Marathon Musings – It’s Marathon Time!

It’s marathon time! In just a little over three weeks the first marathon event of the season will be held at the Gaetan Boucher Oval in Ste. Foy P.Q. This is always a well attended event and a great kickoff for the marathon season – no cracks in the ice. Ice conditions have always been superb on this 400 metre refrigerated oval. There will be a free practice skate on Friday Nov 8th between 6 and 7 pm. On Saturday the 25km will be held at 5:30pm and on Sunday two races: women’s only 10km at 8:30am and then the one hour challenge at 10:30am. Refer to marathonskating.org for further details and a list of the marathons for the season. If you would like to try some distances this winter you should seriously consider the Quebec event since two of last years venues (Ottawa and Vermont) are not available for this season. I will be attending this one in Quebec City (always a fun place to spend some time), anyone interested in joining me? If so, see me at the Memorial Centre for further details re: transportation and accommodation. John A.

UPDATE: Online registration due Wed by 10 pm – Eastern Regional Racing Series # 1

An update to the previous post about the first Eastern Regional Racing Series in Kanata.

The Online registration is due by 10 pm on Wednesday September 25th (yes, tomorrow!).   The link is in the corrected post below:

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Mark your calendars!

The Ottawa Pacers will be hosting the 1st Regional Racing Series meet of the 2013-2014 season. This 2-day event will take place October 5th & 6th at the Bell Sensplex in Kanata. More information can be found on the OSSA website or by reading the Official OSSA Announcement.

Registration must be completed on-line by Wednesday September 25th at 10 pm, with the signed waiver and payment returned to our club Registrar no later than September 27th, 2013.

Seed times can be found in the Rankings list on the OSSA Racing page. If you do not have a seed time listed, please talk to the coaches this Sunday and they will help you out.

For your SSC #’s (Speed Skating Canada), please contact Heather.

Learn to Skate with SLSSC

New for 2013! Learn to Skate with SLSSC!

Ages: 3+, no skating ability required
Skates: Hockey, Figure or Recreational skates
Equipment: Safety equipment as per club policy
Time: Tuesdays 6:00-6:30 pm
Cost: $75 per session (2 sessions: Sep 10- Dec 21, Jan 6 – Mar 25)
Learn the fundamentals of skating in a fun, game-based environment. Skaters progress through introductory levels of the Speed Skating Canada Cutting Edge Pin Program.
Excellent foundation for balance, agility, and stroking.   Skaters will be provided opportunities to try long blade skates during their session.
Come check us out at our registration Aug 14th, Memorial Center, 6-8 pm or contact us through the website.

Ellis Edge Ottawa camps being offered in July

Sue Ellis is offering both intermediate and advanced camps in Gloucester in July.

See the details below.

 

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Hi folks

Hope you all had a great skating season!

I will be holding the Ellis Edge Ottawa camps again this year. The camps will be in Gloucester July 7 – 11 for Intermediate (ya, I know I said I wasn’t doing it this year but I had too much fun last year not to!), and the Advanced camp is July 13 – 17.

You can access all the information at
http://www.ellisedge.com/Camps/Ottawa/OttawaYouth13/OttawaYouthHome13.html

The online registration link is
http://www.ellisedge.com/Camps/Ottawa/OttawaYouth13/OttawaOnlinereg.html
Please note the link is not accessible on the web page so you must use the above link to pre-register to guarantee your spot.

I look forward to seeing you all in July!

Sue

Sue Ellis Ottawa Masters’ Camp

Sue Ellis is offering an Ottawa Masters camp that is now available for pre-registration.

See the details below.

 

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Hi folks

Hope you all had a great skating season!
The Ottawa Masters camp is now open for pre-registration. Please note the different location of the camp this year. Carleton University is expanding their internal programming and was not available to us this year so we are going to Gloucester, which is a suburb of Ottawa. See the accommodation link for University of Ottawa accommodations, hotels, and tips on getting cheaper hotels and car rentals.

Information on the camp is posted here:
http://www.ellismethod.net/Camps/Ottawa/OttawaMasters13/Ott-Masters-Info13.html

To pre-register online now you must use the following link as the general registration does not open until May 8.  http://www.ellisedge.com/Camps/Ottawa/OttawaMasters13/MastersOnlineRegForm.html

Hope to see you all in August

Sue

Nick finishes 10th at the Canada East Short Track Championships

NIck competed at the Canada East Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Halifax at the end of March, competing in the 200, 400, 1500, and 3000 meter distances.

He finished 10th overall in his age class, setting personal bests in the 200 and 1500.

Congratulations Nick!

A story was also posted on the EON news site.  Here is a link to the story.  The protocol from the meet can be found here.

2013-nickeverett

Marathon Musings – Sylvan Lake, Alberta

A special thanks and congratulations to our President, John Ambrose. Lake skate (12) (2)

He has taken part in 6 marathon events this year, He always does all the distances which are usually 10, 21 or 25 and 42 or 50km. His total mileage for the season is about 479 km.  Recently in Sylvan Lake, he followed up 50 km race on Friday by skating a 100 km race on Saturday.

Through his love of skating – and particularly marathon skating – he has introduced many club members to the joys of long distances skated in the great outdoors.

If you didn’t get a chance to skate a marathon event this year, give some serious consideration to making it to at least one next year.  It is good to mix your “skate fast and turn left” with a little “go outside, skate not quite so fast, and eventually turn left”.

Thanks John.

Here is the final edition of the Marathon Musings.

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The final marathons were held over two weekends in Alberta (Feb. 16/17 and 22/23/24) and I was finally able to fulfill a wish of joining in on at least one of these fun weekends. I travelled out to Sylvan Lake (near Red Deer) and with Gaetan Rochette and Pierre Gagne of Quebec City we represented the east in the three races over the three day weekend. Weather conditions were perfect with 0degree temperatures, sunny skies and little wind. The local Dutch dairy farming community put this event on each year and do a real first class job of ice preparation and logistics for the weekend. (80% of all skaters were of Dutch origin!) The 5 km track was in excellent condition although one had to be vigilant of the many pressure cracks that tended to run parallel to the line of skating. Gaetan, Pierre (80 years young) and I skated in a threesome for the 50km on the Friday and we finished together in  about 2 hours and 26 minutes. Saturday was the real test with 100km to complete. The conditions remained excellent. Although Gaetan and Pierre and I all started out together they decided that after 55 km that they had had enough for the day. I continued to plod onwards and managed to finish the 100km in a little over 5.5 hours which was about 2 hours slower than the overall winner! On Sunday Gaetan and Pierre skated the 25km in excellent times but I decided to cheer from the sidelines as a result of being too spent from the previous two days. The overall winner for all three races as well as the 10km race was a professional woman marathoner from the Netherlands.

Sylvan Lake was a great experience and I highly recommend this event in the future for those of you in the club who are hooked on skating distances without challenging corners! Let’s make up a group in the next two or three years and travel out to Alberta for this wonderful event. Save up your nickels.