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Norway birkie backpack question



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 24th 04, 04:28 PM
sknyski
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Default Norway birkie backpack question

Anyone out there done the Norway Birkie? What did you use for your
"baby king" backpack? I think it has to be 3.5kg.

bt
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  #2  
Old February 24th 04, 08:01 PM
Chris Esposito
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Default Norway birkie backpack question

sknyski wrote:

Anyone out there done the Norway Birkie? What did you use for your
"baby king" backpack? I think it has to be 3.5kg.

bt


I did it in 2001, and there was no checking of the backpack weight in my
wave, although I heard that it might have been checked in the elite
wave. I used spare clothing, a first aid kit, food, a camera ( not
knowing when I would ever get there again, I did the Birkie partially as
a race, partially as a tour, and got some wonderful pictures along the
way), wax, some water. the backpack itself that I used weighed a pound
or so.

Chris

  #3  
Old February 24th 04, 09:51 PM
Terje Henriksen
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Default Norway birkie backpack question


"Chris Esposito" skrev i melding
...
sknyski wrote:

Anyone out there done the Norway Birkie?


5 times.

What did you use for your
"baby king" backpack? I think it has to be 3.5kg.


I did it in 2001, and there was no checking of the backpack weight in my
wave, although I heard that it might have been checked in the elite
wave. I used spare clothing, a first aid kit, food, a camera ( not
knowing when I would ever get there again, I did the Birkie partially as
a race, partially as a tour, and got some wonderful pictures along the
way), wax, some water. the backpack itself that I used weighed a pound
or so.


In the good, old days the weight of the baby was 5,5 kg. More info can be
found at http://www.birkebeiner.no.

3.5 kg.

--
Terje Henriksen
Kirkenes




  #4  
Old February 24th 04, 11:35 PM
Aliant
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Default Norway birkie backpack question

BT

I used extra clothing, a couple of water bottles (that I didn't plan on
drinking), a small weight, and my daughter's "teddy".

The teddy is something I picked up at the Canadian Birkie where a lot of
skiers use bears, dolls, etc to symbolize the baby prince. I used a daypack
and put everything in, saving the bear for last and had him stick his
(her??) head and one arm out, as if waving. The really cool thing about the
Norway Birkie is the number of fans along the route and they got a great
charge out of seeing a teddy bear sticking out of my pack. In fact, the
folks along the route were fantastic. I had broken both my arms training
only three months before and was in absolutely terrible shape. I must have
looked it, since I got lots of unsolicited fluids and food from the various
team/club supporters along the route. It was my worst / best marathon.

-Scott.



"sknyski" wrote in message
om...
Anyone out there done the Norway Birkie? What did you use for your
"baby king" backpack? I think it has to be 3.5kg.

bt



  #5  
Old February 25th 04, 12:38 AM
Diva
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Default Norway birkie backpack question

You broke both arms training???? Good GAWD! How'd you do THAT?

June

"Aliant" wrote in message =
news BT

I used extra clothing, a couple of water bottles (that I didn't plan on
drinking), a small weight, and my daughter's "teddy".

The teddy is something I picked up at the Canadian Birkie where a lot of
skiers use bears, dolls, etc to symbolize the baby prince. I used a =
daypack
and put everything in, saving the bear for last and had him stick his
(her??) head and one arm out, as if waving. The really cool thing about =
the
Norway Birkie is the number of fans along the route and they got a great
charge out of seeing a teddy bear sticking out of my pack. In fact, the
folks along the route were fantastic. I had broken both my arms =
training
only three months before and was in absolutely terrible shape. I must =
have
looked it, since I got lots of unsolicited fluids and food from the =
various
team/club supporters along the route. It was my worst / best marathon.

-Scott.



