The trails are very nice and ready for the weekend. They are calling for snow showers tonight and tomorrow but I don’t think they will effect either the races or the moonlight ski.  Tomorrow’s race for all those who don’t know: An individual relay is just a relay format race (there are no teams). You race 7.5k (men and JR Men) or 6k (novices, women, youth etc) but each time you come into the range, you have 8 shots to hit 5 targets. Theoretically you will perform less penalty loops due to the extra rounds….. Range will open for Zero at 10AM. Novice clinic at 10AM at points 15 and 16.. We have plenty of novice rifles.

The potluck is still a go and people can start arriving early if they want to ski or snowshoe before it gets dark. The candles will be lit on the loop around dusk.  The moon should be nicely up and about 70%. Lets hope for little cloud cover, though it should be bright enough regardless.

The conditions are near perfect for this weekend with more snow expected tonight.  The race on Saturday is a relay format. Pretty much all that means is you get to shoot 8 rounds to hit 5 targets each time. Novices, youth and women will race 6ks (3x2k loop). The race on Sunday is an Individual  20k for Sr and Master men, all else will race a 15k. You shoot 20 rounds at 20 targets in 4 stages for an individual. NOVICE CLINICS BEGIN AT 1000 BOTH RACE DAYS. We have plenty of rifles and ammo.

I have made arrangements for the moon to come up early on Saturday, so it should be at its highest around 7PM. I am in negotiations to keep it from snowing right now but they are playing hardball and trying to throw flurries in. Potluck meals should be either maincourse, side dish or desert. Beverages can be brought also. We will have the coffees, teas, hot chocolates, water, gatoraide, etc..  At this point I only know of two chilis being prepared as main dishes. I hope that helps.  In the past we always ended up with more then enough food for everyone. Deb and I are coming up with a shoe storage place in the entry way to help preserve the nice new hardwood flooring I put where we will be eating.  I will also ask that my outhouse (real close to the main house) be used as much as possible because I am not sure if my septic tank can handle 100 or so people. (can yours?) Come ski early, the trails should be nice. We are going to close the 5k down after about 2PM because it is the race course for Sunday but the 2.5k is really nice. The Candles will be lit around 5PM or dusk.  If any changes come about I will post them.

Thanks,

Curt

Best finish yet came in the Individual race, a big surprise for me. I shot a personal best for a 4- shooting race, hitting 12 for 20. (1-3-1-3) So for those of you who don’t know how an individual race works, (like me until the night before the start) it’s just a regular interval start with 4 shootings which alternate prone, standing, prone, standing (something I almost went to the line not knowing) and NO PENALTY LOOPS. That’s actually bad. For me. ‘Cause instead, we get 1 minute of penalty for every miss. I count on at least skiing my extra 1-2k faster than everyone else! So all in all, I expected this to be my worst finish. It wasn’t. I got 43rd, 10 places better than the sprint, which I thought would be my best and turned out to be my worst! Ski splits have continued to improve, and I now have an 11th fastest ski split and I am rather pleased with myself. My teammates other friends have wasted no time in telling me that I have to be able to shoot, too, but hey, I’ll take what I can get and be happy with it. So yay! Skiing fast!

On another topic altogether, last night I attended a “disco” which basically means dance. Actually, it was exactly like any dance I’d ever witnessed, ‘cept there was alcohol. I guess that’s supposed to make it more fun…? (If you have any insight on this matter, let me know. Greatly appreciated.) Well, I didn’t even try it, not cause I’m a goody goody or something, just cause it smelled nasty. 😉 One rather tipsy teammate was kinda amusing to watch, but said teammate didn’t really get drunk enough to make a scene. I don’t really see how this disco will help me race better, but hey, I guess it’s part of the experience. And I had fun! Really, I did, I swear. It was a good time.

Relay is this Friday for us Youth Women. It will be me, Silke, and Tara. Kelly is racing with the Juniors. This will be the last of the 4 races, and we will be coming home Sunday. (So sad!) We’re partying again Saturday night, so that insight better get to me fast!

Carly

Well! I guess hitting 40-50% doesn’t get you a win at Worlds. The mid-pack finishes have been hard to take, but I do have to look at it realistically. Pretty pleased with my ski splits, which were 14th and 12th for the sprint and pursuit respectively.

Today was the first real pursuit I had ever done. The funny start threw me when I was looking at results, because at first it looked like I had one of the slowest ski splits… Pretty cool how it works though. It would be super fun to do one and be in contention for something, rather than just feeling like I’m on damage control and trying to minimize dizziness from all the skiing in circles! I managed to move up 1 place, so I now have a finish of 52nd to add to my 53rd.  4th and 5th worst shooting.

What I’ve learned thus far: Actual time on the range (not including penalty loops) really adds up. If I was as quick on the range yesterday as I was today, I would have moved up 10 spots. That would really have helped me out today too. And it’s relatively free time. Dropping my range time from 62 to 50 seconds (still not blisteringly fast, by any means) didn’t make me shoot any worse (I actually shot better today) and really helped me out. Had I spent as much time on the range today as yesterday, I would have been 50 seconds slower.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll get real lucky in the Individual and hit everything! I’m hoping to get my ski time in the top 10, and I’m starting to get hyper aware of everywhere I might be able to give myself some free time, and this could add up to a race I could really be proud of!

On a different note, tonight’s dinner was fun: breaded and fried cheese, served on a bed of french fries. You know what I had for dinner? A Zone bar.

We picked up another 7 inches of snow yesterday and the conditions should be very nice for the weekend. It was packed today and will be finished off tomorrow (Thursday).

Thanks to everyone who helped cut and clean the trails this past weekend. The trail is very ready for snow.  I just have to do a little bit of mowing here and there and it will be ready.  The fact that it didn’t poor really made it nice.

Curt

The race course and range are both prepared for the races 28th and 29th.  I am going camping so will not be available to answer questions this coming week. Questions can be addressed to Tom Moffit or my Dad (518) 696-3961.  We have plenty of novice rifles so if you need one to use, it will be at the range. The races will be run as usual, with regrestration starting at 0800, zero and safety clinic at 0900 and race start at 1000.  A picinic will follow the races along with awards. There is pleny of camping room available for those who need to do it.

Curt

The L1 Clinic starts at 0900-1500 on Sunday. I will provide drinks and will make chili or something like that to eat but if you want more bring it…. I will make photocopies of the relevent rule info tomorrow and have them for everyone who comes. Try to make the clinic if you can, good range operations will be covered.