As if racing on skis and then having to control your body movements enough to fire a rifle at tiny targets 50 metres away is not enough of a challenge, consider what Liz Czechmeister had to endure in her B.C. Cup biathlon race Saturday.
At every half-lap before she came into the shooting range at Otway Nordic Centre, she had to give blood.
The 15-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member is a Type 1 diabetic and the physical duress she puts herself through every time she races can induce rapid changes in the level of sugar in her blood. But if she closely monitors her sugars, as she did with the help of her mom Cathy during the 7.5-kilometre senior girls race, it's possible to find success waiting for her at the finish line.
For Czechmeister, that meant a trip to the medal podium. Her time placed her third in her category behind gold-medalist Sarah Beaudry of Prince George, but Czechmeister's shooting was unmatched by her senior girls peers. She hit all 10 of her targets while standing and had just four misses out of 10 bullets fired from the prone position. It was, without question, her best race in two years as a biathlete.
"This year has been a lot about experimenting and trying things out and (on Saturday) we had to do a lot of carb-loading and pre-checking before the race," she said. "I had to do four checks during the race and that was every single loop. It's a little discouraging to have to stop, but it's really important for me to focus just on myself, not anyone else, during the race to make sure I have everything under control and I'm listening to what me body to telling me. (Saturday) it was so well under control I didn't have to take anything."
Czechmeister's time was 51:53. Beaudry, a Canada Games gold medalist, set the senior girls pace in 35:05. Holly Heximer of Rossland won silver in 51:04.
Czechmeister wears an insulin pump that feeds into her body intravenously and on cold days that pump tends to freeze up. Usually, during a race, her insulin levels naturally rise and her sugars drop, and she counters that by drinking juice.
The key is monitoring. If her sugars drop too low, she can get dizzy, disoriented, be unable to think or speak clearly, and lose muscle co-ordination. Sugar levels too high can lead to blurred vision, extreme fatigue and extreme thirst. For Czechmeister, changes to those levels can happen quickly.
"Skiers always have to be aware of their [blood sugar levels] but it's life-threatening for her," said Caledonia Racers coach Leisbet Beaudry.
A skier since age 6, Czechmeister learned she had diabetes when she was 10. She was part of Caledonia's Junior Racers program for a few years before she branched off into biathlon.
"I was a bit discouraged when I was diagnosed and I stopped skiing for awhile, but then I got back on board again and got quite serious about it because I love the sport so much and wanted to take it to the next level," said Czechmeister. "I always cross-countried and I heard about biathlon and wanted to try it and I really loved it. Seeing Megan Tandy in the Olympics (last year) really inspired me to think that someone from Prince George could get to the top."
Her biathlon coach is Erica Erasmus, a former ski racer from Vanderhoof who also is a Type 1 diabetic. Czechmeister is living proof a medical condition as serious as hers is not debilitating, even in a sport as taxing on the body as biathlon is.
"Nothing's impossible if you're determined to really strive for it," Czechmeister said.
She raced in all three B.C. Cup biathlon tour stops this winter, but with the temperature at the start of Sunday's sprint close to -20 C she made the decision not to race.
"When it's cold out it's really hard to tell what your body is telling you, the cold sort of numbs my feeling of being high or low and we decided it would be unsafe for me," she said.
