After coming home from Craftsbury, where the Millers
graciously housed a large portion of the team, I was able to train with my
brother Spencer Eusden ’12, who just flew in from California for the holidays.
The snow was super hard-packed and fast because of the ice storm, but
fortunately there was enough base that some places were still open. I skied at
Bethel Inn until there was enough snow from the big storm to ski elsewhere. I
also have frequently been going to Robert’s Farm, a groomed trail system 15
minutes from my house.
My brother and I getting in from a late ski session.
Robert’s
Farm is a brand new cross country trail system as of a few years ago and was
funded and put together by the local land trust. They provide snowshoes and
skis for anyone to use for free. The trail grooming is all done by volunteers.
The land trust was able to come up with a very good
selection of equipment for people.
Additionally,
they put on a race on Saturday: 6k freestyle biathlon. The shooting was from
15 feet away and the guns were air powered. The SMBC (Southern Maine Biathlon
Club) provided the equipment and instruction.
Here are some people shooting during the race. Some of
the guns were pump powered an others had a gas canister attached, which made faster
reloading. Time was deducted if you had to use a pump-action gun.
The race was a mass start! Spencer and I were the fastest skiers
in a small field of recreational skiers. The format was three laps of 2k with a
five shots after the first and second laps. I held with Spencer easily for the
first lap but unfortunately I missed a shot during the first round of shooting,
whereas he shot five clean. My penalty lap made it hard to catch up with him. I
shot too fast during the second round trying to catch up and missed three!
Spencer did not miss any and beat me by 2 minutes.
Spencer was
asked at least five times if he was going to the Olympics. I tried not to smile
too hard. He had on his new Far West gear with all their sponsors showing so he
looked pretty flashy. He did make a point in that spurring their enthusiasm
about a potential Olympic athlete only encourages people’s excitement in the
sport!
