5th INTERNATIONAL BIG RIDEAU LAKE MARATHON

In a recent e-mail to the Todd Landon of the Ontario Speed Skating Association - event founder and organizer, Marco Smits, provided the following update -

Hello Todd,

Would you mind letting the skating community know how excited we are for the International Big Rideau Lake Speed Skating Marathon, now one week away! The layout of the oval is better than ever, we had our Olympia Ice re-surfacer out on the lake all day yesterday and there are parts where the ice is so slippery you could hardly walk on it. (and of course we have some of our famous pressure cracks, but hey...).

The date is Saturday, January 26. The schedule is here. We would really appreciate it if skaters sign up on-line (and it is cheaper).

As in other years, we have a beautiful free give-away for the 50K skaters (besides the many other prizes) but we can't say what it is, you got to be here to see it.

Anyway, we hope to see everybody here in Portland next weekend, joining us in the fifth anniversary of Skate the Lake.

Happy skating,

Marco Smits
President Portland Outdoors

Here's Peter Doucet's video of last years event, courtesy of Speed Skate World.