The 70km (43.5 mile) Marcialonga ski marathon will be staged on Sunday in northern Italy. The race course runs mostly downhill route until, at about km 67, the track tips up a horrifying 10% grade into the beautiful town of Cavalese. Because of its length and because of its ending, the Marcialonga is one of the highlights of the "Worldloppet" and "Marathon Cup" circuits of very long ski races, perhaps second only to the grandaddy of them all, the 90km Vasaloppet, to be held on March 2 in Sweden. (Speaking for myself, I would love to ski the Marcialonga and the Vasaloppet - but right now neither my triceps nor my bank account could handle either one. Someday, though: fly to Rome in mid-January, drive up to Val di Fiemme for a vacation and the Marcialonga, then take a month to wander slowly up through Switzerland, Germany, and Demark into Sweden for the Vasa...)
This year, the Marcialonga is especially well-stocked with top-level athletes: former World Cup racers Frode Estil and Thomas Alsgaard (both Norway); current World Cuppers like Mathias Fredriksson (Sweden) and, amazingly, Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset (Norway - the reigning 50km world champion and last year's winner at the fabled Holmenkollen 50km in Oslo); and the usual group of marathoners like last year's winner Jerry Ahrlin (Sweden), Oskar Svaerd (Sweden) and the brothers Joergen and Anders Aukland (Norway). According to this short profile of a Norwegian who's skied every Marcialonga since 1973 (by my count, that's 2,450 kilometers of racing), about 1,700 Norwegians are entered for this year's event, or about a third of all the entrants.
The women's race will go to Hilde Pedersen (Norway), a couple years removed from racing on the World Cup and last year's Marcialonga winner, and I think that Frode Estil will knock himself out to win on the men's side, making a late surge up that final climb for the victory. But with Hjelmeset in the mix...