where to begin - what an event - the snow fell for most of the evening of saturday aswell as during the event itself on sunday - the road and trees had a beautiful sugar white covering making for an interesting dirve to the start.
we left our cabin about 2.45am after a quick harvegrøt (porrige, important additional carbobase layer!) caught the bus from tonstad at 3.45 on which we managed to rest a little and got to the start at 7 where there were about 2200 other competitors waiting for their start time - it was about 1-2 degrees so much chat about which
wax to use!!
plenty nerves led us to our start at 9.15 after applying several thins layers of green, blue, blue extra, violet special, red and even a bit of borrowed special yellow VR75 - (borderline klister!!) we had already spent a while on the saturday afternoon preparing the
glide sections of the skis...
the start was an amusing anticlimax as we waited for all those infront to gradually get going and cross the start line once the gun had gone off, we quickly got down to 6 abreast and eventually 4 once at the bridge - then the uphill started! 10am saw me at the 1st food stop (wooden tresel tables with paper cups and hundreds of sweaty skiers!) where it was a half banana, lemon juice and the 1st
gel immediately feeling its effect i sprinted off along the tracks again - seeing people stretched all the way to the top of the next pass, climbing most of the way to the next matstation at 11.10, more bananas and another gel - not quite the same dramatic effect this time...
however, this was about as high as we were to get (~1000m) so the significant climbing had been done, making me feel much happier, all down hill i thought and then saw the 30km to go sign...i could sense the fatigue creeping up fast - i had counted on being able to get to the top and then freeride down, but then realised the difficulty in cruising down on gelly legs - faceplant time so by the time the 3rd food stop came along at 12.20 it was time for a more substantial rest (4mins downtime!) - time enough to take the skis off and reapply the red wax in hope that some of the stick would return on the warm sugary surface...
pretty much running on fumes by this time - 24k to go - but only 13k to the 4th drinks and then i was familiar with the rest (quality tip : break it down into managable chunks, a real help!)...you’ll notice not much commentry on the landscape, primarily as most of the time i only saw the heels of the person infront ;~)) number 1771 was there again - i thought i’d passed him earlier...
the rest became a bit of struggle and a blur, passing the last food station at 13.50 in a trance popping the last gel and banana handout washed down with more lemon juice, gratefuly there were more “free” downhill sections of glide followed by the occasional faceplant - now i realised why there were manned red cross stations at the bottom of each ;~)
the distance markers became more frequent and folks had started to line the tracks (have to mention that as a result of the staggered start a significant number of folk had already finished and the tracks had certainly suffered from
heavy traffic making finding a decent ski rutt a little tricky) flags were being waved and encouraging calls came from the sidelines - very motivational, almost there, to the bottom of the last hill, around the last corner - and then a 2k marker - not that far - surely! only one possible ski action now, too exhausted to try anything else - too much emotion and exhaustion...
a final call of “løype” as someone with a little more in the tank wanted the racing line - this must be the last corner - but where’s the “mål” (goal)?? turn the corner and theres still some 200m to the banner - seems a monumental struggle to get there, the continual pushing against an overwhelming urge to give up and colapse, the body screeming for an end, i feel uterly drained of everything, nothing left to give, not another inch as momentum slows me to a stoop as the barcode is read from number i’m wearing -
5hrs 34mins finishing at 14.49 - an experience that will not be forgotten, amazing to be part of, such a pleasure, such a feeling, not of satisfaction or acheivement but pure spirit, thoroughly recommend your own sesilåmi
reportedly one of the finest salmon fishing rivers around, but today we chose river paddling, in the hail and rain, on Bjerkreimselva, I spent most of the time upside down - it only being my 2nd time in a play boat, so was extremely glad to have a wet suit, hillarious, but relieved to dig into sarnies and T while a stray boat had to be recovered from further down stream, dragging a boat across a field is very much like pulking!! the day was topped off with some "reball", paintball without the exploding balls, so as you can imagine it was bruises all round!
Packing a kayak with all those luxuries that you just don’t take when hill walking, now there’s a fun challenge, where to put the espresso machine and the pancake mix, the wine and the essential “winter warmer” – that’s where we found ourselves just before 6pm Friday night 1st September on the shores of the sheltered bay at Lauvik all rather excited about the prospect of paddling the length of one of the most spectacular fjords in southern Norway – Lysefjord. 
Norske korona jordbær in full swing - stunning in pancakes with chocolate chip icecream for breakfast!! yum yum ;~)
