Olympic qualification step, racing in the IBU Cup in Altenberg Germany. There are three open spots on the 2010 U.S. Olympic biathlon team. There will be six girls total, fighting for these three open spots and I will be one of them.
I had many ups and downs during these five races. Things were not looking good going into the last race this past Tuesday. I struggled, mostly on the range, in the first four races. I was fairly happy with how I felt skiing but wasn’t knocking the targets down the way I knew I could. I went into the last racing telling myself I have nothing to lose. I love the sport of biathlon and enjoying competing in it. My goal was to stay relaxed, do my own thing, shoot and ski to my very best ability, have fun and to leave everything I had out on the course. Mostly I was just trying to stay relaxed and have fun, too much thinking often gets me into trouble. What clicked, I am not sure but I hit all my targets and skied hardest and won the last race. This was just enough to put me on the team. The day before I didn’t even think this was possible.
I think my mom summed it up best by stating that perseverance is the name of the game. I have been competing in this sport for 12 years now. I have only shot clean, hitting all of my targets, in a race, on two other occasions. I can hardly believe I did it again on this particular day.
I have a few more days to enjoy here in Minnesota before heading over to Europe. I am grateful that I am able to spend them with much of my family.
I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday, full of yummy food, good company and lots of snow!
Happy Holidays,
BethAnn