Race Weekend

 

The skis are waxed and waiting.  

This weekend it's time to see if all of Knut's training has paid off.  This will be his second year doing the American Birkebeiner.  What's the Birke?

According to the birkie website, the Birkebeiner race was created to: "honor and re-create a historic Norwegian event when in 1206, two warrior soldiers, called "Birkebeiners" because of the birch-bark leggings they wore, skied infant Prince Haakon to safety during the Norwegian civil war. Prince Haakon subsequently became King of Norway, and the Birkebeiner soldiers became a Norwegian symbol of courage, perseverance and character in the face of adversity."

You can read the story in this children's book. The author of the book was at the race last year so I got to talk with her and get her to sign a copy for the kids, which was fun.

Every year they have a couple of people who do the race dressed in 1200 AD garb and recreate the event alongside all of the modern skiers.  There's an essay contest every year that determines who gets to do the official re-creation each year.  Last year was the first time the people who did the re-creation actually wore a real live baby during the entire distance.  All on handmade wooden skis too! 

It's a 54km (34mi) cross country ski race.  Well, it's not just a race.  It's the largest cross country ski marathon in North America with something like 11,000 skiers this year.   All I know is that they had to close registration months ago.  It's a huge event!

Last year, since it was Knut's first time he was placed in the 8th wave starting, which is the last wave in the classic category.  With over 10,000 skiers, you're assigned a wave of course!  His goal last year was to finish the race in 4-5 hours.  He finished in 3 hours and 58 minutes.  That time got him a spot in wave 3 this year.

Since he's in a faster wave this year, he said he most likely won't spend nearly as much time waiting at the bottom of hills for slower skiers in front of him to get to the top.  He'll have people at his skiing level to "chase down" during the race.  As he's been checking the daily trail reports of the Birkie trail, and it's predicted to be very fast on the snow this year, he's aiming for a 3 hour race this year.  We'll see if the snow conditions and a different wave can shave a whole hour off of last year's time.

He says that if he earns a spot into the elite wave 1 next year, he'll do the race in the classic category one more year.  Otherwise he'll do the race in the skating style category next year.

One of these years maybe we'll take the kids to do their own race in the "Prince Haakon" (children's version of the race).  For now, though, only Lena and Solveig are coming with and we're calling it our getaway.  Knut's aunt and uncle have a very dog friendly cabin near the race that we get to stay at.  Lena had a great time at the cabin last year.  Solveig is still too young for me to leave her, so she and I will be greeting Knut at the finish line.