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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: race volunteers

  • The Singletrack Shootdown and the Value of Volunteers

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    The scene at the “Singletrack Shootdown” Photo: Judy Geer

    A week ago, we hosted a biathlon race at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center as part of our Oktoberfest celebrations. The event included a beginners’s pre-race shooting safety clinic and featured separate races for beginners and for experienced biathletes. Additionally, participants could chose to either compete running or mountain biking. The races consisted of 5 laps on woodsy single-track trails and had 4 shooting stages. Beginners shot prone (laying down) for all stages at the bigger standing-sized targets while experienced biathletes shot from both the prone and standing positions at the standard target sizes.

    Craftsbury junior coach, Jeremy Nellis, and myself were the primary race organizers. Neither of us has a lot of biathlon race organizing experience. We didn’t know exactly what to expect. During the week leading up to the race, we fixed up the targets, marked out the course, and recruited a handful of volunteers to help out. Brand new events at the Outdoor Center rarely have a huge turnout the first year and most biathlon events in the United States have low participation. I had no idea how many people would show up, but I guessed there wouldn’t be many. The stack of 50 waviers and registration forms that I printed out looked wishfully large.

    Imagine our surprise when 65 people lined up at the registration table on race morning!

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    The registration table, run by Carlie Geer, starts to get busy. Photo: Judy Geer

    It was very exciting to have such a huge turnout for the event and it was also a little stressful. We had over 50 people in the day’s largest race (beginners’) and our range has only 10 targets. Things were going to be tight. Biathlon races require a huge number of volunteers compared to a normal ski race. On the shooting range you need people scoring the targets, backup scorers, target resetters, and timers (in case all shooting points are full and a time credit needs to be given). For a beginners’s race you need even more people for reloading magazines, assisting shooters when needed and most importantly making sure everything is operating safely.

    Luckily the crowd was flexible and the volunteers and staff were up to the challenge. We had several volunteers signed up ahead of time, but many parents and spectators also stepped up on race day to help. After quick lessons about how to load magazines or record shooting scores, they went to work. In addition, many of the “expert” competitors who would be racing later in the morning jumped in to help out on their own initiative. They taught beginners during the shooting clinic and delayed their own race warm-up to assist on the range during the beginners’ race. We ran into several unanticipated problems during the day (ran out of safety pins for race numbers, had to move back start times, the bike course was too difficult, etc) but the event ran surprising smoothly and the atmosphere was relaxed. As impressive as it was to have so many racers, I was even more blown away by how helpful and understanding the crowd was. Our volunteers and staff for the day numbered almost 30. Many thanks to everyone for coming, competitors and volunteers alike!

    I hope everybody had a great time. We learned a lot from this experience and plan to have more Craftsbury biathlon events in the coming year, so stay tuned.

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    Dick Dreissigacker instructs a group volunteers how to be score keepers on the range. Photo: Judy Geer

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    The first round of participants receive safety instruction at the beginners’ clinic. Photo: Jamie Chapman

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    The beginners’ clinic featured one-on-one instruction, talking each participant through all the steps of the shooting process. Photo: Jamie Chapman

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    Craftsbury junior skier Matthew Lawlor practices before the race. He is one of several young skiers in the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club that have been attending weekly shooting practices with Jeremy. Matthew went on to win the beginners’s running division, his first biathlon race. Photo: Jamie Chapman

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    Giving final instructions to racers at the starting line of the beginners race. Photo: Hannah Dreissigacker

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    Sheldon Miller and Andrea Carpentier are experts at smoothly running things from behind the scenes. Normally they can be found in the back office of the Outdoor Center but on race days, you will probably spot them directing timing near the finish line. Photo: Judy Geer

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    Lynn Jennings and Lauren Gillott keeping track of penalty loops. Photo: Judy Geer

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    The firing line. Photo: Jamie Chapman

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    Competitors in the beginners’ race being supervised by experienced biathlon coaches and athletes. Photo: Judy Geer

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    Shooters on the range during the expert race. Photo: Judy Geer

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    Mountain bike racers leaving the range and heading back onto the bike course. Photo: Judy Geer

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    The GRP rowers showed up en masse to race and help out. Phil Henson puts on a goofy face during a trip around the penalty loop. Photo: Judy Geer

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    The most exciting battle of the day was between siblings Jack and Callie Young, Craftsbury youth skiers. After matching each other’s performances on the range, the race came down to the final sprint, in which Callie barely edged Jack. Their competitive spirit matches any I have seen at any level. Photo: Judy Geer

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    Craftsbury youth and junior skiers hanging out and staying warm post race. Bonus points if you can identify the GRP ski racer face in the mix. Photo: Hannah Dressigacker

  • Sovereign Lake Organizers Celebrate Solid Weekend

    Alaska Pacific University team members volunteered to break down the course after the NorAm Cup races at Sovereign Lake in Vernon, British Columbia, from Dec. 10-11. (Photo by Jesse Winter/JesseWinterPhotography.com)

    VERNON, British Columbia — In the tech center high above the stadium at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre, several race organizers looked outside at the Alaska Pacific University (APU) skiers.

