Holmenkollen 50 K: A good year!

Last night was the traditional 'night before 5-Mila' in Holmenkollen, I
met up with a set of friends near Frognerseteren, and then we skied most
of the trail using our night-O headlamps.

It was a lot of fun, with huge groups of people camping out to
celebrate the ski race the day after (today).

In some spots there were so many campfires near the top of a hill, that
it was actually somewhat hard to breathe properly. :-)

Anyway, the longest stretch without any trailside campers must have been
about 1 km, shortly before the bottom turnaround point at Ullevålseter.

The rest of the trail had people all around it, most sleeping overnight
in military/lavvo style tents, but many just laying out their pads
underneath the nearest spruce tree.

Today the actual race was just as exciting as usual, with the longtime
clear leader (Piller Cotterer) bonking completely on the last lap,
allowing the swede, Anders Södergren, to finally get his well-deserved win.

Anders also had some problems at the end of the final lap, dropping 2/3
of the 1 minute he had on Di Centa, but he still won.

At the other end of the spectrum, Tom Reichelt of germany had a
career-best day, acending from 28th rank on the first lap, via 10th on
the second to a podium finish.

Two relatively young men, Geir Ludvig Aasen and John Anders Gaustad in
5th and 6th place were the top norwegian finishers, in front of Skjeldal
in 7th and Estil in 9th.

Petter Northug had promised that he wouldn't retire, he cruised through
the race with 40, 37 and 15 as his lap placements.

BTW, even though Nordmarka is very hilly, the 50 K (16.7 km) loop is
simply brutal: It sort of follows the lighted trail between Ullevålseter
and Frognerseteren, except that it climbs up and down the hillside all
the time, with steep uphills alternating with short, twisty downhills,
giving _very_ little rest. I'm simply amazed that anyone can ski it
three times in a row, and still make it look almost effortless. :-)

Terje
--
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"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"