Alberta Outdoor LT Open Red Deer

Upon popular requests from the masters in the Red Deer Club, the distances raced by the wise and experienced at this meet was a 5 km on Saturday and 10km on Sunday- both raced in mass start fashion. This differed from past years where the all-around short distances were raced, also in a mass start fashion.

Nine skaters took the line: Brian McArthur, Stephen Maunder, Cindy Coneen, Rick Dijkstra, Henrik Helmig, Bernd Ridder, Stacey Mateika, Jules Chabot and Rejean Lavoie. Five hometown skaters and 4 visiting skaters from Edmonton. The ice was spectacular, the sun was out and temperatures near freezing on both days.

The winning time for the 5km was 8:30 and for the 10km 17:44. Jules and Rejean exchanged wins - Jules edging Rejean in the 5km and vice-versa in the 10km. Stacey placed 3rd in both races. Cindy reached her goal of only getting lapped once in the 5km and twice 10km. This is remarkable as she was not skating in a pack like the lead skaters.