August 23, 2008 – When we are on the road, traveling because of training camps or because of competitions there are certain essentials we all need. Some of these include a comfy bed, great food, proximity to the training or competition site. Then there are some others items that just make traveling more enjoyable, for some it is being close to a good coffee shop but for me it is a place to shoot.

Yes, I know what you are thinking; why does a Nordic skier need to shoot? Well, when we go to an IPC World Cup there are both cross country and biathlon events. To prepare for the biathlon races we must dry fire, which is training where we go through the actions of shooting, right down to pulling the trigger BUT we don’t have ammunition in the rifles. With dry firing we practice the basic and the finer skills of shooting. Because the biathlon events are my strongest events it is a must to have a range.

But not every hotel (or none that I know of) has a biathlon range in the back. So we have to make one that works for us. Celine (biathlon coach for the PNST), the other biathletes and I have perfected the skill of turning a simple hotel hallway into a biathlon range. We have a few tricks up our sleeves, and trust me with a few arm amputates; we can fill those sleeves pretty full! It is quite humorous occasionally how we put a range together, using items like milk crates, chairs, and even chewing gum. Oh, and the looks we can get from some people walking down our range-hallways are priceless. There also are outdoor ranges that we have created using parking spaces, and thanks to friendly groomer in the Goms Valley, we made a range into a snow dune.

What I have learned most of all is that in order to succeed you must learn to adapt! Creating a range from a hotel hallway is never easy nor is becoming a podium threat in 2010!

Mark Arendz is a member of the Para-Nordic Senior World Cup Team. Some of the team members are training in New Zealand currently and will return to Canada to prepare for another training camp in Finland come the fall.