La Chaine des Aravis

The view from our team chalet here in Le Grand Bornand is of la Chaine des Aravis (the Aravis range), and I don't think I would ever tire of looking at it.  Clearly, it had to be painted.

This afternoon is our first race here--the women's relay.  We should get to start in the front row of nations because of our good relay in Hochfilzen.  We're all excited, it should be fun!!

How to...

pass 2 hours in a hotel without internet:  

And now my new computer is decorated!  

Admittedly, there are a lot of other ways to pass two hours in a hotel without internet.  For instance, I could have made a painting instead.  I did do some painting, but its not finished yet.  I spent the last week in Hochfilzen, Austria and just traveled yesterday to our new world cup venue in Le Grand Bornand, France.  Austria was beautiful, but France is blowing me away.  I promise some art soon.  But for now, here are a few pictures. 

In Hochfilzen, I had one good race, and one bad race.  The sprint was not good.  Well, there were some good parts of it, but I missed three in prone, which is just never good.  I felt like I was starting to get the feel of racing on skis though, and my one miss in standing was OK...but the end result was not what I was hoping for and I didn't qualify for the pursuit.  Its funny how easily a good biathlon race can turn into a bad biathlon race.  In a period of 30 seconds, you can miss enough targets to just put you out of it.  And sometimes the misses are SO close!  But thats also what makes it exciting.  Luckily I got another chance to hit my targets the very next day in a relay.  And somehow, magically, the pieces all fell together and I felt good skiing and cleaned prone and only used one spare in standing, and it was FUN!  I got to ski with people, use some tactics, and pass people too, especially in the range.  It was even more magical because all of the other girls had good days too--Sara and Lanny both cleaned, and together we all used only 3 spares and ended up in 8th place, which is the best U.S. Women's relay result in a long time.  Once again, biathlon is showing how much of a roller coaster ride it is.  

This is the view from my window as I write this here in Le Grand Bornand.  I am so lucky!