Day 7 - the end in sight

The final day dawns. Other people are off early, so I do the same and hit the ski trail at 7:07am. The first couple of kilometres retrace our route from the previous day, including a stretch on my favourite skiing surface - the icy road.

 I get most of the way through the hills before more than a couple of people pass me. Because the track is narrow and I am slow, I try to do faster skiers the courtesy of stepping briefly out of the track for them to pass. After about 10km I do this for one in a real hurry and my left ankle goes over on its side. So now I have to go round corners even more gently - at least for 30km until I reach the bus and my pain killers.

 Still, hardly anyone passes me, and I know that I was an early starter. So either they are all slow, or many have taken the bus for the first section. There has been much debate over the distance for today. For the first time in 4 years, we will be able to ski straight down the river in Tornio to the hotel, which is on an island between Finland and Sweden. There is something special about arriving at your hotel on skis.

 Because I suspect the distance is underestimated, I pace myself to expect at least another 5km. After the last rest stop, which in the past has been the finish, we then are skiing on frozen rivers right the way to the hotel. I have never done this section before, and had expected it to be flat and easy. This turns out to be a misconception. I don't know whether it is tiredness, but for the next 12km this river seems to be going uphill. It is certainly not flat - it may have frozen flat, but then the openness and the twists and turns have meant that drifting snow has created a landscape at times more like sand dunes. The cold weather means that skis are not gliding - a lot of today has seemed more like snow shoeing with planks rather than skiing. After I have finished an analysis of the data shows that I expended 25% more energy for 15km less than the longest day.

 Finally, just before 6pm and the setting sun, I make the final turn and ski across the river to the hotel. I always find this emotional - not least as there are always some kids from the local college stood in freezing temperatures to cheer us across the finish (Finnish) line, and give us our final hot drink before showing us where to put our skis in the hotel.

 A quick shower, then dinner and the presentations. Although mentioned at the briefing at the start, there is the custom that each nationality presents something at the end. Having been the sole Brit on the two previous occasions, this time I joined the Norwegians. I don't think I will ever forget the uncontrollable, infectious laughter of a Norwegian lady around my age crawling across a table pretending to be a goat, and Jorn made a convincing (but thin) troll. (I have actually skied in Hovringen in Norway across a bridge that really looks like the sort that should have a troll living under it). For those of you who watched it and wonder still what my part was - I was supposed to be up on the Seter milking the goats. (Where I live is Somerset - from the sommer seter - summer pastures, because prior to land drainage it was too wet to farm here in the winter).

 After that, we end up as just two or three groups of hard drinkers, until it is soon time to get up and on our way to the airport.

 Back to reality, but as usual, I will make a final post of the lessons learned in a few days time in case anyone else is thinking of doing the Rajalta Rajalle Hiihto for 2014.

I believe that I now hold the dubious honour of being the Brit that has skied more times across Finland than any other Brit. Seven more times and I get a plaque to show I am a master skier. Actually, each year I have got fitter and better faster than the deterioration with age, so I think I should be able to manage a few more times.

Day 6 - almost there, I hope

Another cold day, starting around -29C. When we got to the end, I discovered that one person had frostbite over much of his face. Apparently, certain types of medication can make you more prone to frostbite, or make frostbite worse. This was something I had not previously thought of, but drugs that affect the circulation would have an impact. I also discovered that a Finn had a frostbitten toe and would not be skiing the next day.

This goes to show that the RR is a serious challenge. It is only practical outside of an expedition basis because of the organisation and the volunteers. To find teenagers cheerfully standing outside for five hours serving hot drinks is inspiring. Whole families man some rest stops. It is this, and the ability to meet up with the buses to replace equipment at least once per day that allows us to travel light.

 The range of clothing worn is as wide as the range of people. At one extreme, you have people with just a couple of layers of Lycra - these tend to be the more energetic (and faster) skiers who generate more internal heat. This year, there was a Swede who wore traditional clothing and skied on traditional wooden skis. I fit somewhere in the middle. I wear high tech underpants of the sort rugby players and others wear under their shorts. These have two advantages - they have flat seams, carefully placed not to chafe and wick away any sweat. A pair of technical long underpants on top of these, Swix cross country ski trousers rated for about -5C. On the top half, I start with a technical thermal T shirt - long or short sleeved, followed by another breathable intermediate layer. For the third layer, I have a Rohan fairly open knit sweater, but this is lined only at the front with a windproof material. On top of this is a Swix cross country ski jacket rated -5C (Swix have started rating/colour coding their clothing like they do for waxes). This has breathable panels down the sides, and by unzipping a little at the front, I can control temperature reasonably well.  I then have a windproof hat, and all of this trip worn a thin cotton balaclava. Socks are proper cross country ski socks. They may seem expensive at €20-30 a pair, but they are the right shape (different for left and right feet), support the calf muscles, and never seem to wear out. They remain warm when damp. Finally, gloves are the most difficult choice - they need to be flexible and warm, but not too warm. My best pair cost around €70; the only drawback is that they get cool when I take them off at rest stops and it may take ten minutes once I get going again. I carry a thin pair of silk inner gloves that I can always put on to counter this, or alleviate any chafing, and a spare pair of thicker, warmer, gloves.

