Fall Biathlon 2021

The annual Fall Biathlon competition for the army cadets of 3045 occurred on Saturday, October 23.  The day began at 9:30am.  We arrived at the school gym and immediately went to work setting everything up.  A temporary air rifle range was created using tables, mats, plinker targets, sand bags, backboards, flags, and plastic cones.  Three shooting lanes were made because we only have three plinker targets.  Large tables divided the lanes.  All the air rifles were placed on a table at the back of the gym.  Bowls were filled with five lead pellets each.  I pasted the rules and maps of the running course on a wall.

Several things were taken care of before the day of the competition.  Boxed meals, Coleman stoves, naphtha, and matches were brought to the gym and placed in storage.  The corps provides food to its cadets when activities begin in the morning and continue into the afternoon without a “go-home-for-lunch” break.  I also printed individualized marking sheets and stop watch labels.

I gave the cadets an hour to select their rifles, practice shooting, and stretch.  They would be running and shooting for this competition.  (We walked the 1km course the previous week to familiarize ourselves). 

The cadets decided the order in which they wanted to complete their relays.  Each cadet was required to run & shoot three times.  The relays had to be completed in a run-shoot-run-shoot-run-shoot configuration.  Cadets who weren’t competing had to help me keep bowls filled with pellets, reset the targets, and make sure the marking sheets were being completed.

The competition officially began at 11am, with the first cadet leaving the gym to run the 1km course.  The next cadet left a minute later.  The running course follows the roads in a square pattern that circles the school.  I was able to stay on top of the marking and timing because the competing cadets came inside at different intervals.  I think there were only two times where I had to get a cadet to mark a competitor as I was marking another.

I paused the competition for lunch at noon.  Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the cadets & myself, we couldn’t get the Coleman stoves started.  We may have accidentally got the defective ones.  Thankfully, my school keys gave me access to the Home Ec Room, so lunch was moved there.  Having lunch in the Home Ec Room also gave us access to dishes and cutlery.  This is a big deal because normally, military meal packages are eaten from the cooked bags.  You don’t see the full meal; only pieces of it when you remove food from the bag using your spork (spoon + fork).  When you have a dish, you can pour the entire meal out of the bag and see it all at once.  My meal was beef macaroni and it tasted alright.  The cadets & I cleaned up the Home Ec Room and returned to the gym to continue the competition.

The afternoon was more of same.  Cadets ran, shot, ran some more, and then shot again.  I followed my same routines of keeping time and score.  The last competitor completed their relay just after 2pm.

We spent the next 30 minutes putting everything away.  I placed all the marking sheets in an envelope and took it to the cadet office.  I helped with the cleanup because leaders lead by example.  I held a quick debriefing once everything was put away.  I congratulated the cadets for completing their relays and promised to have the results ready by Wednesday.  The cadets played sports until 3pm.