Welcome to Maine

Last Monday I started to make my way to the USA. We left Canmore at 5am to catch the 7:20 flight to Montreal. From there is would be a 7-8 hour drive to Presque Isle, Maine. But our plane leaving Calgary didn't get plugged in the night before and was therefore frozen. 6hrs later a plane came in that was able to take us there. Once we arrived in Montreal we thought it best to spend the night and tackle the 8hr drive the next day. We arrived in Presque Isle around 4pm on Tuesday. It took us longer to get to the other side of the North America than it does to get to Europe! All of this could have been avoided with a flight to Fredericton (2hrs from Presque Isle) or even flying Monday evening so we would have been able to train Monday morning. 

It was pretty chilly on the first couple days of training but by race day on Friday things were mild at around -9. Friday was the sprint race and things went pretty well. I hit 9/10 and felt strong skiing, I came in 46th, my best result ever and the closest I have been to the leaders all season! That meant pursuit on Sunday! In the middle we did a mixed relay. This was my first mixed relay and my first time doing a mass start. It was pretty exciting being in the jumble of the mass start and trying to keep with the leaders on that first 2km loop. Our team was me, Claude, Scott P and Nathan. I had to use one spare prone and one standing and I tagged off to Claude in 9th. In the end we were 12th with some pretty decent shooting on all our parts. On Sunday morning we woke up to 7inch of fresh snow! Not what you like to see race day. The trails were super soft and it was really windy. I started 2min35sec behind the leaders, I came in for my first prone and missed two. Second prone I made some corrections and hit all 5. First standing miss one, last standing, the wind was howling and my legs were dead from battling the snowy tracks, I missed four :(. I crossed the line in 49th. It was a tough three days of racing but the crowds in Presque Isle made us feel very welcome!! 

Monday morning it was time to pack up and head to Fort Kent. The first thing we find out is that we are not staying at a hotel in Fort Kent but we are now staying across the border in New Brunswick! The real bad news, half the team doesn't have passports because they are getting Russian visas. The IBU thought we wouldn't mind being sent across the border because there wasn't enough hotel space in Fort Kent and Biathlon Canada some how didn't get the e-mail or didn't put up any fuss when they got the e-mail a month ago. We arrived in Fort Kent around noon, I went for a nice ski and then spent 4hrs hanging out in a diner waiting to see if we were going to be able to cross the border without passports. We are now in a hotel in New Brunswick, so every day we have to cross the border to eat meals, to train and to race. I have never been on a tour that is so disorganized and with no one knowing what is going on. I just hope the travel to Italy next Tuesday will be smooth!
This week the men race sprint on Thursday, the women race sprint on Friday, pursuit on Saturday and mass start on Sunday. Should be some good races and they are expecting quite the crowd here! Wish me luck!

Cheers
Rosanna

Our amazing massage therapist also took on the roll as camera man for the pursuit. Here are some photos!

so ready for my race start

ok time to be serious

ready GO!

leaving the range

Claude leaving the range

Brendan in his pursuit race