Birken Norway
Rena to Lillehammer
54 KM – Elevation gain approx 3500 feet
Up to 17,000 registrations
March 21, 2015
Ann and I had planned to ski the Birkebeinerrennet (translation
Birkebeiner race) for over 25 years, but we were delayed with our family and
careers. Chris Bean, Robert & Lisa
Nadler are all long term ski friends from college, so when they called to
finally make our trip a reality we jumped at the chance. Some might argue that the Vasaloppet is the
most historic race as it too stems from historic events in 1505 and is a huge
race, however to Ann and I, the legend and incredible Birken race was always
the original and the big one. Imagine
that the Boston Marathon with all its history were actually run on the plains
of Marathon to commemorate Pheidippides announcing victory in
Athens. As long time skiers it was time
to go.
Legend of the Birkebeiner Race
The race has been skied since 1932 with huge
numbers of Norwegians participating each year.
The race honors the 1206 rescue of and 18 month old prince Hakon from an
opposing army. Two of their best skiers are given the task of skiing the
baby king to safety over the mountains in a brutal storm. It is legend and desperate times so the exact
story is probably not perfect, but it is clear that Hakon as a grown king later
unites all of Norway ending 1000 years of civil war and this ushers in Norway’s medieval golden
age. The famous drawing of the skiers with shield, spear and baby child
is
You have to plan early for these big
marathons. The Vasa sold out in 83
seconds last week and we were uncertain we could get into the Birken race last
spring. However, we found a package that
was a terrific location near Sjusjoen called Nordsetter with a nice lodge some
logistics, 3 meals and the all important entry, so the 5 of us signed up and
booked inexpensive flights. It always
seems easy when you say yes, but we knew it was going to take some planning. It pays to be a CSU coach if you have to figure
out a race of this magnitude as we know how easy it is to mess up logistics,
training, health and ski racing.
We decided to stay the first day in Oslo but we should have gone
earlier to watch the Holmenkollen as the world cup was in town. Also, you can ski right from the subway with
skis on the train. We did go to see the jump, ski course, museum and more as it’s
unique to see a famous venue on some hills just outside of Oslo. It is an easy subway ride from the center of
town as long as you don’t mind sitting next to folks taking their skis and
poles out mid day ski. Business people
yes, tourists yes, shopper of course and yes I see the wax is purple klister from the guy next to me. The first advertisements I see as we get on
to the train are about ski racing. We
are at the home of Nordic skiing. That sort of helps as we lug huge duffle bags,
ski bags and Birken packs through the various train stations. 
I have
two great friends from school that I had not seen for some years. Kjell Sobak and Don Skantze. Kjell was a silver medalist (and 4th)
in Biathlon in the Olympics and he won the Vasaloppet. He also taught me a ton about skiing long ago
when it was all a mystery. He knows exactly how to deal with young Americans
who could run fast in fall XC, but were still not quite there in XC skiing. Kjell, what do we wax? His stock answer. Read the tube. We all had a terrific dinner right near the
parliament and Kjell gave the 5 of us a private tour of the city which was just
fun. You can see Robert and Lisa showing that these sculptures had nothing on US skiers. From there we went by train and bus
to Lillehammer, which had its own challenges even though the trains are superb.
We skied for 4 days before the race. I realized long before the race that while we
were all skiing pretty well in classic, it was not going to be my focus to
shave off the last minutes in this race.
Just too many moving
One day we skied to a town called Hornsjo and a
neighboring hotel 12 km away for some hot soup and a return ski
back. We were dropped off 2 days prior to the race at the 29K mark and
skied to the big ski town Sjusjoen, which sits at about 3000 feet, then up over
a small windswept Mt Lunkefjell where Ann found evidence of Ski O, then back
home to Nordsetter. The day before the
race we were driven back up to Sjusjoen and skied the final 13km all downhill
to the Birkebeiner Stadium- the main venue for the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.
Like the uphills, the downhills are long and gradual, so it is much different
from anything we ski on at home. You
must carry the baby king! Birken
requires an 8 pound pack with shirt, windbreaker, pants, hat, mittens and buff,
plus whatever else makes up the weight.
