Ottawa Marathon Weekend – St Lawrence Well Represented

(Sorry, this post got buried for a while -Steve)

Ottawa Marathon Weekend – St Lawrence Well Represented

Following a cold week with good skating conditions the Brewer oval came under the influence of warmer weather on the weekend that resulted in challenging skating on the Saturday afternoon and a wicked challenge for Sunday with extremely high winds. Of the 24 entries for the 21km, four were from our club (Connor, Kyle, Heidi and John). Connor and Kyle placed 12th and 15th respectively. John and Connor used the 4km race as a warmup for the 21 and both John and Heidi turned in good performances for the 21km event. On Sunday the 42km was modified to a one hour blizzard challenge as a result of winds up to 90km/hr. At one point during the race our lightest skater (Connor) was blown backwards! However he still managed, along with Kyle, to clock 61 laps while John knocked off four fewer (John prefaced this race with the 10km which was held one hour before the 1 hour challenge). Heidi chose short track in Kingston on Sunday.

Long distance skating is now becoming popular within the club and we have seven members, including four masters and three competitive group skaters, who have now participated in the half and full marathon MSI (marathon skating international) events.  The next event is Saturday Jan.26 with the ever popular Skate the Lake at Portland on Big Rideau Lake and several of our members will be taking part in this event. The last event in the east will be the inaugural Lake Champlain marathon Feb 8,9 in Vermont. At least five of us are planning to attend this ‘probably loaded with fun’ event. It is never too late to sign up for either of these two events but if you just want to experience the event atmosphere you are encouraged to attend the Skate the Lake event as a spectator.  For pictures of the Ottawa marathon weekend go to the MSI website and look for the event description and Alicia’s pics.

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