Three-Part Blog Post Part 1: Ruhpolding

Sorry for not posting in a while. I just returned from Minsk, Belarus where there was very terrible internet. I have a lot of catching up to do and a lot of things to talk about here so I will be launching “Past, Present and Future: Brian’s trip to Europe and the upcoming months”. Basically it will be a three part epic blog post that will be posted in three consecutive days. Today is obviously part one.

Past

Our first day in Ruhpolding, Germany was actually an off day (and actually in Inzell, Germany). So we decided to go do something touristy. Every trip to Europe is usually wrapped a race so there is usually never enough time to explore some of the cool features Europe has to offer. But with this free day and nowhere to travel we decided to visit Salzberg, Austria. Salzberg was a really neat city. It had the classic European winding roads and small alleyways. But what made Salzberg unique was the huge castle on the cliff overlooking the city. We got as close as possible but didn’t want to pay to get in.

Weird sculpture in Salzberg

Street in Salzberg with shops and resturaunts

A cool church. And one of 200 Mozart cutouts  we saw.

A selfie with the castle

The view from the base of the castle

Mozart's birth place

Inside of a huge Church. It really makes you feel small and powerless. 

Maddie Phaneuf checking out one of the shrines.

Found all the people.

There was A LOT of snow in Ruhoplding so it made for some really nice skiing. The range is protected from the wind by some huge mountains surrounding the venue. It was a drastic change from the windy range in Otepaa. We spent a week in Ruhpolding last year in preparation for Euro Champs and the course is just as tough as I remember. Lots of long steep up hills that are good for spectators but hard on the legs.

A cool thing we got to do in Ruhpolding I had never done before was shoot in an indoor shooting range. The targets were electronic so you had a monitor right next to you telling you where your shots went. We did a 30/30 test (30 prone and 30 standing. Scored. Best possible score is 600.) And despite having a very shaky standing portion I was able to get a decent score of 433. A few days later we decided to go back and do another test (because the first one was just so darn fun!) My goal for this test was to really focus on the standing stage for that is what makes or breaks the score. My prone was consistent with last test but my standing was 20 points better resulting in a 450. A new personal record! My goal for the past season has been 500 so I am slowly but surely making my way there.

My electronic target after my shooting test. cool to see the trends of my shooting.

The indoor shooting range.

a mountain overlooking the venue in Ruhpolding.

Biathlon advertising at the venue

Clare Egan making her World Cup debut got the attention of Euro Sport.
  

Germany was cool and all but it was time to get down to business. Junior worlds in Minsk, Belarus was right around the corner. My first impression of Minsk was the place looked really tired. At the venue Siena Ellingson and I were interviewed by a local news station and they asked what we thought of place. I told them I heard the venue was new, I am excited to check it out and race there but in reality I am not too impressed. When we first showed up we realized our visas had the wrong date written on it (which was our fault) but thankfully they were able to clear that up. Then there was a long process of checking rifle paperwork, and finding lost luggage. The bus ride to the venue was probably on the same bus my coach Art Stegen rode when he was there in the 70s, the buss creeked, rattled and shook the whole way. Once there, we had to check in our rifles because due to national laws all rifles must be kept in a locked vault. The city of Minsk is really grey and depressing. It probably doesn’t help that there is a layer of fog over the city but everything sort of seems stale and tired. There is a lot of construction being done but it also seems like there are a lot of buildings that could use some fixing up.

The Arena that is home to Dynamo Minsk! the Minsk hockey team in the KHL (Russian hockey league)

lots of grey and lots of construction. 

The breathtaking view out my hotel window!

There was a little bit of sickness going around the team in Germany but I was able to fend it off for the most part. The first day in Minsk however I woke up with a bit of congestion. I was not worried because I knew I had some time until my first race.

Tune in tomorrow to read about Jr. Worlds and the rest of the trip to Belarus. Plus much more pictures. 

Siena Ellingson being interviewed by a local TV station.

Herb Was Right.

“Great moments are borne from great opportunity…” That of course is what Legendary Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks told his team right before the game that would become the greatest upset in Olympic history. “…and that’s what you have here tonight, gentlemen. That’s what you’ve earned here tonight.” Herb was right. You can’t have a great moment without the opportunity. When the opportunity presents itself you have to “Take it” for you may not get that opportunity again.

At these past races in Otepaa Estonia I was presented with a great opportunity to race against the best juniors in the world and I let it slip. I was not sleeping well, my technique would have made you believe I had never skied before and most importantly there was no mental focus on racing. I was severely jetlagged which is what I think was the problem with the sleep. But in all I felt as though I was not giving the races 100% of my attention.

I am not unhappy with my result, I am upset with myself for not doing everything I could have done to have a good race.

Fortunately I was able to realize this before it was too late. Through analysis of the first two races I realized there could have been more mental preparation, better warm up and better technique. This new approach helped me move up 8 places in the pursuit to 49th. And with one of the better shootings on the day, my isolated pursuit time was 32^nd. Despite this result being my best of the three it is still below where I want to be.

Every race, win or lose is a learning opportunity. You learn what works and what you need to improve on. What separates the best from the rest is what they do with the new found information. And that’s what I plan to do. Use all this information I learned from these races and prepare myself for Junior Worlds in about a week. Right now I am in Ruhpolding, Germany with tons of snow and a great attitude toward the upcoming races. 

Sweet cars in the Munich airport. 

