Marathon Musings

Schonewille Family Rocks!

The eighth annual Skate the Lake marathon was held on Saturday January 28th under less than ideal conditions. The ice maintenance team worked hard all the previous week and refused to give in to a stubborn weather situation. With thawing temperatures, rain, freezing rain and then snow the crew pressed on and gave us remarkable ice conditions considering the weather circumstances. The turnout was light this year with ….. in the five Km and …… in the 10 km and only ….. competing in the 25km. The 50 km was cancelled but just as well since by early afternoon the ice conditions had deteriorated considerably.

Our club had a good showing at Portland – eight skaters albeit five of them were the entire Schonewille family. A, B and C took three of the first four places in their category of the 10 km race and Kim skated to a second place in her category. Todd skated his first long distance ever and did very well, placing 17th overall in the 25 km. John also skated in the 25 but placed a dismal 25th out of a field of 29 but this was partly due to his ‘getting too close to the ice’ with only three laps remaining. Although asked for a refund the organizers told him that there would be no refund because they now had to clean up the red spills that he left behind. Nolan Roney finished 8th and Annella Roney finished 18th in the kids’ 5 km.

The next marathon was to be held on beautiful Lake Morey in Vermont but it has been cancelled because they need the ice surface for a hockey tournament (what’s new?). So the next marathon will be on the Halifax oval – anyone interested in joining me?