Outdoor Skating Marathon?

OK, I know the water is still good for paddling, and I have been walking around in shirts, with running shoes on my feet. I am getting ahead of myself with this post but there is a method to my madness! Bear with me!


Last January I wrote a post about a skating Marathon that the town of Portland ON, hosted. Basically what they did was drive a Zamboni out onto the ice of the lake next to their town to create a skating track, and for the past six years, have had marathon races on the ice. Skaters of all levels could enter and try their hands(legs?) at skating races of various distances. This might be the nearest to the canals of Holland that most of us Canadians ever get. I should tell you right now that I have not participated in this event. Life gets in the way sometimes!

I grew up in the days of outdoor rinks and pond hockey. There were occasions when the streams flooded and froze and we could skate for miles on what were, normally, foot wide creeks, in what is now suburbs of Niagara Falls, ON. OK, I am showing my age. The point is that there isn't anything more 'Canadian' than skating outdoors on the frozen ponds and lakes. These days most of the kids in Southern Ontario have not seen the winters consistently cold enough to merit a backyard rink let alone to make the ice on the local lake, or pond safe enough. What the people of Portland did was put a bit of fun back into the Canadian winter.

One of the points that I made in last January's post was that other towns should copy the idea of Portland. I still think that if every town with the resources and a nearby suitable, safe body of ice were to do this we might soon see a whole circuit of skating races. For sure we would see a lot of simple outdoor family fun. If I lived in Toronto, and took the kids to a lake like Scugog, for example, for a day of outdoor skating, chances are I would take them to lunch and visit a few of the shops in the town as well. That was the gist of my post last winter.

Well this week I looked up the website for the Portland skating marathon and was sad to read that the volunteers that ran this event have decided to take this year off. I have to say I understand their point of view as volunteers. Six years is a long time and Portland is not a big town with a vast pool of volunteers to draw from.
However this leaves the same challenge out there for the small lakeside towns in southern Ontario looking for a way to draw in some tourist dollars in the coldest months of the winter.
I live in Bowmanville and we don't have a suitable lake next to us. Lake Ontario doesn't count! The nearest lake that would fit the bill is Lake Scugog and that is why I picked on Port Perry last year. I still think Port Perry should really look into this idea, but there are other towns with a lake beside them that could also do this.
And now here is the method to my madness. Now is the time for organizing. Get your town council moving and warm up the Zambonis. String the lights around the ice surface and lets get some outdoor skating going in southern Ontario again. As to the races, they would be the icing on the cake. Or might that be the icing on the ice!!

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Outdoor Skating Marathon

One of the upcoming events in Ontario is the sixth International Big Rideau Lake Speed Skating Marathon Saturday January 31, 2009. I first heard of this event a couple of years ago on the CBC and it intrigued me. Basically the town of Portland, ON, which is north of Kingston takes a Zamboni out on the lake and creates a one kilometre oval skating rink. Then they host this marathon. From what I have been able to figure out anyone can enter. There are different distances, 5K, 10K etc. and you don't need speedskates. I don't imagine you will win without them but none of us are out to win everything we try either. Participation is the key. Check out their website: Portland Outdoors
Anyways the gist of this particular post is to let you know about this great event and to give kudos to the town of Portland. I think it is a great way to put your town on the map, to get us out of winter hibernation and to show the rest of the country that winter isn't just for watching TV.

Now, the second part of this post is a suggestion to Port Perry, ON. One of the reasons Portland isn't overun with people for the marathon is that it is at least a three hour drive from Toronto.Even at that 3000 people attended last year. In my opinion if the same sort of thing was done in Port Perry, an hour drive from Toronto, they would fill the town. Not only would they come to skate or watch but they would eat in the restaurants, shop on Queen St. and look around the town. In short they would probably spend a bunch of money, and maybe more important come back again and spend a bunch of money again. I love the town of Port Perry, I have relatives in Seagrave and have visited Port Perry since I was 2 or 3. So what would it take. Well Lake Scugog is right in front of you. You have all kinds of ice fishing going on out there, with people driving skidoos, trucks, etc on the ice. So you take a truck, tractor, whatever, with a blade on it and scrape your kilometre long track, just out front of Palmer Park. Then you borrow the Zamboni from the arena and surface the track so that it is nice and smooth. Then you publicize that you have this giant outdour skating facility available for use by the public and you sit back and watch the cars roll into town. If you are the mayor of Port Perry, I am available for consulting! Seriously though I think it is a great idea. Just have some one from the parks department checking the ice thickness, and the rink could bring people to Port Perry all winter. I know this winter would have been a good one. Then you run a couple of citizen style races of different lengths and you put the town on the skating map!
I am just down the road from Port Perry so I am suggesting this on Lake Scugog but any town with safe ice could do the same and bring in some tourists and get us Canadians outside in the winter.

The Outdoor Dad