A helpful reminder on the back of the door in the Estonian Airport

Tallin airport making sure you look ballin'

Tehvandi Stadium 

The trail goes right in front of the stadium

The entrance to the biathlon stadium

The course goes right behind that wall behind the range

Casey Smith and I found a Washington licence plate. (he's from Washington)

One of 30 national geographic landmarks in Estonia. That St. Mary's Lutheran church was built in 1116. I don't have any up close pictures but it was huge! (yes there is a big yellow square in the middle of town)

The ski jump at the venue. They built the upper part of the landing zone.

There was a rock climbing wall on the side of the Jump...

...it goes all the way up

Jeff the Giraffe (ongoing joke with my teammates about my long neck)

A better view of the stadium

Flags lining the course.

Mikaela and Siena getting ready to cheer the Mens sprint

The biathlon stadium was packed during the mens sprint

I guess I was on TV for a second before the race.

Biathlon Stadium under the lights 

A few pictures of the races 

Jr. World Trials

In my last post I talked about how I was hoping to be chosen for the IBU cup (biathlon minor leagues). I knew the chance to make the team was going to be a long shot, even with my good results. In the end I just missed making the team. But I am ok with that because I am still two years away from racing at that level so even being in the mix is a sign of good things to come.

I hope everybody had a good holiday vacation. As I mentioned last post, I spent the holidays in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the Ellingson family. Jakob (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw198PuDQYom-17IZgvptQ) and Siena Ellingson are Biathletes who were on the Jr. World team last year. I am grateful for their hospitality. Thanks to them I didn’t have to deal with travel and airports right before competition.

Training in Mineapolis was tough. There wasn’t much snow so I was limited to running but that is ok because exploring new places on foot is always fun.

My goal going in to Jr. World trials was to keep up the good shooting. I wanted to prove my performance at IBU trials wasn’t luck or a onetime thing. 

Loving my new Rossis. Super Fast! 

Hubbard coaching... with a hand in his pants...

MWSC PG's and juniors

Testing out my new Mt. Borah jacket. I love it.

The first race was a 10K sprint Competition. The snow was really fast and my skiing felt in control and quick. My first time to the range resulted in a clean prone stage. And I knew this was my day. In standing I had 2 misses but was still far enough ahead to win by 1:16 over second place!

Next was the Pursuit format race. I say Pursuit format because I started first since I was the winner the day before but our individual times were recorded and set into results. So it’s not a true pursuit. Right out of the start I began experiencing a weird thing that happens to me sometimes. It has been called by some doctors “sport induced asthma” but I don’t think that’s it. What happens is my body becomes very heavy. My arms and legs feel 20 pounds heavier than normal and it’s hard to catch my breath. This used to happen to me before every cross country race in high school but it hasn’t happened in a while. It lasted for 15-20 seconds then all of the sudden, it just disappeared, like it always did. And for the rest of the race I was fine. In the first prone I had a great group of shots. Unforunatly they were all on the left side of the target, resulting in 4 penalties. It was a little demoralizing until I saw a lot of people around me also had a few misses. I knew the race wasn’t over yet. In the next prone I took a few clicks right and hit 3 of the 5 targets and slowly moved my back up the ladder. In the first standing I felt so comfortable I was just nailing targets one after another, then I missed the last one. a little too comfortable I guess. Upon leaving the penalty loop I saw Jake leavening the range with clean shooting. I knew Jake started 20 seconds behind me so right now he was beating me by a little bit. We skied that lap together and came into the final shooting stage together. It was a shooting duel now. On this standing I felt just as comfortable and nailed all 5 targets! Jake had 1 miss so I knew it was going to be a ski race until the end. For the last lap I gave it everything I had and ended beating Jake by 9 seconds. The race was fun and close, the way biathlon should be.

Jake and I up the "Waterfall"

In the final race, a 7.5K sprint, I did a little better prone and kept the good standing shooting going. 3-0 shooting helped me seal the deal by 1:30 and win the 3^rd of 3 races.

With these results at trials I qualified European Championships in Otepaa, Estonia and Jr. Worlds in Minsk, Belarus. These are the same teams I qualified for last year but this year seams different. I feel like this year I am finally a biathlete. Last year I was a skier who hoped to shoot well enough to have good results but this year I feel like I am a completely different person. Before the race I write out a plan and stick to it. On the range I know what to do and do it. I know this might sound like common sense but it is something I’ve struggled with in the past. I put in a lot of hard work on the range this summer and I happy to see it paying off in big races. I guess what I’m trying to say is this year I feel more mature while racing and am looking forward to this seasons European races.

I'd like to thank everybody who has reached out to congratulate me. It really means a lot to me. Although it says "Brian Halligan" on the results, to me it says all the names of of the people that helped get me to where I am today. from coaches, teachers and parents, to friends and family. Some have played a bigger role than others but everybody has had a part in getting me to where I am today. Thank You so much for supporting me. 

I leave for Europe the 24^th of January but hope to make it back to New York before then to see some friends and family who I didn’t get to see for Christmas.

Also, While cleaning my rifle this afternoon I noticed a space on my rifle that has to constantly be blacked out due to the “too many of one logo on your rifle” rule by the IBU. (basically you can only have a certain amount of one logo on your rifle. Since I have an Anshutze rifle, “Anschutze” is everywhere so I have to black out a few of the “Anshutze”). so I figured I’d just put it up for sale. $50 and I’ll put your company’s logo right under my rear sight and I’ll tag your company’s name in all my social media posts. Plus you will get a post card from all my traveling adventures. Email me if you are interested: bhnordic4@gmail.com

Your logo there, right where it says "Anshutz"

Thanks for stopping by. Follow me on Twitter: @Bhbiathon Instagram: @brhalligan4 and friend me on Facebook.