Monday, February 6, 2012

König Ludwig Lauf

This weekend I packed my skies and went all the way to Germany to participate in the ski race König Ludwig. The race is named after a bavarian king who liked to build castles. Wikipedia has more info about him so here is the link.
The landscape is spectacular, surrounded by the alps and in a very nice town called Oberammergau that looks exactly as you might imagine southern Germany.
The race is tougher than it looks. It is relatively flat, although it goes about 200 meters up for the first 22 kilometers. It is not steep, it is just that it looks flat but is not. If you are fit you can probably double pole the whole way. But I didn't manage to do that.
The slope goes across the valley and besides a palace (Linderhoff). After that, there is a little downhill and more flat-not flat terrain. Since the valley is small, there is a loop at around 28 kilometers and you go back for some kilometers. After that is mostly flat to Oberammergau.
I would say that I manage to double pole about 35 kilometers of the 50 kilometers. As a comparison, I manage to double pole 60 out 63 kilometers of Tartu maraton and around 60 kilometers of Vasaloppet.
All in all, the race is beautiful. The landscape overwhelming and the town really nice. Thumbs up for this race!