Spring in Norway - Act 2, Lillehammer and Birkebeinerrennet

     After our trip to Bergen we changed trains in Oslo and continued north to Lillehammer, arriving Wednesday evening. We were a bit delayed getting in to Oslo, so we really had to race to get our skis from the storage locker and jump on to our next train, but we made it. I picked up a head cold while we were in Bergen and was pretty wiped out after a long day on the train, so when we got to our AirBnb I pretty much went right to bed. Eva walked to the grocery store to buy me some soup.

    The next morning we hopped on a bus from Lillehammer up to Sjusjoen and got our first look at the race course for Birken, the Birkebeinerloype. We met Erik Hendrickson and a couple other Minnesotans, Taylor and Marianne, to ski a loop up in Sjusjoen. Then Eva and I were going to ski the race trail down to Lillehammer. We had heard from several people that it would be a good idea to preview the long and occasionally steep downhill at the end of the course before racing it. 

    The weather in Sjusjoen was wonderful, we really got lucky with weather our whole trip I feel, or maybe that's just how it is in the spring in Norway. The race course is easy to find, it is 40' wide where it goes through the Sjusjoen stadium, and there were people at work setting up sponsor banners, timing equipment and building snow chairs for the weekends races. The terrain was not what I had expected. In Oslo and Bergen most of the trails were though the woods, and didn't feel that different from trails in the US. In Sjusjoen the terrain was much more open, with stands of trees and a lot of open ground; much more of an alpine feel. The trails themselves were also different, all the trails were wide and the grooming was amazing. The 4 enormous groomers sitting on the side of the trail in the stadium area are a good clue as to why. It also helps that they seem to regularly get fresh snow that packs well and are far enough North that even the mid March sun doesn't transform it very quickly.

Minnesotans in Sjusjoen

    I feel like it's been a while since I've spent much time skiing somewhere completely new, so there was a great novelty factor for this first ski. Norway has an amazing interactive app/website that has all of their ski trails on it at Skisporet.no. In addition to being a great navigation tool it provides a bunch of useful information such as when they were last groomed (including realtime movement of the groomers while they are out), if it is groomed for skate, classic, or both, what the elevation profile of each segment of trail is, and where there are road crossings, bus stops, cafes, and other places of note. As much as I love Skinnyski this website is in another league as far as trail info.

Ski Trails around Sjusjoen - Real Time

    We skied the opposite direction of the race for a while, then turned on to another trail that looped around and back to Sjusjoen and linked back up with the race trail right where it dropped under a road and into one of the steeper sections of the downhill. Eva and I continued down, the other skiers in our group took a different trail back to the stadium.

    The section of downhill right after leaving Sjusjoen is probably the fastest section of the race course. This was the only part of the downhill I was out of the tracks for, and I probably could have stayed in if I'd been a bit more brave. There were several places over the next 10k down to Lillehammer where I got a bit nervous about how much speed I was carrying, but much like rollerskiing down Trading Post in Afton it is just a matter of trusting that things will level out eventually and you'll be able to bleed off some of that speed. It was super fun spending so much time in a tuck just zipping downhill and around gradual corners. We dropped out of the open Tundra and back into the pine trees and before we knew it we were in the Lillehammer stadium where the race finishes. This was the opposite side of town from our AirBnb though, so we continued our ski on a trail up in the hills above the city and after one more long exciting downhill (with a narrower trail and less recent grooming than the Birkie course) we ended up at a trail head only a few blocks from where we were staying.

    That afternoon we walked back across town so we could see what was going on at the Expo. It was really crazy, crowded, with many vendors and lots of fancy ski gear, wax, clothes, energy products, and lots of other outdoor gear as well. Many had really good deals going on too, so we picked up a few things and headed back home.

    There was a lot of fresh snow and wind overnight Thursday night, but Friday morning looked mostly clear in Lillehammer, so we got right out on our skis and skied back up to the stadium to see if we could cheer on Zach Nelson and the other skiers racing the skate Birken (SkoyteBirken).

This was groomed yesterday

    We hiked  up through some fresh snow and eventually got to a trail that was fresh groomed and we could ski it all the way up to the stadium where the race finished. It is a long uphill from town up to the stadium, so we really got a workout skiing up. When we got up there is was oddly quiet, and there were some skiers sprinting around, but no Birken racers that we could find. We finally stopped by one of the fire pits to ask someone what was going on, and we were informed that the race was cancelled. The 9 inches of fresh snow and high winds up on the open terrain meant they couldn't keep the trail in a safe condition.

