I Saved Prince Haakon Haakonsson

I did it! I successfully skied 55 km like the legendary Birkebeiner warriors who saved Prince Haakon Haakonsson. The legend doesn’t mention how long it took the warriors to ski over two mountain ranges in the dead of winter to get the infant prince to safety, but I am going to pretend that I skied it fast enough to ensure his safety so he could survive to later become the King of Norway.

It took me a total of 7.5 hours to complete the virtual race, making it the toughest endurance competition I have ever experienced. It was more difficult than I expected due to the recent polar vortex that invaded the Edmonton region. When I started skiing at 8:00 a.m., the temperature was -25 C and it wasn’t until the late afternoon that the temperature reached a tolerable -15 C. Skiing at that temperature is hard because not only are you using energy for skiing but also to keep warm. I also applied the wrong glide wax for those conditions. I thought the day would warm up quickly and a warmer glide wax would give me the best results. Unfortunately, the snow remained cold and I had to work just a little bit harder to keep myself moving forward, using up even more of my energy reserves.

Despite the freezing temperature, I enjoyed the first 25 kilometers. I was treated with a bright red sunrise that morning and a clear blue sky, and as the sun rose it turned the forest into a sparkling wonderland as the rays reflected off the snow and frost hanging from the trees. I even had the pleasure of watching a moose saunter across the track directly in front of me. I had the correct grip wax on my skis, which meant that I could climb the hills easily and also, even with the wrong glide wax, able to gain speed going down the other side. As a result, I was able to maintain my pace and was feeling confident the rest of the day would go well.

My confidence started to wane after that first 25 kilometers because my energy level dropped and I started to slow down. I had anticipated that this would occur, but it happened sooner than I expected. During my training, I found that I would start feeling a crash at around 30 kilometers and would have to stop to eat and hydrate to finish my workout. Therefore I had arranged to have Michelle meet me at 30 kilometers to bring me something to eat and drink, so the next 5 km were difficult to complete. That was the first indication that I was too confident at the beginning of the day and should have started at a slower pace.

When I got to 30 km Michelle was waiting for me at our prearranged location with a banana, muffin, hummus, cheese, pita bread, and most importantly, hot coffee. I was starting to get chilled at that point and the hot coffee helped to revive me. I ate and rested and applied some more grip wax before I was on my way again.

It was soon after I left Michelle that I became concerned that I might not be able to finish. My heart began to race and I had a great deal of difficulty keeping it down when climbing hills. I checked my Garmin after the race and it recorded that my heartbeat was spiking to 180 bpm, well above the rate I usually get when climbing hills, and I was just going up mild slopes. I was also still feeling chilled and became worried that I might be in the early stages of hypothermia. This was the lowest point of the race and I was questioning my sanity and asking myself why I decide to enter these types of events and push myself to exhaustion. I knew that if I couldn’t get my heart rate down and stop feeling chilled that I needed to get to the clubhouse and warm-up and call it a day.

At that point, I started walking up the hills and convinced myself to just try to make it to the 40-kilometer mark. Somewhere during that time, the food made it to my bloodstream and I felt a surge of energy. I began to think that I might make it to the end. When I reached the 45 km mark and met Michelle for another pit stop, I was more confident. My legs felt like they were wrapped with lead weights, but I had planned ahead of time to save the flat part of the course for the end. I wasn’t setting any speed records, but I only had 10 more kilometers to go, and I began counting them down in my head and before long I was done.

I was so relieved to finally make it to the end and be able to stop skiing! Barbie, my sister-in-law, made a banner for me to ski through as I crossed the finish line and I also got a video call from my mother-in-law, Barb, offering me her congratulations. Barbie’s son, Evan, also came along to cheer for me, and when he asked me how it went, I recall telling him that I would never do it again and that I didn’t know what I was thinking when I signed up for this event. I also recall throwing in a few F-bombs to describe my day. We were all feeling chilled, so once the congratulations were over with, we quickly jumped in our vehicles to get warm and drove home.

As soon as I got home I had a long hot bath. Afterward, I ate a couple of bowls of chili and had a drink of rum that Barb bought me for the occasion and I began to feel good about what I had accomplished. I had wanted to finish under seven hours, including breaks, but I knew heading into the day that the snow conditions were not ideal due to the frigid temperatures. I also ended up having to take 30 minutes’ worth of breaks to eat and stay hydrated, much more than I had anticipated.

Later in the evening as I was recovering by the fireplace and drinking my rum, I started thinking about what I could have done to improve my time and wondered how well I would have done with better conditions. That’s when I started thinking that maybe I should enter the full Birkie again next year. Perhaps this time though I should enter the event that requires you to wear a 5.5 kg pack and have the true experience of saving Prince Haakon Haakonsson. That would be a challenging race to enter.