Five club members managed to find their way down to North Hero Vermont last weekend to participate in the first annual Lake Champlain Marathon. In spite of the perfect storm we all managed to arrive at different times but in time to reach the starting line for the 21 km event on Saturday. An early start of 10 am was delayed until mid-afternoon to give the Waterloo ladies time to negotiate bad road conditions. They arrived with 15 minutes to spare! Todd, Heidi, John A., John B. and Fimke all performed well with Todd putting in the best time with a fourth place overall in a field of 27. The 42 km on Sunday was held under absolutely perfect conditions with sunny skies and no wind. Heidi, John A. and Todd partook in this event and again Todd showed his skating strength and stamina by placing 6th overall in a field of 24. We all agreed that this was a wonderful weekend at a superb venue. Most of us stayed at the very comfortable North Hero Lodge where lodging, food and draft beer were all first class. We all agree that this is the venue to head for next year.

We must thank the various folks in North Hero who made this event possible. It was their first time and to put on such an event but they handled the steep learning curve admirably.

Marathon skating now moves out west with the Silver Skate Marathon in Edmonton on family day weekend and the Sylvan Lake (near Red Deer) being held the following weekend over three days. Anyone interested in joining me at Sylvan Lake for three races of 25, 50 and 100 km?