It was a high stakes affair. Whoever finished last was to buy milkshakes. I thought I had a pretty good chance considering I was racing against Paz, Mags and Aaron. Then again, there was more to it this time than just suffering on the bike. There was also humiliation in the rifle range.
Soldier Hollow was the site of the cross country ski events in the 2002 Winter Olympics, including the biathlon. Ever since, the folks at Soldier Hollow have been conjuring up ideas to get the public to use the facilities. One of their best ideas is the mountain bike biathlon.
It works like this. You ride a short lap—approximately one mile—at sprint pace. Then you park your bike, pick up a cartridge and run to an air rifle. There are five targets and five pellets. For every target you miss, you do short penalty loop before heading out for another lap. Olympic skiers rarely miss. They can slow their heart rate down so slow that they can squeeze the trigger between beats. I’m not so steady. I get up there breathing and shaking so hard that I’m seeing double. Paz says he holds his breath, which improves his aim but I think one of these times he’s going to pass out.
Last night, Mags, who had never fired a gun before, finished first [in our milkshake group, second place in her category]. She only did three laps, but that, in addition to the shooting, is another way of leveling the playing field. She did a total of five penalty loops. Paz was next, he passed me on our fifth lap while I was doing my three penalty loops and he was doing zero. Overall, I did eleven penalty loops; Paz only did six or seven.
I was on the hook, but Aaron, who repeatedly pointed out before the race that he earned the rifle shooting merit badge as a Boy Scout (I did too, for the record) started a minute after we did and finished just over a minute behind me. Shakes were on him.
Who knew interval training could be so fun.
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