The team: Anke, Jenny, Gösta, Patrik, Jesper and yours truely.

Prelude:

The vikingarännet is a ice skating race, which aims (but not always succeeds) to race from Uppsala to Stockholm, along the old navigation route used by the viking ships. There is a professional competition class, but otherwise the race is pretty casual, with most people just happy to complete the 80 km race. This was my first attempt at making the Vikingarännet.

It was looking good. It looked like we would be going the whole way to stockholm...... the first time in the history of the race (having failed the previous 4 years to finish in Stockholm). To check out the conditions for the race we went out on the ice 3 days before the big event, and to say that the conditions were shit was an understatement. It had been warm, and tonnes of snow had melted leaving the ice submerged under a good 15-20 cm's of water. If there wasn't water there was a dangerous layer of "over-ice" which brings you to a gridning screaching halt pretty quickly. It looked like the race was going to be pretty tough going

The big day:

We tried for a nice early start, but Gösta forgot his skates on the bus. Fortunately someone found them and handed them in at race HQ, but it still took some time before we were ready to go. We started in the dim glow of dawn, full moon still relatively high in the heavens as the night said farewell.

Somehow in the days in between our expedition and the race the ice had refrozen into an extensive sheet of black ice for most of the way between Uppsala and Stockholm. It was pretty casual going for the first stretch towards Skokloster, although as we got nearer the castle we began to receive more of a head wind, and people started to for the skating trains. We ambled along, taking turns at the front, until Gösta somehow skated into a pole marking the course, catching it between his legs, and flipping him over....... not such a pleasant experience. Once his voice became less squeeky, we raced off to catch the other up in the train, but it was pretty hard work, since aerodynamics were not in our favour. Soon enough we came to the first land passage. Just before Sigtuna there it gets quite narrow, which in turn leads to pretty thin ice, as Gösta had discovered on our expedition 3 days before hand, when he fell through it. The safety minded organisers of the race had us walk about 600 meters on land to get around the thin ice. At least this time Gösta stayed dry.

Back on the ice and we were quickly in Sigtuna, where we stopped for a hotdog and sandwhich and cup of coffee. The off again, heading south. Everyone one was starting to find their different tempo, but we generally stuck together. Anke took a fall on some "over ice" and cut her hand up, although it was quickly patched up with tape. The group split up a bit on the next stretch but we re-assembled at the next land portage at Ryssgraven (kungsängen) now a bit over half way. By this stage Anke was begining to look more and more tired...... while her technique is truely fantastic, her stamina couldn't quite follow through, but we still tried to stick together.

The ice past Kungsägen was fantastic, flat, black and fast. On the way I met annother Aussie (spotted by his enormous flag). This crazy cat having just moved to Sweden about 1 month before hand, had suddenly decided over a few beers with his boss that the vikingarännet sounded like a good idea..... and so here he was, doing quite OK. After a chat i skated off, but eventually he caught us up, since Anke was really struggling now........

We came to the last land portage at Hässelby, where a factory pumps warm water into the lake, leaving thin ice. Having been passed by the other aussie it was time to leave Anke to her own devices. I think Anke was happier to go at her own pace as well..... so once we were back on the ice the whole group split up, as Jesper, Gösta and Patrik took off at a furious pace, and Jenny and i followed behind at a pace that sometimes allowed us to metabolize oxygen. The main pack of people was really slowing down now, and in the final 20 km to Stockholm we weaved in and out of the crowd. There was no conserving energy now, just a quck push to the finish. Ducking and diving, weaving and dodging and then suddenly there we where, in Stockholm, flying under the last bridge to the finish line at Kungsholmen.

We were greeted by the others, and half an hour later the other aussie turned up, followed soon afterwards by Anke...... Some sandwhiches, coffee, discussion about the event, before heading off to the local subway to catch the train back to Uppsala.

A big tick Feels great to have done an epic long skating tour. Next time, hopefully, we can do it faster.