The schedule is up for the new marathon skating season. We start off as usual with the Quebec City marathon that takes place on November 10 and 11 on the beautiful Gaetan Bouchard olympic (refrigerated) oval in Ste.Foy PQ, a suburb of Quebec City. This event, which includes both 25km (Saturday November 10) and 40km (Sunday November 11) is always well attended by both elite and recreational marathon skaters and all are welcome to join in. For further information, and a full listing of all of the marathon events this winter, visit the marathon skating website at marathonskating.org.

The second marathon event of the season will be at the Lake Placid Olympic (refrigerated) Oval (where Eric Heiden won all five speedskating medals in the 1980 Winter Olympics). This event is always well attended by a large variety of skating levels including beginners. In addition to myself, I believe that two other of our masters skaters are going to give it a try this year. The Lake Placid meet will be held on the weekend of Dec. 7, 8 and 9. Currently the schedule indicates a Friday evening 10km event followed by 25km and 40km on the Saturday and Sunday. For this event I share accommodation with a group of Ottawa Pacers skaters who rent a B and B for the weekend. This is the best deal in Lake Placid and if you are interested in attending this event let me know regarding accommodation.

These two events will be followed by natural ice marathons in the new year, including Ottawa (Brewers Park), Portland, Vermont (Lake Champlain) and two separate venues in Alberta.

John Ambrose