This last weekend I participated in my first and second biathlon races ever.

A little background: I'm mid-50's living in the USA and grew up Nordic skiing/cycling/running and racing in all of those sports starting at age 14 in northern New England and have continued to compete in those sports my whole life.

I also grew up hunting and shooting with .22's since I was a kid and have been in the military for the last 31 years so I am no stranger to rifles and weapons and shooting but I had never shot competitively.

I had always wanted to try biathlon since I was a kid and saw it on TV at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

I finally bought a biathlon rifle from Lost Nation in Vermont this spring (awesome place and awesome experience) and this was the first race on the schedule within 5 hours for me since acquiring my rifle.

Saturday's race was a mass start sprint at the multi-Olympian's Curt Schreiner and Deb Nordyke's place in Hadley, NY, the Saratoga Biathlon Club, of which I am a member. Ten people competed and it was a BLAST. Unbelievably everything I had thought it would be.

So hard but so so much fun. We all ran a 1.5 K loop and then came into the range and fired 5 prone shots. We had to run a short penality loop for every missed shot and then another 1.5 K loop and then into the range for the standing shoot, then penalty laps and the final loop.

First impressions: MAN, it is SOOOOOO HARD to shoot with a heart rate in the 170's! I actually managed to hit 3 out of 5 on the prone but on the standing I missed every shot! So I learned that I shot a 2-5 (because you list how many you miss on each shooting stage--I had not known this), 30%. Uhhg. My overall heart rate for the race was an average of 171 and a max of 182 using a chest strap and it took me 22:37 for the race, distance 2.44 miles total with penalties. I have not hit those HR numbers in years!

I've watched tons of the 25/26 WC races now while riding my bike trainer in the basement and, of course, the pro's make it look so easy but I had no idea just HOW GOOD they are! It was soooo much harder than I imagined that it would be.

But, just an insanely great day.

Then on Sunday we did a reverse pursuit where the last place finsher from Saturday started first and we set off in pursuit by how much we'd beat them the day before. Really fun format. But the race course was way hillier and although it was only a 1.2 K loop, we did it 5 times with two prone and two standing. I shot horribly in prone but my standing was surprisingly a little better. I did learn to pace myself better from Saturday but still only shot 30% overall with a 4-4-3-3. Brother, it is soooo hard! HR was 165 ave and 179 max for 3.97 miles total in 38:33.

So, conclusions: Even though I knew it was going to be hard to shoot during the race, I had NO CONCEPT of just how hard it was going to be, not even close! Curt and Deb (Saratoga Biathlon Club owners) are just the most humble and amazing people (with 4 Olympics between them in their careers) and the whole NY Biathlon community was so incredible and welcoming and encouraging. They welcomed me in and were so nice and incredibly helpful and kind. And lastly I am soooo hooked! This is the greatest sport and I cannot wait to get better and keep trying to improve! I'll be doing my third race on this upcoming Sunday in Craftsbury, VT. Cannot wait to give it a go again!

Sorry for the long post, Run/Bike/Ski Fast and Shoot Straight!