The March Madness continues...

The last couple weeks back at home in Caribou have been busy ones. The Junior Olympics were a great success last week. Unseasonably warm and sunny weather made for great spring skiing. There was a little worry about the snow holding but in the end there was no need.
JO's has lead us right into U.S. Biathlon Nationals. We started yesterday with the sprint race. Unfortunately we had our first night of above freezing temperatures going, which kept the trails from setting. This made for a slow and slushy race. I didn't perform how I would have liked yesterday. I let some mental obstacles get in the way of performing to my best ability. The skiing conditions were challenging and defiantly not my favorite. I know we have a lot more of it to come in the next week, so I am currently working on a new and better strategy for plowing through the slush.
Right now I am focused on the pursuit race tomorrow and mass start on Sunday. Thank heavens for second and third chances....

Aroostook's Youth

I have been home now for just short of a week, and I have been staying busy. In addition to getting out on skis myself I have been able to help many youth throughout Aroostook County get out and enjoy sliding across the snow on skis as well.
This past Saturday the Northern Skier Club hosted the Aroostook Youth Ski Festival at the high school trails here in Caribou. There had to have been well over 75 skiers from the ages of five to sixteen. We spent the morning hitting up one of the five different ski stations, doing everything from barrel chases to biathlon bean bag tosses to flying down the radar run and flipping tricks on the terrain park.
We finished off the morning with one enormous game of sharks and minnows. I let my competitive side get the best of me and caused two collisions in attempt to "swim" from the sharks closing in on me.
Many thanks out to everyone who helped put this event together. This is my third year attending. Each year I see more new faces having fun being active and playing around on skis! That is something I will never get tired of seeing.
Thanks again,
BethAnn

Post-Birkie

I made it! I finished my first ever 52km race and even walked away from the finish line all on my own! I was pretty excited about that. My first ever Birkie experience was a good one. I think I lucked out with beautiful sunny weather, fast skiing and great snow. I work hard to follow the only instructions I was given for the race; eat and drink early and often and ski in a pack!
I worked pretty hard the first few kilometers to stay with the front pack. After about six kilometers of that I started to get nervous that I was expending too much energy too early and would end up bonking. I really did not want to bonk. So I backed off a bit and ended up skiing with four other women who did the same as me. I felt pretty strong most of the race. I had a moment with about 18km to go where I thought I was going to hit a wall, but I worked through it and finished pretty strong. I maybe could have even picked it up a bit more towards the end, but again I was nervous I would start my surge to early and end up loosing time in the end.
I defiantly learned a lot throughout the race and feel that my second time around I can ski it even better. I'm happy with my eleventh place for now.
Cheers,
BethAnn

Birke Fever

2.26.2010

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for me, fifty-two kilometers of racing in beautiful central Wisconsin. It will be my first time racing in the American Birkebeiner. Things seem to be lining up quite nicely going into tomorrow’s race. It’s going to be cold tonight but get up to the upper twenties by tomorrow sometime. The snow is great and the sun will be shining.
It sounds like there is going to be over 8,000 racers tomorrow. There will be a lot of eating and waxing of skis tonight.
We arrived here on Wednesday night and I have been enjoying taking in all the excitement of the events over the past few days. Yesterday afternoon David and I took part in the Elite sprints in downtown Hayward. Head to head sprints down main street with single elimination, made for a fun, spectator friendly event.
My afternoon schedule includes picking up my bib, wax some skis, stretch, eat and probably watch a little Olympics. The race starts bright and early at 8:30.
More to come after the race….
-BethAnn

Madison Winter Festival 2010

This past weekend David and I went into the city for some Nordic races. Downtown Madison, WI was the home to many great winter festivities on both Saturday and Sunday. David and I took part in the Nordic races held around the capital building. After bringing in over 100 truck loads of snow on Friday night, the course was ready for races by Saturday morning.
The different race formats made for some tricky racing and perhaps not my best. But I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the change in scenery.
Saturdays criterium grew a fairly big crowd. Nearly all of the 3/4 of a kilometer loop was lined with spectators cheering on all the racers as we looped around and around. While warming up around the capital streets I was able to view a few of the other events going on. There were snowshoe races and obi scale courses for kids, a biking loop on snow, a huge snow covered ramp for snowboarders and later on snow tubing. On Sunday there was a great snow cross bike race and some very talented snow sculptures hard at work and a sit ski tour for folks to try too. It was a great atmosphere with all kinds of winter fun and excitement being had.
The folks of Madison know how to put on a good weekend of winter fun. Many thanks to all of those that worked hard to put this all together. If my circumstances allow, I will defiantly be back next year. Hope to see all of you there too!
Cheers,
BethAnn
Here is a video of the start of the men's criterium on Saturday. They had too many racers to all start at once, so the men had to do a qualifier before hand. What you see here is the top twenty men starting the final 12 lap race.
2.22.10

A competitive couple

The trouble with having a husband who is also a Nordic racer is, my chances of ever beating him in any sort of physical competition are slim to none. Unless I cheat of course, which I might consider doing next time I am standing at a starting line with him.
Yesterday I had great interval session at Mount Itasca. Blue skies and warm sunny weather made for a great morning. David and I finished our workout with a few head to head sprints. He was classic skiing and I was skating. And he beat me every time. Granted I had just finished intervals and he was only skiing EASY, he won hands down every time. I would have kept challenging him but he seemed to get faster with each one. It seems I have my work cut out for me if I want to beat him on skis EVER!
Thankfully I've got beat on the shooting range! I think that was my mistake with the sprints yesterday. I let him shoot my rifle before doing the sprints. I think this put him into a more competitive mode since he can't put up too much of a fight against me with a rifle. Next time we will sprint first and shoot after!

I'll end this update with an Olympic note, today is the Individual competition for both men and women! Go USA!!! While I was in Lake Placid a few of the other girls and I spent an afternoon making a few posters for our teammates competing in Vancouver. I think they turned out pretty well. They are going to have to do since I don't think my cheering will reach the ears of anyone up in Whistler while I am sitting here in Minnesota! That doesn't mean I won't try. :)

Until next time, ski fast and shoot straight.

-BethAnn

Thanks to many

2.13.10

The Olympics have begun. They are always exciting. While I am disappointed I am not competing there myself, I am still excited to see how everything unfolds. One of my favorite parts of the Olympics is the attention that is put on more obscure sports like biathlon. I am obviously biased, but I feel biathlon and may other great winter sports are too often overlooked in the eye of the American sports fan. The Olympics is a great, and short, exception to this.

So my Olympic pursuit didn't come through this time. But the support I received going into this pursuit has been great. I would like to recognize some of the great support I have received throughout this entire process. There are so many people involved in sport on an elite level. I wish more recognition was given to all those folks that are working behind the scene, supporting the athletes.

The Pressure Positive Company, Icebreaker clothing and Grandy Oats Granola have all support me well before the Olympics were being broad-casted on televisions across the world. I owe so many thanks to each of these companies for their support.


The Backnobber I am using in this picture is from Pressure Positive Co. It is at the top of my packing list no matter where I go. Icebreaker's ski socks I am wearing here have replaced all others! They are amazing. And thanks to being made out of 100% merino wool, they keep my toes toasty warm and always smell fresh! No joke!

The biathlon report will continue here shortly...stay tuned!

Cheers, BethAnn