A Canadian in Sweden

Unbelievable

The Norwegian Birkebeiner was first run in 1932 and has run every year since then. In 75 years, the Birkebeiner has never been cancelled.

Until 2007, when Jeff Lewis decided to enter.

For some reason, this makes me think of Mr Warden at Camp Algonkian Island scowling and somberly pronouncing "The Norwegian Birkebeiner was founded in 1932. Since that time, it has never been cancelled. Shape up, or you don't eat."

I doubt anybody will get that reference. Well, maybe one. Any guesses are welcome in the Comments to this entry.

What is even weirder is why it was cancelled. Wind. Apparently there were gale force winds blowing over the fjell (mountain highlands) that allegedly reached 130 km/hr. Not because of anything understandable like a lack of snow or a freak snowstorm or frigid temperatures. Wind. Sheesh.

On top of that is that the race was only cancelled after we had all started. All 13 000 of us. As I skied into the second aid station, there was a huge gaggle of people standing around.

"Great!" I thought. " I am going to pass a whole bunch of people."

Or maybe not. I get to the other end of the aid station to see a big rope across the trail and an even bigger Norweigan dude who was clearly having a very bad day yelling at skiers to NOT CROSS THIS ROPE!!! (He actually said that in Norwegian, but I am incredibly perceptive about these things.) So I go up to another dude who looked kind of in charge and asked what was going on.

"The race is cancelled." He helpfully explained.
"Huh? You mean, like temporarily?"
"No. It is over. "
"Uhhh.... why?"
"Because it is windy."
"No, seriously."

I almost said something snarky about how I thought Norwegians were supposed to be tough, but looking at this dude's face I quickly changed my mind. The organizers were not in a joking mood.

So 13 000 people turned around and skied back to the start line.

Think about the logistics of that for a second. 13 000 people don't turn around on a dime.

All I could think about as I skied back down that mountain was how happy I was that I wasn't on the organizing committee. 13 000 bags that were in transit from the start to the finish in dozens of trucks had to be stopped and turned around. 13 000 people had to be transported from the start to the finish in Lillehammer. There was no food, no hot showers, nothing at the start. I kept thinking "Is there the least chance that they have a contingency plan for something like this?" It seems pretty unlikely, but hey, you never know. I think everyone involved was pretty lucky that the temperature was so mild. This would have turned out quite differently had it been -20.

This was such an enormous gong show, it redefines anything I have previously witnessed. Whoever was responsible for making the call to cancel is one ballsy dude. He is going to have an entire nation to answer to tomorrow morning. Of course, it was probably the correct decision, but it still took guts to make it. All things considered though, it all went quite well. I was in Lillehammer within 3 hours of being stopped on the trail, and was reunited with my bag after about 9 hours. In the meantime I went up to the ski stadium and did tourist stuff.

So many other things went wrong that it almost seems inappropriate to mention that it was - surprise, surprise - exactly 0 degrees at the start and that I had to stop to rewax (re-klister) twice in the first 10 km. Double poling was not an option this time, since we were basically skiing up a mountain.

I am still in Oslo, but I will upload some pics when I get home tomorrow.

One of the unforeseen advantages that I have discovered in writing this blog is that I find myself immediately thinking "This will make a great blog entry" every time something disastrous happens. It puts things in perspective. Rather than get upset I end up looking at the disaster as a source of merriment and entertainment. Although I suspect the organizing committee would not agree with me on that count at all.

posted by Jeff @ 2:43 PM