Birkebeinerrennet

Birkebeinerrennet
Birkebeinerrennet 2010
Status	active
Genre	sporting event
Date(s)	March
Frequency	annual
Country	Norway
Inaugurated	1932 (1932) (men) 1976 (1976) (women)

Birkebeinerrennet (lit. The Birkebeiner race) is a long-distance cross-country ski marathon held annually in Norway. It debuted in 1932 and has been a part of Worldloppet as long as Worldloppet has been around.

The Birkebeinerrennet is one of three races held under the Birkebeiner moniker, the other two being Birkebeinerrittet (bicycling) and Birkebeinerløpet (cross-country running).

Researchers at the Manchester Metropolitan University found that the metabolic cost for modern ski models is about 2.5 J/kg*m as compared to about 5 J/kg*m for ski models dated 542 AD. They also estimated maximum cross country speed for the 542 AD ski to 5 m/s, compared to about 12 m/s for modern cross country skis; for long distance skiing (several hours) results were 3 and 7 m/s respectively. This corresponds to about 5 hours for the original 1206 AD Birkebeiner flight.

The race starts at Rena and ends at Lillehammer, a distance of 54 km. The number of participants has been steadily increasing each year, and for the 2011 race, the limit was set at 16,000.

The Birkebeinerrennet run has been held since 1932, and commemorates a trip made by the Birkebeiner loyalists to save the infant pretender to the Norwegian throne, Håkon Håkonsson, in 1206. All participants carry a backpack weighing at least 3.5 kg, symbolizing the weight of the then-one-year-old king. Till 1991 the start city was 1 year Lillehamer (finish Rena)and then the next year Rena (finish Lillehamer). Last year [citation needed] In Lillehamer the start was on the site where the now the skijumparea is build for the winter Olympics 1994.

In 2007, the race was cancelled due to extremely high winds (90 km/h or 55 mph). However, at the time of cancellation, the event had been under way for nearly an hour, with roughly a quarter of the 13,000 competitors already on course. Despite the efforts of officials to send everyone back to the starting point, 55 competitors eventually reached the finish in Lillehammer, and upon being interviewed, blasted the decision to cancel the event [1].