Hanging out at the finish of the race that didn't happen

    With no racers to watch we skied back down and started to pack up for our trip to Rena. When Eva skied her first Birkie she stayed in the school gym in Hayward, and even if it didn't lead to a great night of sleep she met many friendly skiers and we thought it might be a fun experience to try that here. Plus we could get a couple extra hours of sleep in the morning before heading to the start. We packed up our sleeping gear and race gear and hopped on the bus. When we got to Rena we picked up our bibs and hiked up to the school. There was an expo tent in Rena as well, where I picked up some extra gels so I'd have plenty of fuel for the race. We were staying in a classroom with about a dozen others. We were provided with a foam mat and a chair, pretty minimal, but it worked out just fine. We waxed our skis at a picnic table outside the school. Dinner was lasagna, with a waffle for dessert, prepared and served by the school children for a small fee. Then we headed off to sleep.

Sleeping accommodations

        Race morning was warm and very foggy. We were provided breakfast at the school, then hopped on a bus to the start. My stomach was still a bit off from being sick, so I didn't eat too much. The start was busy, people were panic waxing, testing, elites were warming up, bathroom lines were crazy (there were definitely not enough porta-potties for the number of racers and they quickly ran out of toilet paper). The announcer on the intercom was very calm however, reminding athletes that if they miss their start they can just join another wave and will still get the correct time.

Race Morning

    It was very humid at the start, so Eva and I decided to add a bit warmer wax, even though we were told it would be drier and colder a few km up the trail. I haven't been that confident in my double pole this season and wanted the extra kick. I hopped in my corral when it opened and lined up somewhere in the middle. I qualified into wave 2, but figured I wouldn't be the fastest one in the wave, so I didn't worry about getting right to the front. Everyone is required to carry a backpack weighing at least 7.5 lbs to simulate carrying the baby prince Haakon over the mountains, just like the Birkebeiners the race was named after. Since everyone was packing their warmups in their backpacks there wasn't a crazy rush to get warmups to the trucks and then stand around cold at the start like there often is at the American Birkie. In addition to my warmups I packed all my gels and a 2 liter bladder of water to meet the weight requirement.

In the corral, ready to go!

    The race started pretty relaxed, the front line went out quickly, but everyone else was pretty content to set a fast but relaxed pace and start working into the climb. The course goes uphill for 15+ km with few flats and no downhills, so there is a lot of time to sort out your position in your wave with 10 sets of tracks available. I felt good for a lot of the climbing, I felt like I was working my way forward in the wave and keeping my striding relaxed. I made sure to keep the pace under control with many km of climbing still to go. It was right around freezing, so I had dressed pretty lightly but was still on the edge of overheating due to the hard striding. As we got higher the kick got better and the terrain opened up around the trail. There were some areas where I could look ahead and see the trail way up in the distance. Eva said when she came to some of these areas starting in wave 6 she could see a string of skiers for many km up ahead.

Birken Course

    We finally neared the top of the first climbing section. There was a KOM banner for the Ski Classics series racers, and it was really whipping around in the strong wind as we neared the summit. I saw many gel wrappers discarded along the trail as we neared the peak (despite a supposed penalty for littering). I planned to take my gel on the downhill when I could tuck and relax. As soon as I crested the hill I could see I was outmatched by the skiers around me. They were double poling hard and really being aggressive on the gradual down. I could also tell the extra warm wax was slowing my skis a bit. The downhill was a little over 1km long, and it went by fast! Then it was right in to another 5k of steady climb.

    I clawed back many places on the climb, but once we crested the next ridge there was a lot of down and flat and most of those people raced past me again. I tried to hop on to some of the packs double poling past, but couldn't hold on long. I took all the rest of my gels over the next 15k, but was still feeling the lack of energy due to all the energy expended on the climbing and not fueling enough while I was sick. There was one more long climb, about 7km and now we were out in a pretty warm sun. By the top I was roasting and completely bonked! The last 1/2 km to the summit I was just walking on my skis, I didn't have enough energy to kick and glide. I stopped at the aid station just after the summit and took a couple minutes drinking several cups of energy drink and eating everything I could get my hands on, including some really amazing warm Lefsa with cinnamon sugar. I'm sure I was stopped for only a minute or two, but it's been quite a while since I've needed to stop during a ski race, so it felt like I was giving up a lot of time.