Top racers get them pretty skinny, but we wanted to change clothes and
carry wax and food, so our packs were a bit larger and we adorned them with
various patches, while two of the packs featured dolls of the baby king. 
The big day starts with a bus pickup at about
4.30 AM as it is 2.5 hours to get around the mountains, past Lillehammer, down
the Fjord (more of an inlet from the ocean vs. the huge cliffs along the coast) in a huge line of silent early morning buses
and over to the next Fjord heading to Rena.
Now we have to ski back. The race
organization is phenomenal. We arrive in
front of at least 50 swix benches, irons, waxes next to warm drinks and
porridge at the venue and of course a lovely tent with a raised wooden floor. Such luxury. Of course we argued for days about the
changing wax as it was frozen slush down low and powder over hard pack up
high. Then it snowed the night before
the race, but not at the start where there is an immediate 14KM (you 
Starting long after the Elite waves, we skied
up the track the first K and watched the race start. Therese Johaug (aka number 2 in the world
only to Marit) immediately skis off the front and by herself sets a record. But
in the men’s race Sunby admits that a non world cup skier cup skier blows his
doors off double poling the entire race and leaving him by 10 seconds with 2 KM
to go. "It must have been your skis”
says the announcer. No he says, despite
my kick wax, my skis were flying and I caught him on the downhills, he was just
much stronger in double poling. There
are just a lot of great skiers in Norway.
We started in waves 2, 11, 13, 14 and 18. Alas, I was stuck in 14 with Ann in wave 13
as I had skated the American Birkie last year and they discounted my 2 year old
time. At least I could ski up to Ann and
say hello to someone in the race. A quick calculation shows that the beginning
of the snake was finishing before the last wave had started, so this
spectacular wave of skiers was over 54 km long.
Wow. I also calculated that if I
included my wave 14, I skied past 1850 skiers and had 3 beat me from my wave
and one from wave 15 so I certainly exceeded my seed if nothing else. The rest of our team was actually placed
almost perfectly which is the case for most Norwegians. The race is 6-10 tracks wide, most of the
racers are skiing technically well and all the skiers go at the same pace due
to their superb seeding. (I was the
renegade
What I most remember about the race is this vivid image of
thousands of skiers winding far up these long hills in a huge snake across the
open country side with bright white low mountains and unusual terrain. It is unique site in a breathless terrain. However,
it was a deceptive and exhausting race.
Maybe because I had to change tracks so much, or went a bit too hard, I
had nobody to draft at my speed or it was just the long super skiable
hills? You did get some really nice long
downhill rest sections and long double poles, so I was a little surprised how
tired we all were going up the final climbs.
My short stops for food and drink to sneak past another 50 turned much
longer munch fests at the feeds and after 35K as I was just shuffling, but my
energy returned after a long flat double pole and at the end it was much easier
as the last 13 K are mostly downhill sections to the finish. I know I could have skied the race a bit faster,
but it was just such an epic event with perfect weather, skiers and tracks. My only minor complaint is that with 8755
mostly
While endless analysis with my friends suggests a more perfected
race could well have been much faster, it is not realistic to think even with
my top race and the absolutely perfect luck, I could have taken more than say 10
– 20 minutes off my time. (wax, less
pre-race ski, travel, more training – less work, no drafting in the wind, endless
passing, goo packs, bonking for 20 minutes, slowing down on the downhill, forgo
my inhaler, did I spill jelly on my skis and maybe the sun was in my
eyes). Regardless, we all skied well,
but my 2nd place in master’s nationals at Craftsbury was replaced by 268th
place in my age in the Birken and even 20 minutes faster is still a ways back. We mostly did make the 25% age group, yippee. Wow do they have depth. Ann
was 39th and got a mini
Sunday featured another
pre- 4 am wake up to make the 5:10 AM Lillehammer
- Oslo airport train, but our group was still chatting about the race so the
travel, though so the trip was not so bad. I could go on with stories and details, but
it is a terrific place to ski and race and I would highly recommend it if you
ever get the chance. If you are going to
the Birken feel free to ask other details.
Coach Bob
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