Over a week has passed since I crossed the finish line in the 72nd Birkebeinerrennet, so I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on the race and recover enough to have the desire to come back next year to have another go. This was my first ever Birkebeiner race and what better way to start than to do the real thing in Norway carrying a 3.5kg backpack symbolizing the young king Haakon!

Race day started out quite early—3:45am. This wake-up time was required in order to catch the 4:30am bus from Lillehammer to Rena. I tried to get some sleep on the two-hour bus ride, but I was already a bit excited making sleep next to impossible. Once at the starting area, I tested my wax and made sure I had enough water and energy gels to get me through the day.

I was seeded into the elite wave from my finish in the Madshus Ski Marathon earlier this year. Because of my elite placement, I donned the only appropriate ski suit for such an occasion… the Purple Cow! I was proud to be the only distinguishable (Topher!!) Purple Cow in the field of roughly 14,000. However, I did get some funny looks from some Norwegians—especially the young ones. Needless to say, my family commented that it was easy to pick me out from the crowd of approaching skiers.

Me passing through Sjusjøen (photos by Janna Johnson)

The elite wave left the starting gate at 8:00am accompanied by a thundering helicopter overhead—only a little intimidating. At the start I managed to move up to the front half of the wave before settling into a rhythm. The first 15km are uphill and took a fairly heavy tool on my energy. I remember seeing a sign saying there’s 41km to the finish and thinking, “oh boy, do I really have energy for this?” At the midway point I was still feeling reasonable, but could tell that things could get worse fast and tried to hold back a bit.

The leaders passing Sjusjøen–15km to go!

One unique experience about this race is the close proximity one has with fellow competitors during the entire race. There was no point during the race that I was skiing alone. I’m sure there were many more people skiing together in the waves behind me, but it was easy to feel like your constantly being swept along in a sea of people.

Great conditions for the 2009 Birkebeinerrennet

The race got tough for me at about 20km to go. I remember accidentally taking a feed of coffee instead of cola, which wasn’t a pleasant experience. About a kilometer further down the trail I met my friend Arild, who had another feed for me, but I choked on the cola/protein-shake/sports-drink mixture and got maybe half a mouthful down before casting the container. Luckily for me the last 15km of the race were mostly downhill, but at this point in the race I was having trouble passing the old-folks that started in a wave an hour ahead of me. The last 2km were difficult and I can only remember trying to double poll (no kick) with cramping triceps up the final hills to the finish.

Norwegian’s know how to spectate…

At the finish I was a deflated, but satisfied, Purple Cow. I finished in 3:03:57—a respectable time, but a good half hour behind the winners. This first experience of the Birkebeiner was made even more special with my family here in addition to the FasterSkier man himself Topher and girlfriend Jen. Also, my congratulations go out to Ali Crocker and all those from Britain who finished their first Birkebeinerrennet after only learning to ski this year! Some of whom only learned to ski a week before the race? Impressive!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Norway, Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.