It is hard to believe that the end of the 2010/11 season is so near. It has been a turbulent one for many reasons, but one that has given me a lot a great experiences and challenged me in ways that will help me become stronger down the road.
I am happy to be back in my hometown of Grand Rapids, MN, to finish off the year. The Mount Itasca Biathlon Club is hosting the 2011 U.S. Biathlon Nationals. It is no suprise that they are doing a great job of keep the course in tip top shape and running the event smoothly. Now if someone could just get a hold of whoever is in charge of the weather and put in a request for cold nights and bright blue, sunny skis during the day, we would be all set!
No matter the weather the show will go on, which I am happy about. Every biathlon race presents a new challenge unique to itself. While we have a small field, it is a competitive one. Amongst the many familiar faces here, we have a great deal of fresh new ones as well. There was a camp for athletes coming fresh out of competitions at the Junior Olympics, which were held in Minneapolis last week. These athletes got a chance to dive into the sport of biathlon with a few days of training and a couple races to top it off this coming weekend. We also have a tremendous showing of master biathletes, who are great to have around as well.
In addition to the competing athletes, we also have a member of the Para-biathlon World Championship team training here for the week. If you want to see some inspiring work, come out to the venue and watch Dan double pole around like crazy and then turn over to shoot while still in his sit ski. It is a pretty cool sight to see. He is off to Russia in a couple weeks here for there Para World Championships. Best of luck to him and the rest of the team!
I am looking forward to our two, four stage races coming up with weekend. I have put countless hours into preparing for opportunities like this and am now ready to put all that practice into action. I have been competing in running or ski events for a long time and ever since the start of all those competitions my dad has told me one thing, "Let the tail go with the hide". So that is I plan to do.
Again, I'd like to also send out my thanks to all the folks that have put this event on. I know putting together events like this takes a lot of time and man power and is done mostly with all volunteer hours. We couldn't do this without all these folks help, so I want to make sure they know their work does not go unappreciated!
More to come after the weekend.
cheers, BethAnn
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