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March 30 to April 1 Fort Smith hosted the third ‘Fast and Female’ event to be held in the NWT. Thirty five girls participated from Fort McPherson, Deline, Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Trout Lake, Yellowknife and Fort Smith.

by Patti-Kaye Hamilton

 By PATTI-KAY HAMILTON

March 25 Pursuit

Race Day #4 - Relays

It was another early start and off to Martock on the 7 AM bus.  I think we have the early morning routine down pat by now!  Prior to leaving, we had to clean out the lock-up unit as all equipment will go directly to the airport after the last race today.

Sorry to be coming at you a little late....we had no internet connection in our room for the last day or so....too many people with blackberries and lap tops in Halifax this week apparently!

Thursday was our off day, and the team was ready for it!  The boys in particular have had a busy schedule, up at 5 Am every morning.   It was well after 10 before there was any sign of life in the room next door!  The girls have been more fortunate as they have been able to sleep until 8 Am most mornings.

Race Day #3 - Pursuit

Race day and the usual morning routine - up at 5 AM with the boys, breakfast, pick-up the guns from the lockup unit and it was off to Martock on the bus.....or at least for some of us.  The second morning bus was 35 minutes late and this resulted in the Men's start being delayed by 40 minutes and the Women's by 30 minutes later in the day.

Race Day #2 - Sprint

Up at 5:00 AM with Joseph and Brandon, Doug and Gail.  Breakfast in the cafeteria at 5:45 AM and off to the bus by 6:30 AM.  Paul already on site, catching the 5:30 AM bus, hard at work on the skis.  Pick up the guns and off to Martock at 7:00 AM.

Very tough conditions today - only about -5 C or so but winds at 30-40 km/h and gusts up to 70 km/h.  Wind chill of about -12 C and as low as -16 C at times.  Snow that was falling was going straight sideways. 

Today was a training day at the CWG.  The Host Committee was unwilling to move the start time for the boys back by more than an hour (meaning a 6 AM wake up call for the boys).  Given that they were coming off the long 15 km race, the coaches decided that it was more important for the biathletes to get caught up on their sleep than it was to make the trip to Martock for a training day.  As it turned out, many of the other teams made the same decision and training day was not very well attended.