Koenig-Ludwig-Lauf 2010

February 21, 2010

Those who participated at Marcialonga heard the triumphant announcement: Koenig-Ludwig-Lauf has plenty of snow and skiing conditions are excellent. Good, they thought, at last we will be able to ski again the full course including the passage at Linderhof castle and the climbs and descents before and after it. They were disappointed: the organizers had enough snow to organize the race (thanks to them again for the gigantic effort put in carrying snow on the track), but the race was shortened to 42 km. That is both races, the FT race on Saturday and the CT race on Sunday. The course consisted of two 21 km loops with the turning point about 2 km above Graswang. No Linderhof castle!
During the week preceding K-L-L it rained one day, not enough to destroy the tracks, but after a couple of hours of training you came back soaked. The weather on the race days was not ideal. On Saturday it snowed wet snow and skiing was not very fast. On Sunday, contrary to the forecast it did not snow but the weather was cloudy with a temperature around zero C, making waxing a delicate problem. Some strong skiers used skating skis and double-poled the whole distance. Also those who had waxed for grip double-poled a lot. Because of the soft snow the tracks were relatively slow also on Sunday, especially on the second loop.
Skiers regretted that the tent in the start area was very small and reserved for bib pickup. In former years the tent was bigger, appreciated in two situations: when it is very cold and when it rains or a wet snow is falling. The K-L-L start is a mass start. Because of the relatively small number of participants and the numerous tracks after the start, this arrangement did not create problems. However, a bottleneck occurred in the climb to the forest road about 4 km after the start. The finish area is excellent with a ski deposit and the multi-purpose sports hall, inside which they get their clothing bags and are served pasta, sandwiches, snacks and drinks.

Some results of IAWLS members

42 km FT

Winner’s time 1.43.05, 702 finishers:

42 km CT

Winner’s time 1.44.13, 1305 finishers:

21 km FT

Winner’s time 0.52.30, 155 finishers:

21 km CT

Winner’s time 0.52.07, 120 finishers:

This page was last revised on March 13, 2010