"sknyski" wrote in message
om...
Anyone out there done the Norway Birkie? What did you use for your
"baby king" backpack? I think it has to be 3.5kg.

bt



  #6  
Old February 25th 04, 02:51 AM
John O'Connell
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Default Norway birkie backpack question

11 years ago I used a Swix backpack that had space for two water
bottles and two small sections in between to carry jacket, clothes
etc. This model is purple and green and worked great. I did very
little training with it and hardly noticed it during the race. We even
nicknamed the pack "the baby king"....(I hope that is not offensive to
the Norwegians). It has been used by four different skiers for that
race ranging in size from 220 lbs to about 110lbs and all thought it
worked great. I had three or four large water bottles, extra wax and
tools, food, jacket, dry gloves and hat and a bag of sugar that helped
me make the weight limit.

Send me an e-mail directly if you want to use it. It just sits in my
basement each year until someone I know goes to Norway.



John OC

PS. How did you like the Birkie trail? I seem to remember a funny
comment in an earlier post about going to an overgrown snowmobile
trail in the middle of nowhere when you were talking about coming out
for the race. Congratulations on your podium finish.






(sknyski) wrote in message . com...
Anyone out there done the Norway Birkie? What did you use for your
"baby king" backpack? I think it has to be 3.5kg.

bt

  #7  
Old February 25th 04, 01:07 PM
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Default Norway birkie backpack question

Bryant:

The limit is 3.5 kg., as others have said.

They only seem to check the weight at the end if you've skiied fast
enough to get the 'pin', i.e. no more than 125% of the average time
of the top five in your category. I haven't done that and have never
been checked. So make it 3.5kg. plus weight of whatever drinks you
carry and plan to drink and not refill, sinc you're fast, and I
think more serious than you often sound here, esp. once the race
starts, so probably want to try for the pin. I've often wondered
whether anybody tries to cheat by filling up a bunch of waterbottles
at the last pitstop. Maybe they empty all bottles before weighing.

You can buy a special flat backpack over there which many of the
serious competitors use. From about km -10 to km -3 , there's
a really fast run where aerodynamics could make a big difference.
Last time I rigged up a combination fannypack (not allowed on
its own) and small camelback without the bladder which was narrow
for better aerodynamics. I did test it at Keskinada beforehand, and
it did seem to work well. I don't know whether they check the contents
(swiss army knife, dry kindling, small sleeping bag, avalanche probe, ...)
--just kidding, but there is a list.

I'm envious, but I guess my Norwegian friends only expect to see me
when my age is a multiple of 5. Next time I'll consider it a moral
victory if I can get the imaginary pin based on positions 2 to 6,
rather than 1 to 5. Ole Kvaale is exactly my age and usually wins by such
a large margin, esp. just after entering a new age category, that he
personally shoves the time limit up by 5 or 10 minutes. He beat several
WC skiers without the pack (females admittedly, Nina Kempell for
example) by many minutes the year he turned 60). Anyway, good luck.
I look forward to seeing the results.

Best, Peter
  #8  
Old February 25th 04, 07:40 PM
sknyski
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Posts: n/a
Default Norway birkie backpack question

Send me an e-mail directly if you want to use it. It just sits in my
basement each year until someone I know goes to Norway.


My wife said that she has this camelback-y thing that has a gear pouch
that might work. I will try it out this weekend. May add the stuft
animal as a previous poster suggested. Or even a small American flag,
but I'm not sure how that would go over there.


PS. How did you like the Birkie trail? I seem to remember a funny
comment in an earlier post about going to an overgrown snowmobile
trail in the middle of nowhere when you were talking about coming out
for the race. Congratulations on your podium finish.


The Birkie trail was great. The race was great. Northern Wisconsin
in February was................well, the Birkie trail was great. The
race was great.......

bt

hint - I had several "what if I got stuck here for the rest of my
life" panic attacks while I was there. Even drove to Duluth on an off
day to get a broadband connection.
  #9  
Old February 25th 04, 08:19 PM
taywood
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Posts: n/a
Default Norway birkie backpack question


"sknyski" wrote in message
om...

My wife said that she has this camelback-y thing that has a gear pouch
that might work. I will try it out this weekend. May add the stuft
animal as a previous poster suggested. Or even a small American flag,
but I'm not sure how that would go over there.


