QUINTE MASTERS CAPACITY CHALLENGE

Many thanks to Kathy Hunt for the following report and photos -

Who would think skating 6 races in just 4 hours could be fun? All the masters who attended the recent Quinte Blades Master’s meet in Belleville will tell you that it was great!

We raced between 6 and 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 12^th, 2009. The Group “A” Master’s skated two each of 1000 meters, 500 meters and 1500 meters, and the Group B Master’s skated two each of 666 meters, 500 meters and 777 meters. The racing schedule sounds intense, but we were pleasantly surprised by our successes. The short period between races gave us enough time to rest but still keep warmed up.

The two master’s groups alternated in the racing schedule with the Special O’s throughout the friendly evening of racing. The atmosphere was cosy as we stepped out on to the huge, glass-smooth ice surface to hear ourselves informally announced by first name and club only. Afterwards we checked our results on the unique hand-written score board. Who knew it could still be done without computers?

Sandy shows us the travelling scoreboard.

And after all that racing we still had energy to celebrate. We gathered at Crabby Joe’s to indulge in the half-price appetizers and a few pints, of course! The special results board followed us there, and we enjoyed the camaraderie of studying it together.

Note: quarters, results, draft, smiles. The food didn’t last long once it arrived!

(in photo: Kathy, Alicia, Shannon, B, Colleen, Vytas, John P, Sandy, Dave)

After some congratulatory clinking of glasses Dave awarded us our “medals” – a 2010 Speed Skating quarter for all participants, and the “Slow Poke” prizes for those who finished at the bottom of their groups. Who knew slower could be better? And yes, a few of us did a “low walk” photo to add to Ross’s Master’s Blog collection.

Low walking at Crabby Joe's - Kathy, Alicia, Dave, Becky, Sandy

All the master’s would like to thank Laura Woodall, Dave Clements and the entire Quinte Blades club for running such a unique and enjoyable meet. It was a first of its kind, a fabulous idea and a resounding success! We all hope there will be more to follow.

Double “thumbs up” for the Quinte Blades!

Complete results can be seen here.