 With carefully chosen layers like this, you can remain warm over a wide range of temperatures, even when you stop. The key thing is also to ensure that sweat can get out and not build up, and that clothing is always warm if damp or wet. After all, if there was any form of accident or mishap, it could be a while before someone gets to you. Clothing that draws away any moisture also reduces rubbing and chafing.

 I found food harder on this trip. As previously mentioned, chocolate can get so hard it breaks teeth. Many cereal bars suffer in a similar way. The very dry air seems to suck the moisture out of most things, and so they taste like cardboard. No-one seems to have come up with anything for energy that tastes good, is not too unhealthy, and is easily and quickly eaten at -20C.

 Today's skiing is mostly flat boglands and forests. This can be more challenging to ski than you think, as whole sections go up and down over every tree root - a bit like cross country skiing on a level mogul field. If you don't keep momentum going, then the kick wax sticks as you slow on the tops of the hillocks, sapping energy, and in my case upsetting what little balance I have.

 Sometimes, when the sun has been at the right angle for a while, the tracks will suddenly glide, and you feel a surge in speed for a few hundred metres. Then you plunge into the forest and feel a 10C drop in temperature. This is down to the low angle of the sun at this time of year not penetrating far. As the light fades, you sometimes get an optical illusion and instead of running in (grooved) tracks, you get the impression that instead you are running on rails. When it happens, and it is rare and only lasts for a couple of hundred metres, it is completely surreal. Once it was so compelling I stopped and tried to step "off" the rails!

 Tonight's stay is another on the mattresses on the floor. The only toilet is attached to the sauna across the yard, and you have to be desperate to trek across in the middle of the night. I just slip a fleece on over pyjamas and sprint for it. Having gone to be early, I am also awake quite early - we need to be up at 6am, so I take the opportunity to grab a quick wash before there is a queue.

 In the evening, the village running the centre runs a lottery. I discovered that they use the profits to take the village kids swimming. There are about 40 people in the village. One lady tells us that there are 4 generations in her family here. I am told that it is a fairly hard living in this area. Some of the communes - about the size of an English county - have only a few thousand inhabitants.

Day 5 - the shortest day

Today is the shortest day, but in some respects the hardest. It comes after the effort of the longest day, which has already taken it out of those not incredibly fit. My Polar training load went off the top of the scale - beyond "do not train" a couple of days ago, and each day I am putting in a work load that takes it from zero into the red zone.

 It is colder than anticipated this morning, Annita, the organiser, says that it was -28C when she got up this morning. For comparison, this is colder than the record cold temperature ever recorded in the UK.

 Since there is no professional waxing service here, I decided that since my skis were gliding not too badly, it would be better to leave them alone and just put on fresh grip wax. This is where I have learnt a bit from having skis waxed by locals. The temperature by the time we start may have risen to around -20C and the prediction is a high of -10C. So, in theory, I ought to use the -10C to -30C wax, or even the -6C to -15C wax. Instead I use the blue wax -4C to -10C as it does go down to -15C on some types of snow. More importantly, it is what the experts have been using and so far it has worked very well for me. In very cold weather, the skis do not glide as well anyway.

 Todays theoretical distance is 44km; the GPS distance is 50km, hence the frequent comments about the variability of Finnish kilometres.

 Tonight we are split between two old school houses - Ruona and Hosio. Ruona is the penultimate stop, so those people ski on past their accommodation to then be bussed back. This tests the will power, as it is so tempting not to ski on past. This is the first of two nights in sleeping bags on mattresses on the floor. Even though this means there is a good snoring "chorus", most people are tired enough to sleep regardless. At Ruona, we have a mobile sauna, which looks like a small caravan fed by an external stove.

 It is also the first time since we started that I actually enjoy eating and want more. This is not an adverse comment on the food. It is just that I find I want to eat less after hard exercise, and getting enough calories on the RR is a big problem for me. This year, it has become more apparent. After a while when I am in a higher "gear" I can feel my body telling me that I am not giving it enough fuel. I have tried a variety of things - energy shots, protein and energy bars etc. This year I tried some energy gel, which is concentrated and you then drink after it, and it was the only thing that seemed to be quick to take in and effective.