I think the flag is a smart idea.
Both the US and Canada fielded mens teams in last weekends WC Relays
and it was great to see them on the start line.
I hope the vocal support from the crowd made them feel very welcome.
Mike


  #10  
Old February 25th 04, 10:49 PM
Aliant
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Posts: n/a
Default Norway birkie backpack question

June:

Well, I probably should have left that out, as it is a bit embarrassing, but
it is quite a story and I'll endure the embarrassment for the entertainment
of the RSN group.

I was living in Paris at the time and decided that since I was so close, I
should go to the Norway Birkie. I used to run in a nice park nearby where
the trails were much like I would find trail running in Alberta. I was out
for a 20 km run one Sunday when 2 km into it, I fell face forward (not sure
how, maybe tripped in a root). Without thinking (didn't have time) I landed
with arms outstretched and elbows locked. I felt a sharp pain, but then
felt ok and ran the rest of my run (aren't endorphines the most wonderful
thing??). It was only during my cool down and stretch that I found I hand
problems moving my arms. As the pain got worse (I started to scream when I
tried to take off my shirt), my wife (an RN) decided to take me to the
hospital.

No offence to the French, but they have a "not my fault" attitude that
presents itself whenever there is conflict. In this case, when I went for
x-rays. The first tech did the normal job of taking the x-rays, but came
back and started yelling at me to stop fooling around. He took the "pics"
again and went away. A short time later, a different tech came out and
warned me that I was taking up his valuable time and took another set of
pics. He went away, presumably to process the x-ray film. Sure enough, a
short time later, yet a different tech came back, with a whole bunch of
other people, and yelled at me (something I didn't follow, as they still
hadn't given me any pain relievers and I was losing my grasp of the
language). Very carefully she put a metal G next to one arm and a metal D
next to the other and took the x-rays. She handed one film to one other
person and the other film to another person, scowled at me, and they all
left. I was wheeled back to the doc in emerg. When the x-rays came back
(*all* of them), he looked at them, laughed, and remarked "I have never seen
perfectly symmetrical breaks before!" I guess the techs thought I was
fooling around changing my arms over during the x-ray, although how I could
do that is beyond me. The doc told me I would have a cast on for 3 months
and I would lose a lot of strength and flexibility in my arms, not very
conducive to skiing the Birkie in 3 months. So I opted for no casts, but
was essentially under house arrest for 3 months. No exercise what so ever.
Those of you who have ever had a major injury know how hard it is to cut
back on your eating when your activity level suddenly drops, so not only did
my fitness level go to zero, I suddenly packed on major pounds as well. (In
case you are wondering how my arms knit without casts, the break was radial,
elbow down, not a fracture across a bone).

Stubborn, like all skiers, I was determined to do the Birkie anyway. And it
hurt. At one point during the race, one of the team supporters jumped out
and ran (actually, really he only had to walk) along side of me and said
something in Norwegian. Then he saw the Canadian flag on my pack, thought a
minute, and then said in a major understatement "It's not going very well,
is it?" He then proceed to encourage me, feed me some carbs and some quick
sugars.

As I said previously, I doubt I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for the
passion that the Norwegians have for the sport, which translated into
helping me all along the route.

-Scott.


"Diva" wrote in message
...
You broke both arms training???? Good GAWD! How'd you do THAT?

June

"Aliant" wrote in message
news BT

I used extra clothing, a couple of water bottles (that I didn't plan on
drinking), a small weight, and my daughter's "teddy".

The teddy is something I picked up at the Canadian Birkie where a lot of
skiers use bears, dolls, etc to symbolize the baby prince. I used a daypack
and put everything in, saving the bear for last and had him stick his
(her??) head and one arm out, as if waving. The really cool thing about the
Norway Birkie is the number of fans along the route and they got a great
charge out of seeing a teddy bear sticking out of my pack. In fact, the
folks along the route were fantastic. I had broken both my arms training
only three months before and was in absolutely terrible shape. I must have
looked it, since I got lots of unsolicited fluids and food from the various
team/club supporters along the route. It was my worst / best marathon.

-Scott.



"sknyski" wrote in message
om...
Anyone out there done the Norway Birkie? What did you use for your
"baby king" backpack? I think it has to be 3.5kg.

bt




 




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