Getting Dirty in Mt. Itasca

Nope, it doesn’t mean what you think it does. In biathlon, when you hit all 5 shots in a row, it’s called “cleaning”. Along the same logic, if you miss all 5 shots, well, that’s called dirtying.

I have only just recently started shooting and trying out biathlon, but up until now I had never “dirtied” a stage (that’s 5 shots) in a race before. Well, it turns out that if you add a measure of race nerves to a newbie biathlete, it’s pretty easy to do!

Let’s back up a bit. Last week after the Bozeman SuperTours I traveled to Mt. Itasca, Minnesota to compete in IBU Cup Trials for biathlon. Having very little expectations for the races in my first season doing any sort of biathlon, I tried to enter the week with an open mind, but truth be told, I was pretty nervous. We were scheduled to race 4 times: 2 consecutive 7.5k sprint competitions, a rest day, a 12.5k mass start, and then a final sprint. The day of the first sprint (two shooting stages, 1 prone and 1 standing) I came into prone and hit 3 targets. Not awesome shooting, but pretty good for me! I skied my two penalty loops, came around the loop and got into standing position. And promptly missed all 5 targets. Shoooot. It wasn’t that fun skiing 5 times around the penalty loop, and truth be told I got a little dizzy. But the good news is, it definitely took a lot of the pressure off for the rest of the week! From there on, I decided to just have fun with it and approach the shooting with as relaxed an attitude as possible. I was able to improve my shooting a little bit in the next sprint (hitting 4/10) and then in the mass start I actually hit 8/10 prone targets and had my best shooting of the week (55%). I had another tough day on the range in the final sprint, but by that point I just let it roll right off. The truth is, I haven't been doing biathlon long enough to be competitive in range time or accuracy, but every race experience I get is something to learn from and build upon. I now know exactly what I have to work on, and I’m feeling confident in my skiing right now, so I’m excited for the rest of the ski season.

I got in to Craftsbury late Thursday night and was psyched to see all the snow here, but then… DUN DUN DUN I came down with a stomach bug! Luckily it appears that it was just a 24 hour thing, and it may end up being a blessing in disguise as I’m definitely getting plenty of rest after all those races. I’m excited to head home for Christmas and then back to the Midwest for US Nationals in Houghton. I haven’t skied in Houghton since Senior Nationals back in 2008 I believe, so it will be fun to go back to the homeland (1/2 of my family is from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan).

Enjoy the pictures of the biathlon races in Mt. Itasca, all the race shots are from Minnesota biathlete Jakob Ellingson (check out the full gallery here).

Shooting prone with MWSC biathlete Maddie Phaneuf

Getting used to skiing (and tucking!) with a rifle on my back

Standing shooting (had to be the lefty ruining the picture...)

Taking the corner at the top of the course with Kelsey Dickinson from MWSC. It was fun to race with her and to catch up, I haven't seen her since the USBA Talent ID Camp back in August 

Clare starting one of the sprints. She's been crushing it in biathlon this season, and will find out soon if she'll be repping the US at IBU Cups in Europe later this season. Psyched for her!

Thanks for reading everyone, and please, make sure to do your snow dance so that we get something to ski on in Park City!! Here's wishing everyone happy holidays and a white Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Solstice wherever you are!