Detroit Lakes Area Cross Country Skiing

Detroit Lakes, MN 56501
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2009-2010 Season

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Birkebeinerennet 2010:

The Birkie Strikes Back

I’m not really sure what the Birkebeinerennet ski race has against me, but I should have figured I was in for it again when I checked the start list two weeks before the race and discovered I was inadvertently registered for the bike race- not the ski race.

We went back for Round II and a little revenge this year, and once again the course chewed me up and spit me out. Temps were forecasted to get well below freezing the night before and the day of the race looked to be decent so going into it everything looked great.

Friday, the day before the race, we awoke in Lillehammer to rain so we were worried that the course would either turn to a sloppy mess or to solid ice. However, when we drove up the mountain a little way it immediately turned to snow so we thought we might be in for some good conditions with the fresh coating of snow. I also got to feel like a celebrity at the bib pick up in Rena when an American family who lives in Budapest now approached me and asked if I was the person who wrote the story about having all the issues last year. Thanks skinnyski.com for putting my story out there! J

However… Friday night the temps did not cooperate and did not go below freezing as forecasted. They were hovering right around 32F (0C) all night so while there was a little glazing of ice on everything in the morning it was not the hard freeze we had been hoping for. Given the problems I had had last year with klister in the changing conditions as the altitude went up I stubbornly refused to use any, instead sticking with hard wax which turned into a good decision.

Finally it Saturday morning and time to go. Wave 20 must have been where they put all of the Americans because I was standing with a few folks from Minneapolis and a whole group of boys from but Proctor High School in New Hampshire. Starting out I was very pleased that my kick was perfect going up the initial climbs but a little dismayed to find out that I had no glide whatsoever. It seemed a little bit like skiing on sandpaper, but like I’ve said before: if we only skied in perfect conditions we’d never ski …

For whatever reason at about 3k I always seem to have a problem with wax. This year I kept my kick, and didn’t ice up… but my backpack burst open without me noticing and three of my tubes of wax fell out. (I felt something bump my leg but didn’t see them when I looked) I had stopped to readjust my pack at about 3.75k and discovered that I had lost my cork and my Swix VR 60, VR65 and VR70.
wax Ouch, not only for the fact of not having them through the rest of the race but these aren’t exactly the cheapest kick waxes. I still had three others in another part of my pack but they were all for cooler snow temps. In my non-thinking race state I considered briefly going back to look for them but then figured I didn’t want to ski back up that kilometer or so.

After my wax falling out of my pack thankfully the race remained uneventful, if very very slow. I actually enjoyed the ski down from 20k or so to about the 27k mark where the second climb begins. The climbs in the Birkebeinerennet are a bit of a tease: you see it coming and think it’s not too bad… until you get to the top and the trail twists and goes up again. And again. And again.

Finally I got to the infamous downhill that blew out my shoulder last year. At this point the tracks are either non-existent or they look like the groomer was drunk when setting them (look at the snow in the picture… no tracks!) Birkebeinerennet 2010
because they’ve been skied on by nearly 16,000 skiers. Down the hill I went… and crashed again. End over end and then slid down the last quarter or so on my face. (Thankfully it was not icy or I’d have been a mess!)

And here I encountered the first of my friends from last year. The older gentleman who helped me fix my shoulder was standing over me when I finally picked my face up out of the snow and was laughing at me. “That was quite a fall” he said (after we determined that I still can’t speak Norwegian). He helped me get back on my feet and while I was a bit shaken up from the spill I was really no worse for wear. (Despite the bruises I have now.)

At this point I’ve now realized I’ve got a race against the clock. I have to make it to Sjusjøen by 5:30 PM in order to make the cut off and not get pulled out of the race, but I still had an hour to get there.

Of course, between me and Sjusjøen was the Koaasen Sportsforening group and Stein Haukenes with his oranges and powder sugar, who was in my pictures from last year’s race. I couldn’t pass by without having an orange and saying hello to this awesome group who is out helping the skiers. But, when I opened my mouth to say hello I got a big spoonful of powdered sugar dumped in it! I admit this is not what I was expecting but it really did help give me a boost a few minutes later. (And was tasty!) It was pretty neat to be remembered by this group too!

Finally, with minutes to spare I passed the last cutoff at Sjusjøen. Home free: I’m going to make it! And then I discovered the last, hidden challenge of the Birkebeinerennet. The 14k of down. And down. And down. Sounds easy, right?

Now begins my brush with fame. After passing the feed station I had to stop and give the first part of my interview to Nett TV- a national Norwegian news station. I didn’t think too much of it as I wanted to keep skiing and find that elusive finish line. But they kept following me! Now, I’ve been skiing for eight and a half hours at this point so I’m skiing terribly- I didn’t realize how terribly until I saw the interview later on.

I’ve also discovered that not only are the downhills rutted out and snowplowed out with occasional berms down the middle but they’re also steep. On fresh legs and in better snow conditions this probably would have been fun. But as it was snowplowing was next to impossible due to the berms or catching random ruts in the trail. Bombing it was out of the question: I had two people fly by me down one of the steeper sections and crash and tumble and slide down the hill. (Turns out they were drunk, but it still served as a warning.) I knew if I did that I wasn’t getting up again at this point.

So, in the interest of self-preservation I walked down the steeper hills. And the camera crew followed me. I thought I was going to die of embarrassment.

Eventually one of my snowmobile friends from last year (who has been following me for some time now) said “I can’t watch you fall down one of these hills. I think we should go in.” And at this point, fair enough. It’s almost 7 PM and it’s getting dark. Birkebeinerennet, you have won again.

But it’s not over yet… we get to the finish line and who’s there but the news crew again! So I have to continue my interview with them, do another one with the Birkebeinerennet folks and finally, finally after I tell them I’m hungry they let me leave. Thankfully this year the meeting point worked and we headed to our hotel room.

Sunday night: we get a text message from my family friend Ingeborg who lives in Trondheim, almost 4 hours farther north from where the race is. She has seen my interview on Nett TV. Apparently I didn’t realize it was a national news station that interviewed me. So my terrible skiing and sad experience has also been broadcast all over Norway… but on the bright side Tomas Alsgaard was also interviewed in the same program. While I might not have finished can you say you were featured on the same television program as a former Olympic gold medalist?

Here is the link to the program. It typically will not play on the first try. I had to refresh the page several times and if that doesn’t work click the “Innstillinger” link in the top right corner, then hit the button that says “Lagre Instillinger”. Typically after that and maybe another refresh it would play. http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/620489/

And don't worry... I'll be back.

Birkebeinnerennet: you have not seen the last of me!

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State Trails Kind to Laker Skiers (DL Paper)

Minnesota State Meet Coverage (From Skinnyski.com, also thanks for the great pictures!)

February 11, 2010

Photo: Dylan Ramstad-Skoyles at state meet