The team: Jenny, Al, and Patrik.

Prelude:

True to form, the days before the proposed date of the Vikingarännet 2004 it warmed up, and the snow melted. The ice survived pretty well, leaving a blank sheet of ice by friday. Unfortunately the last stretch of ice into Stockholm was a bit too thin, so it would finish in Hässelby. Still, it was looking like great conditions until 10 cm's of snow arrived Saturday. The organisers spent Saturday evening plowing the track for Sunday morning.... the race was going to be held again !

The big day:

We arrived in good time, and started shortly after 8:00. With a slight tail wind we flew along at great pace towards Vik castle. We swung south into a bay that leads to Bålsta, clocking up the first 10 km in 30 minutes.... not too bad, unlike the weather which was crap! Windy, and snowing and pretty damn grey !

The track swung back on iteslf leaving us to fight our way into a head wind..... the long trains of aerodynamic skaters formed, and we all jostled for positions on the ever onward moving train...... even clipping the skates of a few people as we passed them or they passed us.... and trying to avoid the crashes when a few people fell on the bad ice patches.....

As our course eased towards a southerly direction the effect of the headwind relented, giving us time to catch our breath....... A quick land passage and back onto more solid ice. We hardly saw Skokloster Castle in the mist (see picture on right). The kilometers slowly clicked away as we raced southwards, until we came to Eriksund, notorious for its thin ice.

This year there wasn't any ice at all, and it ended up being a 2 km land passage before we could get back onto thicker ice. The ice on the other side of the passage wasn't that great either, a bit wet, or bumpy, and a slight head wind, and lots of snow.......and by now my back was aching (possibly due to going bouldering the day before hand with Shawn and Kristin), and i was releaved to get to Sigtuna where warm blueberry soup awaited us.......

The break in Sigtuna wasn't too long.... enough to stuff down a sandwhich, and a bit of water and blueberries. The latter helped immensly, and we were on or way again.....the track was also a bit better- at least here was a bit less snow on it.

The kilometers ticked over, and we found ourselves at the next drink station, where i decided to dump the 1.5 liters of water i was stupidly carrying...... mental note: next time just take the minimum. There was another land passage not long after that, where on a previous tour this year we ended up getting wet feet (here is the link). Only a few more kilometers and we were on land again, walking under the bridge spanning the gap at Ryssgraven.

One of the driving forces this year was to beat 5 hours, we found ourself at Ryssgraven with 14 km to go and 40 minutes in which to do it if we wanted to beat that limit..... the land passage at Eriksund had cost us a lot of time, and now it really was going to be tight. Can we do it ?

We applied the gas, and pressed on into a slight head wind once again. A few people watching from the side of the track cheered us on. 4 kilometers to go, hmmmm don't think we are going to beat the 5 hours. 3 km's to go, and there is a race official to say "well actually it is only 1 km to go".... turns out they moved the finish line forward. We arrived 5 minutes past our self imposed dealine, pretty bloody tired and very happy.

We skated the finaly 2 km to land very slowly, and ended up walking the last bit due to the pretty shitty thin ice..... there were quite a few holes around.

We collected our small token to say we had completed the race, and changed out of our wet clothes, and walked off to find the subway to central stockholm and the train to Uppsala.

Summary:

distance = 78 km

time = 5 hours and 5 minutes

overall placing = 256 (out of approx 3000)

average heart rate = 159 (approx 73%.... yes i am a unfit bastard after all)

overall: glad to finish. More painfull than last year, and worse conditions.... as always in the sauna afterwards the pain subsides and you almost believe for a moment it really was actually quite fun!. a memory that will last until next time you find yourself standing on the starting line.