Apart from the World Cup cross-country ski racing circuit, there are a few other big races that I am excited to follow each year, such as the 90km (56 mile) Vasaloppet in Sweden and the 70km (43.5 mile) Marcialonga in Italy. Besides being fantastically long, both events attract thousands of competitors who run the gamut from "tourers" who just plod along hours to citizen racers who go pretty damn fast for a very long time all the way up to elite racers who zoom along faster than marathon runners. (The men's winner of last year's Marcialonga finished in 2:07:17 - taking just 142 seconds more than the current men's marathon world record to cover 17.3 more miles.)
And but so, I was excited to see that two of my favorite skiers, Frode Estil and Hilde Pedersen of Norway, are going to race in the Marcialonga in January. 43 years old, Pedersen sometimes forms a relay team with her twin 19-year-old daughters, but she won the Marcialonga in 2007 and must already stand as the favorite. Estil has never won one of the marathons, but he did take a gold and a silver in the world championship 50km races in 2005 and 2007, so he knows how to ski long distances. What's more, he's now training intensively for the ultra-long races. Winning the Marcialonga would be a huge accomplishment - and a great tune-up for a run at the Vasaloppet in March.