Eva on course just after the high point

    I started moving again and slowly started to get back some energy. There were still skiers passing me, but only a group here and there instead of a steady stream. My main motivation to keep up the pace was that I was still in contention for a 25% prize for my age group. They manage this really impressively, with live billboards at a couple locations along the course letting skiers know what the cutoff time was.

Live Updates on Age Group prizes

    I finally hit the section of trail we had skied on Thursday, and I was feeling refueled and confident that I could at least finish with a steady pace and not bonk again. As the race passed through Sjusjoen the atmosphere buoyed me even further. It was like mainstreet Hayward, but even more rowdy, and with no fences. There were spectators with their fires going right on the side of the trail. There were speakers blaring everything from DJ Tiesto to Neil Diamond to Wu Tang Clan all packed in to a 1/2 km section of trail. Eva said it was even crazier when she came through, with spectators offering drinks and drunkenly trying to help push the skiers up the hill.

    From Sjusjoen it was a crazy rush down to the finish in Lillehammer. My legs were pretty shaky, and the course was already breaking down. The classic tracks were washed out and there were some berms starting to form. I had some energy back, but was trying to use it judiciously so I stayed tucked whenever I could and worked on pushing over the rolling sections to carry as much speed as I could. The last km of the race is completely flat and loops around the edge of the Lillehammer ski stadium to finish right where the Lillehammer Olympic and world cup races finish, so it was fun to experience that, even if the stands were pretty empty by the time I came in. The mood was celebratory at the finish however. After finishing, everyone goes directly through the food line where you get a Norwegian Wurst (hotdog) wrapped in lefsa with ketchup and mustard, an apple, non-alcoholic beer and a red bull. No soup in sight. It was a gorgeous day to be outside and people were hanging out swapping race stories and cheering in the racers streaming by. Erik Hendrickson finished shortly after me, and some of his Norwegian relatives were there spectating, so visited with them and with some other Americans around the finish area including Holly Brooks. After saying hi to Erik and I Holly was visiting with Kristin Stoermer Steira, and when I looked around I noticed her husband Devon Kershaw standing nearby and introduced myself. 

    Devon is a retired world cup racer and Olympian from Canada who now hosts a podcast for Fasterskier covering world cup racing. He has always been one of my favorite skiers to watch and has had an impressive career. He gave North American fans someone to cheer for in mens racing when good results were thin on the US mens side in the 2010's, especially in distance racing. For those who don't listen to is his podcast is world cup commentary and hot takes informed by his continuing relationships with Canadian and Norwegian team racers and his own career as a racer and is one of the best sources for world cup coverage of North American skiers. I usually have the podcast on while I'm out grooming the trails in Northfield, so getting to meet him in person was a real treat!

Devon Kershaw Live!

    I had a long time to wait for Eva to finish, so I skied down to Hakons hall to change into dry clothes, boots, and to drop off extra gear, then took the bus back up to the finish to cheer Eva in. The tracking app was a bit spotty on times and I somehow missed Eva finishing, but her time updated when she crossed the finish line, so I zipped over to catch up to her as she exited the finishing chute.  Zach and Jenna were skiing together and were not that far behind Eva, so we stayed to cheer them in then headed down so Eva could get dry clothes on as well.

Eva and I cheering on racers

Jenna Nelson finishing rocking the US Flag

    We hung around in Hakons hall for a while. I picked up my age group prize and we got our finishers certificates, then we headed back to our Airbnb in downtown Lillehammer and started to pack up for the next leg of our Journey. We had rented a cabin in Sjusoen for a week of easy recovery skiing and relaxed cabin living. Stay tuned for that in the next installment.

    Skiing the Norwegian Birkebeinerrenet was a really amazing experience. The grooming and course conditions were fantastic, yet the course still really seemed remote and epic, and it was cool to be crossing the same terrain as the iconic warriors and their prince back in 1206. I would highly recommend it to any ski racer looking for an adventure race. The competition there is at another level. I finished in 3:49. Not a great time compared to what I usually finish the American Birkie in, but not that bad, and I was only 65th in my age group and 1232 overall. That's the worst place I've ever finished in any race, including the Boston and New York marathons which have 45,000-50,000 racers, so the level of competition there is really impressive. I really hope to go back and try it again soon now that I have  better knowledge of the course and the logistics and can hopefully avoid getting sick before the race.