Day 4 - the longest day

Last night I saw the northern lights again. No, not the Aurora Borealis, but the display as I got into bed. Let me explain - in these cold temperatures, much of the moisture is frozen out of the air and so there is tremendous build up of static. In the dark, you get something like sheet lightning as you turn over in bed when you first get in. The latest trend in cross country skis is to add graphite to the base, to discharge the static and so as not to attract particles that will cause drag and slow you down. And I was reminded of this when I picked up my skis last night, wearing well insulated shoes - the shock was about the strength of an electric fencing unit.

 So to the skiing. The first question is how to start - wait for the official bus to the start at 7:30, or leave as some do and ski down and get off early. That extra 15 minutes can make a huge difference at the end of the day. Someone did point out a flaw in the skiing down plan - because you will be doing this on a groomed downhill slope that has frozen further overnight, you run the risk of wearing off a lot of the wax from your skis. Her alternative is to walk down. I took the bus - setting off early last time coincidentally meant that after the first stop, I was not with anyone in sight and went wrong missing the turn (not that I was the only one).

 The skiing (for me) was fairly uneventful. This year I am finally into holding my poles correctly (instinctively) - using them for propulsion, with a loose hand grip, instead of gripping them tightly and using them for balance. For one long section, I kept pace with one of the most experienced older skiers, until I caught an edge on a downhill section. I got to the last checkpoint around something like 17:25 which meant that I should just make it in the fading light.

 Fate, however, had other ideas. About 30 minutes later, in the fading light, a snowstorm hit. Trying to see pink ribbon every few hundred metres now became difficult, and so I had to really slow my pace down. The snow had obliterated the tracks, but I have had practice at feeling my way in the tracks on several occasions; it is just slower. Somehow, some parts of this section did not seem familiar - either it had changed or on the two previous occasions, fatigue had erased it from my mind. When I got to the lake, it was not possible to see which direction to go. So I tried the tracks to the left, but could not find markers. In retracing, the snow eased and I thought I could now see the first mark out on the lake. To be sure, I now took out the GPS which I had programmed with waypoints from a previous trip, and thus was now able to be more comfortable heading in that direction, and sure enough, picked up the trail again. Had it not been for this slowdown, I would have made it by around 18:30 instead of just after 19:00. There were a couple came in after me, including someone who broke two teeth on a piece of chocolate. It is surprising how hard things become in these temperatures.

A number of people said that it was about an hour slower than last year, which accords with my feeling. Still 87km and not being completely shattered as on previous occasions is an improvement. Roll on the next challenge.

Day 3 - it's all about saving energy

Today I realised that this day last year is a complete blank in my memory. I had forgotten most of the hills - and it is rare that you forget a 2km uphill when cross country skiing (at least at my level). However, Thor-Frederick reminded me that last year I struggled towards the end on this section, so perhaps that's why I don't remember much.

Within a hundred metres or so, it is the same distance as yesterday, and according to the analysis, the same training load. Believe it or not, 8 hours skiing is only 3765 calories - about twice my daily recommended intake.

It may have been a beautiful day, but for the first hour or so, I couldn't see any of it - it was so cold my breath had frozen on both sides of my glasses. I have enough trouble with them misting up. But at times, when you go into shade, it can be difficult to see the tracks, and my photochromics take far too long to react. This can be quite scary when you are doing 30km/hr or so and cannot see where the track goes - at least for me, because my balance is not so great that unless I ski into the turn, I have a habit of not making it, as in today's close encounter with a tree, when I just stopped in time.

By the half way mark, Thor-Frederick had a six inch icicle hanging from his balaclava. But other than that, it was a beautiful day.

Tonight was a special celebration of the 30th RR. Incredibly, two people - Vaino and Leila who skied the first one have skied every single one since.

Day 2 - another good day

I must be getting better. I set off somewhere just past half way down the group. But not many people seem to pass me in the day, and I even catch people up and pass them.

I don't spend so long at the rest stops these days for a number of reasons - I don't need to recover as much, but also having moved up to new outer Lycra type clothing, and only breathable layers beneath, as soon as you stop, you soon feel the cold. (It may also be something to do with getting older). Gloves that are comfortable when expending energy go very cold when you stop, and even at -10C it can take 10-15mins after you get going again before the hands are warm. As a standby, I keep a thin pair of silk inner gloves to put on underneath if the cold feeling persists and I have also taken to carrying a pair of thicker, warmer gloves, which I use as padding for my thermos.

