First Recreational Biathlon Event of the Season
3 January 2012
After spending a week up at Whistler with my family for the Christmas holidays, it was time for the first of four biathlon events this season.
I have taken on the task of organizing my ski club's recreational and competitive biathlon events, in summer and winter. While the summer ones are just getting started, we have been doing biathlon events for years now and there are some big expectations (mostly my own) about how popular these events can be.
The first one of the season was on New Years Eve and it was successful. We had 45 competitors in three different race categories. The weather cooperated with the best day of the year so far; it was cool and overcast, great conditions for biathlon. The tracks were fast and even though we only had a couple hours to prepare the range, the ramp looked pretty good.
The most impressive part of the event were the quantity and quality of the volunteers who showed up to help set up and run the event. We had about 20 volunteers, all of whom were experienced and able to set up the range, stadium, course and timing with little or no direction. Several people have been volunteering for years, including the Olympics. We even had the Biathlon Sport Manager, Chief of Range and Assistant Chief of Course from the Olympics to help out. With a dream volunteer team like that, we pulled off a really high quality event.
Feedback about the event was really positive, and hopefully the word spreads about how fun these events are. I am hoping that over 100 people regularly show up for these events in the future. We are almost halfway there. The next one is less than two weeks away, and I am hoping that a little sunshine and cold temperatures will come our way and bring out the participants in droves.