    They were doing it again.

    At the end of the NorAm Cup competition Sunday — after the men’s and women’s distance races, and the boys’ and girls’ junior and juvenile races — those wearing the black APU jackets went to work. According to Chief of Stadium Don Wylie, it was the third straight year they broke down the course without being asked.

    “It’s fantastic,” Wylie said as he watched those who had raced 10 and 15 k an hour or two earlier fold banners and carry barriers into a storage room.

    “It’s a stadium that takes hours to put together and hours of hours to take down,” he said. “(With their help), it’s done in 15 minutes, and it really helps my people out.”

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    APU skiers helping put away barriers after the NorAm Cup races on Sunday at Sovereign Lake. (Photo by Jesse Winter/JesseWinterPhotography.com)

    APU skier Peter Kling said it was practically a no-brainer after they spent three weeks in the area.

    “They do a lot for us here and it’s a great way to give back,” Kling said. “It’s one of the best places to come race.”

    Becca Rorabaugh, who placed fourth in Sunday’s 10 k classic, said it was a good way to kill time.

    “We’re hanging out at the venue (waiting) for the awards and stuff anyway so why the heck not? It seems like a good thing to do,” she said.

    In their fifth year of traveling to Silver Star, they said they wanted to be invited back.

    “It’s probably one of my favorite places to ski ever because there’s so many trails and there’s always perfect snow,” Rorabaugh said. “And you get to stay in really whimsically colored houses. Silver Star is just a really fun atmosphere.”

    Wylie said they’d be invited back regardless.

    The impromptu cleanup appropriately capped off what many organizers considered one of the most successful NorAm Cup weekends yet at Sovereign Lake.

    For the last five or six years, Chief of Race Sharon Clarke said they had built an experienced team of chiefs. This year’s crew included three from the Vancouver Olympics. Theytrained for three years to work at the Olympics and brought that experience to Sovereign Lake’s races.

    Aside from the organization, the nordic center’s head groomer, Bill Pifer, worked at the 2010 Winter Games. More than 100 volunteers, including local residents and those from various parts of Canada, flocked to the venue for a chance to ski there.

    “We have reputation for putting on a good event,” Clarke said. “People like to be involved and like to help.”

    She said they depended on the volunteers and credited Sovereign Lake club manager Scott Lemon for helping the event run as smoothly as possible. He took it upon himself to bring hot drinks to course volunteers.

    “We have a very happy crowd right now,” Clarke said.

    Cross Country Canada delegate James Cunningham, who oversaw the races to ensure it met NorAm standards, said the two-day event went off with any major hiccups.

    “The sprint race (Saturday) was as good as we’ve ever had, and (Sunday) it seemed like there were no problems at all,” Cunningham said.

    The only issue Lemon had to deal with came in the form of a wild animal. Toward the end of Sunday’s races, he had to scare a moose away from the trails with a few bursts of an air horn. Fortunately, the relatively large mammal wasn’t anywhere near the racers.

    “I’m sure he’ll be back in the next couple days,” Lemon said, explaining that the lack of snow in the woods kept it from migrating down the mountain. The full-racked moose appeared near the trails once before in the last two weeks.

    While it snowed as early as late October in the Silver Star area, the region had not seen much new snow in the time since. At an elevation of about 1,600 meters, or 5,200 feet, it was able to keep the solid base.

    Lemon said the center’s maintenance crew did a lot of prep work over the summer to prepare for a lack of snow by flattening several trails to make sure they could work with less. Before the NorAm races, he said they groomed meticulously.

    Their efforts paid off, as Sovereign Lake drew an estimated 500 people over the weekend.

    “It’s great exposure for the ski center,” he said of hosting the NorAm Cup. “Because it’s the first race of the season, it brings people here about a week early so we get lots of skier traffic out of it as well.”