Today we had a little warm up race here in Nove Mesto at the race venue for the Junior World Championships!  It was a 7.5km sprint and with alot of other teams already here in town it made for a pretty good race.  I think its good for me to gain experience on a bigger stage then the US domestic circuit leading into the races next week, shake out the nerves so that I can ski more relaxed and focus on the task at hand.

Before the race report a few highlights…

1. Saying Labrit (good morning) to one of the Latvian coaches and watching his expression changed from amused to entirely confused.

2. The start gate lady counting down to me in German.

3. Not totally getting my butt kicked?

I was the very first junior women out on course so I skied a large portion of my first lap entirely by myself… it was a little unnerving not to see anyone…after all 85 people started in front of me, and with 20second start intervals there is bound to be some overlap.

My skis were fast, the corners were sugary, and the range approach didn’t seem to daunting. And it was sunny, things were looking ok.  I got a correction coming into the range from our coach and took the clicks before shooting prone…but it wasn’t enough, I was still slightly left of center but somehow I still got two of the targets to go down.  After a second lap it was back in to shoot standing.  A Russian girl came into the range behind me which was a little intimidating, but I tried to focus on my own thing.  She got two shots off before I even pulled the trigger once, these girls are fast, fast on the range, fast on the trails.  I know I can’t let how fast the other girls shoot rush me.  I’d rather take an extra 10seconds on the range and spare myself a few penalty loops.

After missing my first shot in standing I resettled and thought “take good shots”.  I hit the next four, leaving me with 60% on the day.  a few months ago I would have been thrilled with 60%…now I want more.  I remember coming home from trials and exclaiming, “that I CORRINE MALCOLM had infact shot 70%!!!” I was estactic and my younger brother remarked “I’ve never heard anyone so happy about a C before?”  That’s really stuck with me for some reason.  I should want an A right?

The last loop felt pretty good, and I soon began to realize I hadn’t warmed up hard enough…it took 5kms to get me feeling quickish on my skis…and I don’t want to waste two thirds of my race feeling sluggish when I don’t have to.  Asides from being a little intimdated on the washed out corners things were going ok.  Until I planted my pole into my ski going into the final uphill and killed any hope I had for momentum.  I face planted right out in the open and was left frantic as I tried to get myself back to upright….

So I suppose there were some good and some bad today.  Some things I did well and some things to learn from heading into this next week.  I’m glad I was able to get all the kinks out today so that starting next weekend I can have even better races.  I got my tush handed to me today by some pretty stellar russian girls….and perhaps a few polish gals but I’m just lulling them into a false sense of security right?

Corrine

Here are some pictures that Ethan’s mom took for us!

Getting some shooting corrections from Vlad during training the other day.

One of my range approaches that I didn’t fall flat on my face!