My Birkebeiner in Norway

   Birkebeiner Proeven 12-Mar-95, Rena to Lillehammer
(oe == o-slash or o-umlaut)

    Birkebeiner Rennet was to be held on 18-Mar, the day after I left
Norway.  About 8000 skiers are expected.  However, I found out that on
12-Mar they stage the non-competitive Birkebeiner Proeven (test) over
the same course.  One can start at either Rena or Lillehammer. 
Transportation is arranged to and from start and finish points.  This
event counts for World-Loppet points.  So if you want to ski the
Birkebeiner in a more relaxed mood this is way to do it.  Vasaloppet
also has the similar 'open track days'.  They call it a 'motion-lopp' ,
lit.  exercise race. 

   Accomodations in Lillehammer were hard to find that weekend so I was
staying in Hamar which is on the bus route from L'hammer to Rena.  The
reason was that on 11-March L'hammer was having the Inga Laami, the
largest women's race (jente-renn) in Norway.  That meant that 3000 very
healthy Norwegian women were in town and I couldn't be there!

   So I met the bus in Hamar and arrived at the start point in Rena,
registered and got started around 0930.  The first section climbs 400 m
in 11 km.  A 400 m climb is just considered a minor bump in Norway. 
Actually this was the the easiest section of the tour.  At first my wax
(blue+violet) lacked a little grip but soon we were in colder, drier
snow (-5 C) and I was climbing easily.  Most of the trail here is 6 or 8
lanes wide. 

   I reached the first food stop at Skramstad Seter after 75 minutes. 
Unfortunately, Blueberry Soup is not a Norwegian drink so I had to
settle for Solberry (black current).  The next 7 km section climbs another
200 m and starts getting into open terrain but there were still no
problems.  I did that in 53 minutes (including the food stop)

   Now the trail goes above the tree line on to the vidda or tundra and
it was a white out with blowing snow.  The wind had hard packed the snow
(sastrugi is the name for it) so there wasn't much of a track.  Also we
began to meet hundreds of people coming the other way and there was
danger of collision.  After what seemed an eternity we dropped into the
trees again to the next food stop at Kvarstad Dammen where I took a
longer stop.  Time for this flattish 11 km was 97 min. 

   The trail climbs back up another 250 m on to the vidda again and into
fog with even less visibility.  At times it was hard to see from one
trail post to the next.  One wouldn't want to wander off the trail here!
The total whiteness and lack of horizon was disorienting and
demoralizing.  Finally after 12 km and 122 minutes some trees and the
buildings of Sjusjoeen became visible.  I had been here a few days
before and knew what the trail was like beyond. 

   The final 14 km was easy with nice downhill runs through the woods
and then along some of the Olympic Trails.  Then I put on a final burst
of speed to cross the same finish line as the 94 Olympic Races as a
hundred thousand fans yell HEIA! In my imagination, that is- there were
a few dozen people watching.  My time for 58 km was 7hrs 6 minutes.  I
would be interested to know what the racers do it it in next week (2.5
to 3 hrs maybe)(* see below).  If it hadn't been for the wind and
whiteout it would have been an easy trip (1000 m of climbing is easy??). 
I wish I could have seen what the vidda looks like. 

   Since the downhill is 'free' I ski right down into town passing the
ski-shooting area and the base of the Ski Jump.  There is even a nice
field down to Haakan Hall for trying a few telemark turns.  I have to
walk the last few blocks down to the railway station. 

  The trip isn't really over yet.  In the railway station, I ate my
sandwiches, made from Birkebeiner Bread, of course (neat picture on the
bread bag).  There were lots of healthy Norwegian women.  I met a
remarkable elderly couple ( > 70 years) from Sweden.  They were making a
retirement career of going to most of the World Loppet races every year. 
This year they had done the Gatineau 50, American Birkie, Vasaloppet,
this tour and a few others.  He had done Vasaloppet 17 times.  Then I
found out I may have seen him in last June's Vaettern Rundan 300 km bike
ride (there were 15000 cyclists!).  He'd done that ride 17 times and had
also ridden the 600 km Trondheim-Oslo Great Trial of Strength. 

Course stats:
  Length: 58 Km. + about 4km extra to downtown
  Start: Rena Barneskola, altitude 250m
  highest point: 910 m
  Finish: Birkebeiner Olympic Ski Stadium 550m (town about 200 m)
  Total climb: > 1000m
  Longest single climb 400 m

* Race reports from Mar 18 ( next week):
 (It was wind and snow and difficult conditions.  The winner was about
15 min behind the record.  )
 Men:
1) Odd Bjoern Hjelmeseth 2.57.18
2)Sturla Broers 2.59.26 
3) Oeyvind Skaanes 3.00.27

Women:
1) Unni Oedegaard       3.28.51
2) Hilde G. Pedersen    3.29.38
3) Astrid-Kristin Ruud  3.34.28