It was touch and go there five days before the race at Pratt's falls - upset stomach had me in the.... nah, you don't want to know. But Saturday came and I seemed to be back to normal - almost. Beautiful day dawn and it promosed to be warm.
Got there and everything changed! They changed the course I had been running for the past month! they change the start time, which was a bummer. I had figured out where half way was, what my splits were supposed to be, etc. so that was all off now. Normally I drink this concoction 1.5hr's before the race. I drank the stuff and found I had 20 minutes, so that sat in my already tender stomach. Buy, hey - what ya gonna do?
First lap felt good and I took it too fast. Came in to shoot and got 4 out of 5 which was my goal. Second lap was good, but slower. Came in for standing and got 1 out of 5 - very disappointing. Last lap was slow, but was able to push it on the last half. Did 5th in my age group and 11th out of 25 overall - not bad, I'll take it.
Next came the rock-rabbit: two people - one runs the loop the other shoots. No way I was running again, but did find a guy who did. He'd run a short loop, tag me and I'd shoot. Went clean in the prone, but got only 1 in the standing. What's with the standing?!? I'd been doing a lot of practice in the standing so today's results were disappointing. Not sure how we did, but it was fun.
Overall I can see the improvement with this summers training schedule. I see it as setting a better endurance base for next year. This is really the first year I've run a lot and that's been important. Shooting still needs some help, but it's clear what I need to do there.
Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kddonath/TriStateBiathlonPrattSFalls10607
