Seeley Lake Biathlon

“Have you taken the safety meeting? … You can not be in this race until you have taken the safety meeting … This is not to be confused with the pre race meeting”, the race organizer berated us for showing up late. We walked away kind of disappointed. I was thinking to myself about the last time I heard about the required safety meeting … wait … I never had to be in a safety meeting. As we headed to the car we droped into the shooting range and a guy showed our friend Karen how to shoot. That qualified her to go race and she did. I realized how easy it was and took the safty meeting myself. Suddenly I realized I was having fun. I never raced in a event that included shooting rifles. Enter biathlon Seeley lake style. I have to admit post race that this was KICK ASS. 

You start off in pursuit style 30 seconds apart and do a 3k loop. After you rip your lungs out of your chest and render your legs spaghetti you are given a rifle and a clip of 5 bullets. Pow click klak, pow click klak, pow click klak, pow click klak, pow click klak. I got 3 out of 5 prone and heard Bill Shultz yell, “good shootin Bill”, in the distance. I thought back to when I used to watch world cup biathlon in Lake Placid.  It would be exciting to watch now that I know what is going on.

For each missed shot you must do a penalty loop.  In the end I did 6 penalty loops and managed to clean up my skating style to finish in 45 minutes or thereabouts. It is amazing that when you become part of someone else's life the things you get exposed to. I have to admit I was not excited to do a biathlon but after doing it am glad I did.