I have given up on a water bottle - in these temperatures it soon freezes, and even if it doesn't, after first use, a thin film of ice forms preventing you getting the cap open to drink again. After much searching I found a 0.35L stainless steel thermos about the size of a water bottle. Little improvements like this add up to quite a bit over time. Having got close to frostbite on my face during training (driving snow can cool the face surprisingly well without you noticing), I have taken to wearing a thin cotton balaclava, which I always carried with me, as a matter of course in these temperatures, and took the precaution of buying a "commando" balaclava for colder conditions which has just a slit for the eyes and a hole for the mouth.

I set out for the day with a vague time I hoped to complete today's 60km in - 7.5 hours, including rest stops. At the beginning, I was well ahead of this, but later on snow conditions became a bit slower, but I did finish the day a few minutes inside target. Better still, on the sections that are just icy roads, I did not do my usual "Bambi" impression, but actually kept balanced and at times even managed to maintain the odd 50-100 metres skating. Of course, any feeling that I am completely in control was lost a couple of times when I caught a ski tip in heavy snow when transitioning to a plough down steep sections, and made a quick nose dive into the snow. This has the effect of blinding me, until I have removed my glasses, and got rid of all the snow on the "eye" side.

Once again, the benefits of having professionally waxed skis are clear. These guys know the local conditions. They often use a kick wax slightly warmer than I would have chosen from the weather forecast. For example, starting at -15C rising to -10C, I would naively have used something like a -20C to -10C. But waxes have two temperature ranges - one for fresh snow and another for older snow. This is down to the hardness and sharpness of the snow crystals.

Several people on this year's RR have apparently read my blog from last year, and I was even asked for advice for the longest day - my main advice is not to take a wrong turn like I did last year!

Well off to bed shortly - you really do need your beauty sleep on this trip,

Day 1 - here we go again

(Originally this was written earlier but due to internet problems, I could not post immediately)

On the bus to the start - close to the Russian border. A bit chilly this morning, somewhere -15C or below. I didn't sleep well last night - ended up with a bizarre dream trying to ski across Spain with no snow. Have no idea where that came from.

The first 4km are the ones I worry about most - twisty and steep, about a metre wide, winding through the forest, with only a bit of red tape to warn you of a steep drop on a tight bend not to ski over. Once round this safely, I can relax, as I now have a chance to make it to the end.

A few keen ones pushed their way through along this stage. Obviously first timers who think this is a race. A race is not what the RR is about.

With one less day of training in Kuusamo (not possible to get here on a Saturday), and the week I had in February in Norway seems a lifetime away, I wonder if the joints and stamina will hold out. Somehow, I feel less confident this time around than my previous trips. The first time I really didn't know what I was letting myself in for. The second time was OK. But this time round, I have noticed that extra year's aging seems to be making itself felt more acutely. Training has been hard since Christmas with four weeks away from home, and hotel gyms turning out to be pathetic.

But back to the RR. The sun is shining, nature has sculpted the snow beautifully. I find for the first time ever that I am sufficiently in control i.e. there are quite a few people behind me, that I have the leisure of stopping to take pictures.

[Picture to be posted later]

Around Ruka the tracks are busy. I wonder what those pottering around make of 60 or so people charging through. The hot soup at the rest stop is particularly welcome, then it is on down to Kuusamo and the final stop for drinks in a tiny schoolhouse. I drink my "energy shot" - considering it has very few calories, is a mixture of chemicals and caffeine, I do wonder about it - it tastes vile, but I suppose the caffeine has an effect. But I guess when you are up against it and feeling weary, you will try anything!

I trundle along the last few kilometers at a comfortable pace (remembering what happened when I pushed too hard in my first RR) and get in at a few minutes past 5pm. This is about half an hour faster than my first RR, and possibly about the same as last year. But the big surprise is that although I am tired, I am not shattered like on previous occasions. This at least allays my fears that my stamina is a lot less - it is holding up better than I ever hoped.

The good news is that we are staying in the hotel, rather than the cabins. Trekking backwards and forwards several hundred metres to the cabins after a long hard day was not my idea of post skiing fun, and this is a great improvements (it also means 2 sharing a bathroom instead of 6 or 8).

My evening's special entertainment was watching a master ski waxer at work. With no snow where I live in the UK, and even when there is some, it is rarely skiable, not only is training a problem, but also it means there is no opportunity to wax skis and see how they perform. And although I have most of the waxing gear, I have only ever stayed at one place where there was somewhere to wax skis. Properly waxing skis makes it look like you have attacked a candle with a cheese grater.