......Or should I have said Biathlon by fire!!   I spent last Friday evening standing on a start line in -12C conditions dressed in a thin lycra race suit, rifle on my back and a pair of very long, skinny ski's on my feet.   You may be asking how this whole crazy situation came about as I certainly was! One of my triathlon clients (Nicky Walker) in Hong Kong has raced the British Biathlon Championships for the last four years despite spending all her time in Hong Kong and therefore almost no time on snow and very limited time at the shooting range.   All this not to mention the fact she has three very active kids to chase around afterwards and her husband!   I have always been in awe of her achievements against women who spend six months of the year in Europe training specifically for these races.

The whole conversation started at Christmas after a little too much bubbly, when she mentioned I should go to Europe with her for the races. The idea started to make more sense after I changed my plans and decided to head back to Germany to see my boyfriend (Christian) at the same time Nicky would be racing over there. This meant I would be able to go and stay with her and learn to XC Skate for a winter triathlon I had wanted to do and watch her races.   Within a couple of days, she had found a relay race for us at the Championships and before I knew it she was giving me roller ski lessons in Big Wave Bay car park and a couple of sessions up at the shooting range before we both headed off towards the snow.

I didn't arrive in Rupholding, one of the two German center's of Biathlon Excellence until Thursday afternoon and our race was on Friday evening!   It has to be said, XC skating is the hardest sport I have ever tried to do and Nicky did really well as I was close to throwing all the equipment into the bushes and aborting this whole crazy idea at least a couple of times....it was certainly the role reversal.   I think the reason it's so hard is that you simply don't go forward (unless on a downhill) until you master some form of technique, so I spent the first hour going 5m backwards to every 1m forward and any slight uphill caused me a major problem.   How on earth was I going to do this relay with a rifle on my back not to mention a 12km XC skate at my triathlon in three weeks?!?!?   I was assured over a few mulled wine's later that night by Paul (the Aussie Biathlon coach) and Alan, UK's top XC skier that everything would come together in the morning.   They had kindly agreed to take me Biathlon training as Nicky had to take her Mum to the train station.  

After a good night's sleep, I woke up feeling a little more confident I would master this damn sport as Paul and I headed out the door in -15C for a run.   Wow, I thought Hong Kong in 9C was cold....even the slightest bit of water coming out of your eyes freezes at this temperature, so I returned to the chalet looking something like a yeti.   It was pretty awesome being able to train at the Biathlon Centre, where the World Cup races take place and all the top German's train as Biathlon is pretty much their national sport.   To say I felt out of place was such an understatement as I was struggling to remain upright and heading in a forward direction, while all the other athletes zoomed around me making it look so effortless.   After Alan had given me some drills to do, I headed off to find a deserted piece of track without spectators, where I could practice my disjointed skiing in peace. After about 30minutes, I had the courage to return to the range to try out some shooting.   Alan had agreed to lend me his rifle that evening and I needed to get used to it quickly as it had a different reloading system to Nicky's.   At least I only had to worry about shooting prone (lying down) and not standing for tonight's race.   The shooting felt good compared to my skiing and I was confident I wouldn't make a complete fool out of myself that evening especially after a few tips from Bob (British Army Shooting Coach). The boys quickly showed me the course for that evening, which included a quick lesson in downhill and turning on XC ski's - not as easy as it might sound as they have no edges like downhill skies.

All that was left now was to buy some skies, boots and function wear!!   Paul and Alan were thrilled to get to come and help me spend some money and soon I was the proud owner of a new pair of Fischer ski's. I couldn't get boots in the right size, so we headed to the next town to continue the shopping trip after a quick stop at home to collect all my stuff for the race that night. Boots, gloves and race suit bought and it was straight to the Biathlon centre for the race but we had completely underestimated the traffic so I arrived with 30minutes to go....not the ideal preparation considering my lack of ski and rifle time.   A number of high-ranking Army officials had arrived that day to watch the weekend races and the race director was a tad worried about the fact I had only learnt to ski the day before incase I made a fool of myself.   Great, nothing like a bit of pressure before your first race as I had to ski round to the range and shoot in front of all the race officials before they would confirm I could race.   Thankfully I didn't really have time to think about it and managed to get through without falling flat on my face and shooting someone! All I can really remember after that I have never being so cold in my entire life and Nicky suddenly shouting for me to strip off down to my lycra race suit - you have to be kidding me right? Wrong, she was deadly seriously and holding both our rifles!! Ok, strip down, ski's and rifle on, here we go........

I couldn't tell whether I was shaking on the start line due to cold, nerves or both but it wasn't a pleasant experience as tey announced the women's sprint relay final.....final, how on earth had I made the final?   Shit, we were off..........ok, double pole until the line and try not to trip over all your fellow competitors and God, please get me past the spectator stand and all the lights without falling over.   I finally breathed a sigh of relief as I hit the shadows and was still upright, under the bridge, round the bend and back towards the range and lights.   Mental note, slow before hitting the mat as the ski's completely STOP as soon as you touch the matting and if you are not careful you catapult yourself headfirst into the line of fire!!   Snow guards down, gun in position, load magazine and then you have to try and calm down, focus and hit something the size of a golf ball 50m away.   You have five bullets in your magazine and five targets, if you miss one you have to manually reload until all five are down, which is an unusual format specially for this relay. I managed to get two out of my five, so I was pretty happy with that but the manual didn't go so well as you start to get seriously cold and you keep moving to manually reload which puts your aim completely off. Another one down but then I just couldn't hit the target and was thankfully saved as the first three girls came over the line and the race is stopped as it's so cold at night.   I was absolutely perished by this point and Nicky wasn't much warmer having to wait for me in her race suit.

It was a very cool experience and has certainly given me the bug to come back next year with more than a couple of hours skiing and shooting under my belt.   Hopefully it will also help Nicky to have some company while training in HK and I am confident she can have some really good races next year with some consistent training.   I was kind of relieved that Christian had been delayed getting over to the race due to bad traffic in the snow and arrived just after we had finished.....there is only so much pressure you can handle in one night!!

We went back to the Biathlon Centre the next morning to watch Nicky race in the Women's Sprint, where she did really well to place 12 th with a very strong shoot.   Still in awe of how she does this but hopefully I will be a more helpful training and relay partner next year.