Anders Jaeger goes on a 12 hrs skiing trip

Being an athlete in the world of Motorsports is not only about driving fastest, or calling the pace-notes. Our EVEN athletes are well aware of that, and they put a lot of effort in to finding ways to improve and to make each other better. Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jaeger (Ole Christian Veiby’s codriver) are…

March 13, 2015

Being an athlete in the world of Motorsports is not only about driving fastest, or calling the pace-notes. Our EVEN athletes are well aware of that, and they put a lot of effort in to finding ways to improve and to make each other better. Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jaeger (Ole Christian Veiby’s codriver) are two good friends that spend hours together, always challenging each other to run faster, lift more, jump higher and to go that extra mile.

Andreas Mikkelsen did a marathon run once, just in the cause of challenging him self. Anders Jaeger took it a bit further last weekend, when he decided to attend a long distance skiing-race. In complete darkness, at 5:30 in the morning, he started in what is one of the longest skiing-race in the world, ”Pendler-løpet”. Stretching from Gjøvik to Oslo, and including 3969 metres of uphill climbing, the 135kms of cross-country skiing is a proper test for both mind and body.

– I wanted to challenge myself, Anders says. – And to find out how much I can push myself physically, but also mentally. In order to become the best codriver in the Championship, you need to be strong, in both your head and your body. For more than 12 hours I was completely on my own. I had to navigate and find the way, I had to re-prep my skies many times, but most importantly I had to find the strength in my self to push all the way.

With an average of 4 degrees Celsius and partly sunny, you would think this would be a nice trek. But it wasn’t really. The warm weather made the slopes very slow, and the athletes really had to work hard to get some pace and rhythm. In addition strong head winds forced them to even push with the poles on the downhill sections. To add some extra weight, all the skiers had to carry a rucksack containing everything needed for the day; food, drinks, spare clothing, ski-wax and equipment.

– The conditions were really challenging, Anders explains. – You got nothing for free, and had to push maximum on every meter of the race. Re-prepping the skies for grip and pace took a lot of time, and you constantly had to work with your motivation to keep on. For the first 60kms the slopes were also so poorly so there wasn’t even possible to work on the skiing-technique. It was crazy, considering you only managed to do 10kms in an hour. But I made it, all the way through to the finish line!

15 hours and 23 minutes after he started, Anders crossed the finish line at Holmenkollen in Oslo, including 12 hours and 48 minutes of effective skiing time and 12.500kcal’s burned. He finished with an impressive 11th fastest time. Half of the starting-field retired during the race.

Løypekart Pendler