Eirik and I took the train to Lillehammer on Thursday night, then caught an early bus to Rena on Friday morning for the start. A few photos before starting:
Then we headed off in our separate starting groups for the longest ski I have ever done. The profile of the race is shown below:
With the cold weather, there was good grip but poor glide, so this year's race didn't set any speed records. I really enjoyed the first part of the race - a nice climb and then a very fun downhill toward Dombua. It was a bit of a slog from Dombua to Kvarstad, but I took it slowly and enjoyed the sunshine while trying to ignore the wind. I remember seeing the "36 km remaining" sign and thinking that my current pace would have put me at the finish line with about a 7 hour time - which was not exactly my goal!
Once I got to Kvarstad, I was definitely starting to run low on energy and also being passed by the first relay teams (who started 1.5 hours after me). My toes were freezing on the downhills, so it was nice to ski a bit uphill to Midtfjellet to warm up. Then, it was flat and downhill the rest of the way. I ran out of gas at Sjusjøen, though, so I had to take the last 14 km of downhill quite cautiously (figuring a slow finish time would be much more satisfying than falling due to trying to keep control at higher speeds than I'm used to). I managed to finish the race without falling or hurting myself, and was pretty much in the middle of my age/gender group, which is an accomplishment for me given how much better technique the Norwegians have. Eirik was extremely fast, finishing in the top 10% of his group - that is, the fastest group!
I didn't take any pictures along the way or at the end, so here's just one more picture from the start!
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