By Teemu Virtanen
As we have noticed of late, our Pro Team athletes have a lot of time on their hands, and they spend their idle hours by testing their physical and mental limits. Since there are no races left this season, many of them decided to continue skiing by taking on some extremely tough challenges such as Thea Krokan Murud’s 24-hour skiing that you had a chance to read about in yesterday’s article.
Team Ragde Eiendom’s legend Anders Aukland skied 321 km with his teammate Joar Thele, but that wasn’t enough for them. They were itching to do more, and they set their sights on an old record achieved in the 80s. Anders’ brother Jørgen decided to join the action, and these three skiers spent 32 hours skiing and managed to pass the magical 500-kilometer frontier, 516 km to be exact.
You may wonder what an earth makes someone do that. Let’s find out and ask Jørgen about this amazing feat.
“We decided to have a go for the 513 km record a Norwegian skier had back in the 80s as the only thing to do for skiers now is logging in kilometers. And we also have an internal competition within Team Ragde Eiendom about who will ski the most in March.”
It certainly seems that Anders and Joar are leading that particular competition as this was another long workout in a short time for both of them. How different was this long journey from the previous one?
“The 321 km workout was just a really long ski session in some of the most challenging and beautiful parts of Nordmarka,” Jørgen continues. “For the 516 challenge, we aimed for a flat course and ended up doing 12 km laps. The pace was also much higher in the 321 km session.”
As this new undertaking took 32 hours, your energy intake must have been well constructed and thought-out. So, how did you prepare for this and what did you eat and drink during the workout?
“We had two guys who helped us with the skis and food. This was not a really serious record breaking attempt. We had two 16-year old teenagers skiing with us for a while, we had a nice bonfire, ate some hot dogs, and the whole experience of skiing in and out of the night and the beautiful nature around us were a big part of it all. We used Maurten sport energy, coca cola, chocolate and candy. And hot dogs!”
Both Anders and Jørgen are well-known of their knack for extreme challenges, and you can read about their Greenland expedition on our site, but how would Jørgen compare this to other endurance trials that they have undertaken?
“This was hard but the pace was so slow. We could have gone on for quite a bit longer. Every day in the Greenland crossing was much harder. Then, we had to make a camp, melt snow and sleep for 4 hours and get up again and keep going. That took us a week to do, and this one was only 32 hours.”
Since the brothers are so keen on launching into these types of physical ventures, one must ask them about trying to break Hans Mäenpää’s Guinness World Record of 472 km and breaking the magical boundary of 500 K.
“500 km is really long within 24 hours. It depends on the conditions, and skating is much faster than double-poling. You need to get the right pace and nutrition from the start, have patience and hope for the best day of your life if you’re going to try to break the 500 km limit.”
The brothers are also open to an idea of having ultra-distances in Visma Ski Classics as well, and a 24-hour relay between the best Pro Teams would be an interesting addition according to them. Then, to wrap the interview, it makes sense to ask about the lessons they have learned by doing these “out-of-this-world” explorations into the human psyche.
“We love these kinds of adventures! I did my first 24-hour relay in Italy back in 1996. This is the soul of cross-country skiing; the fight against the conditions, the pain, the mental side and testing your ultimate endurance. We also love the nature and to be one with that.”
