The Birkebeiner xc-marathon this year became a huge come back for both the participants and the organizers after strong winds and cancellation last year. Looking back at record numbers for participation from the years before the cancellation it was exciting to see how the interest was for next year´s marathon as the sign-up opened yesterday, the 29th of april.
Update fri May 8th: Today, the day after the dua date of paying the reservation ticket to the 2016 Birkebeiner xc-marathon the organizers report that well over 7000 places are sold. This is approximately the same level as last year.
Article from April 30th continued: Today, one day after the the sign-up opened, recollecting the Klondyke conditions from earlier years with lists being filled up in minutes, there´s still a lot of places available for 2016.
XC-marathon.com/Turrenn.net has spoken to Head Press Officer, Randi Bolstad about the interest for next year´s competition. She reports a lever of interest similar to this year´s event. : -There is an ongoing flow of sign-ups, reaching about 5000 one day after the opening. That´s roughly the same level as last year (leading up to this years race). We have reasons to believe, from the good results of our participant survey, that the final level of participants will be satisfactory, with 3 out of 4 saying they will be back next year.
What expectations do you have as to when the race sign up will be full? -It´s hrd to try to tell if it will be fully booked, but we have good faith that the 13 000 that was here this year will return next year. Also, we would like to recommend people to sign up as early as possible, because the earlier people sign up, the better the marathon works as a training goal for next year. In addition, we think it´s important to announce that we just have started focusing on the Birkebeiner run (half marathon) the 13th of june, and that we have a discount for those who sign up for the triple (run, cyckling, ski; ed. note). On the same note we´d like to announce that the UltraBirken run now is approved as qualification to the Ultra-trail Mont Blanc (read more) and rewards one point. This is a stamp of approval in the ultra community and we hope that even more ultra runners will join in Lillehammer the 13th of june.
About the ski marathon next year; there has been a couple of winters with little snow in Norway – do you thin it affects the interest and number of sign ups? -Lack of snow and that people can´t get enough time on their skis, could be an explanation. We have to expect variations from year to year when we organize the largest sporting event in Norway, says Bolstad.
Steffen Larssen, xc-marathon/turrenn.net
