Ahh…hard work pays off.  I qualified for the pursuit at world champs in 58^th place.  It is the first pursuit that I’ve qualified for on the World Cup and I’m pleased and excited to have a go at this different race format.  It was a decent way to end the day after all the tumult of the morning and previous ****ht.

Heavy rain for close to 20 hours prior to race day decimated what cover there was on the tracks.  After the rain stopped, the organizers had to truck in loads of snow from an alpine ski area to cover the course, only having time to cover a 2.5k loop (which, subsequently, the men used as their race loop too).  They had to work hard to preserve the loop right up until the race, canceling official training and closing off the course until one hour prior to the start.  When I first arrived at the venue in the afternoon I became a little flustered because there were rumors that we wouldn’t be testing skis due to the limited track access.  Not having these rumors confirmed, I went searching for our wax techs, even hiking up to a plateau on an upper part of the course to seek them out.  I returned to the stadium after being unsuccessful to check my rifle out of the storage room in time for zero, and then waited in a long line of athletes going through equipment control in the start tunnel.  By the time I had finished checking my rifle I had just enough time to ski one short loop on the course before I zeroed.  Due to gusty winds on the range, it took me longer than usual to zero and I found myself with only enough time remaining before the start of the race to ski the race loop once.  As I started up the first hill I realized, so much for preserving the course—the snow was so soft that the first few skiers had already churned it into a deep slushy mess.  Yet, it was a world of difference from the ice that coated the stadium before, and I am infinitely thankful to the organizers and volunteers who worked many hours to deliver us a safe and white race course. 

At this point I was quite worried about getting a sufficient warmup.  Having no other options and about half an hour to my start, I joined other girls in jogging along the driveway of the venue in my ski boots.  By then I had decided the best way to get through the race was to try to take the anomalies in good humor and rely on the good training and preparation I knew I had.  I took the first loop pretty hard.  Having raced it only two days before in a time trial, I had a good feel for the course.  For the first time on snow this year I really forced myself to slow down with about 100 meters to go to the shooting range.  Fortunately, this technique worked in prone and I left the range with a decent split.  I took the same approach into standing but the wind pushed me around a bit and I missed the first shot.  The next four shots went off smoothly but I unfortunately missed the last one.  I went into the last loop cramping up a little bit in the legs but encouraged by the cheers of our team staff to leave everything out on course.  This is World Championships after all—as much as it doesn’t seem like it with the smaller crowd of a very different composition than in central Europe.

Over****ht the weather changed for the better.  Snow flurries began to fall in the middle of the ****ht and temperatures have dropped enough to make snow.  This should hopefully firm up the track for to****ht’s pursuit race.