The legendary Norwegian Birkebeinerrennet race, the ‘Birken’, is rich in tradition. It was founded to commemorate a journey made by two Birkebeiner loyalist skiers carrying an infant over a mountainous course. They were saving the infant prince from death by a rival political group. The young Prince Haakon was brought to safety and grew to be the king who united Norway after hundreds of years of civil war. Great history!
Now for the tough part…. Every participant in the Birken race must wear a backpack with 3.5 kg in it (~8 lbs.) to represent the infant child. Although it did wear on me a bit up the hills, for the most part, I forgot about that baby weight on my back.
Before the final 14K descent into Lillehammer, the racecourse is wide and open as it passes through Sjusjoe n. The course is lined with fans who come bringing furniture, firewood, shovels, food, drinks, music, speakers, and cowbells.
They dig out shelters in the snow drifts and line them with blankets, build fires
blast music, ring cowbells, and scream.
The energy is tremendous. At one point I skied by speakers blasting “Stairway to Heaven”. So appropriate, I thought. As exhausted as I was at that point, I still felt as if I was skiing in heaven.
The descent to Lillehammer was coming up soon. It starts with some fast wide, down hills quickly changing to narrow wooded trails. Having skied the race last year, I knew I’d be in for some steep scraped off chutes. However, I wasn’t envisioning what I actually encountered this year… chutes of glare ice.
There were fallen skiers on both sides of the narrow trail as others zoomed by narrowly missing them. There were also skiers taking off their skis and walking down the more treacherous parts. The only spectators along this portion of the race were the emergency staff at intersections standing with medical sleds.
Flashback to yesterday when we met up with Murray Banks, former MNC director and coach extraordinaire. Although he wasn’t participating in the race this year, Murray skied the descent portion of the course the day before.
His somewhat kidding comment was “You have a 50-50 chance of surviving this.”
“ Murray, do you think should we scratch from the race?”
“ No”, he replied, “You absolutely must do the race!”
We all beat Murray’s comical odds and survived.
The long straight view of the finish line at Lillehammer Stadium, with huge crowds cheering, put a large smile on my face.
The brief portions of “no control on glare ice terror” were tremendously overshadowed by the extraordinary course, scenery, and energy of the Birken. As Murray also stated “No one puts on a race better than the Norwegians!”
I am so grateful to have experienced, now for the second year, skiing, in not only this race, but in the country of Norway where Nordic skiing is deeply rooted in the culture and is a part of day-to-day life.
Our cabin was a short walk to the ski trails as most dwellings seem to be.
We skied in the morning stopped for lunch and skied in the afternoon.
We skied from town to town to cafes and bakeries on impeccably well groomed, trails with breathtaking scenery.
MNC Master Elle Bouffard and I traveled together. We planned our trip to arrive to have one day recovery from traveling before the race and the full week after to enjoy the heavenly ski trails of Norway. Our timing plan worked out perfectly. Doing the race at the beginning of our trip allowed us to ski our hearts out all day every day for the week to come. With the race behind us, we had no concern about pre-race limiting mileage or tapering.
It was fabulous to have so many MNC friends nearby before, during and after race day. MNC was well represented by masters, coaches past and present, as well as MNC junior alumni.
The view from my cabin bedroom window. Ski trails right off our road that connected us to everywhere.
Eliza and I were so happy to see former MNC Director and Coach Murray Banks in Sjusjoen.
Garrot Kuzzy, previous MNC coach, gives Eliza some pre-race tips at the start line. Note all the backpacks on the racers!
Smiles at the finish in the Lillehammer Olympic Stadium.
Post Race waiting to return to our cabins. Six tired but very happy skiers!
Jordan Shuster (Eliza’s SLU collegiate teammate), Eliza Thomas (MNC junior alumni), Karen Alence (MNC master), Kati Christoffel (MNC master and coach), Michael Dillon (MNC master and coach), Ellie Bouffard (MNC master)
The view from Kati’s dogsled ride – the day after racing.
Coach Pennie (Rand) and daughter Annavite, enjoying the trails during the days after the race.
Skiing trails with breathtaking scenery and stopping at cafes and bakeries.
Comments are closed.