My second Elfstedentocht 1986
You can imagine that I, with all my experiences, this time in 1986 did not do any extra test anymore before going to Leeuwarden for the tour. I was well trained. A problem was that, on the day that the tour would be held, I had an important committee meeting at the university of Amsterdam. However, my opinion was that the committee would take the wrong decision whether I would be there or not. So I could just as well go to the “Elfstedentocht”.
Another complication was that I had on the day after the tour an appointment to make a presentation for Philips International in Maastricht which is in the most southern part of the Netherlands while the tour was in the most northern part of the country
I decided to go to the tour because this, maybe, was the only opportunity I had in my live, being at that moment 43 years old. Maybe the next tour would be in 20 years or more. For me the situation was clear I had to go.
Fred, a carpenter who worked in our house at that time and who was also a fanatic skater wanted to participate with his wife Pauline but she had decided that she had not trained enough. So she offered me her membership card for the tour. I was very lucky because there was no possibility anymore to register for the tour if you were not member of the association of the” Vereniging Friesche Elfsteden”. They invited me also to stay with them in their house not too far from Leeuwarden. So the night before the tour I stayed with them in their house. We had received 7.30h as starting time.
It was not completely dark anymore at that time but it was rather cold, more than 10 degrees below zero. The photo shows that I am still laughing before the start, however, that changed during the tour as I will report.
Another complication was that I had on the day after the tour an appointment to make a presentation for Philips International in Maastricht which is in the most southern part of the Netherlands while the tour was in the most northern part of the country
I decided to go to the tour because this, maybe, was the only opportunity I had in my live, being at that moment 43 years old. Maybe the next tour would be in 20 years or more. For me the situation was clear I had to go.
Fred, a carpenter who worked in our house at that time and who was also a fanatic skater wanted to participate with his wife Pauline but she had decided that she had not trained enough. So she offered me her membership card for the tour. I was very lucky because there was no possibility anymore to register for the tour if you were not member of the association of the” Vereniging Friesche Elfsteden”. They invited me also to stay with them in their house not too far from Leeuwarden. So the night before the tour I stayed with them in their house. We had received 7.30h as starting time.
It was not completely dark anymore at that time but it was rather cold, more than 10 degrees below zero. The photo shows that I am still laughing before the start, however, that changed during the tour as I will report.
The start with the rising sun was very nice and certainly provided us with the proper spirit for the rest of the tour. So we passed several cities. The view coming in these cities has its charm. Besides that, in these cities there were a lot of spectators giving support to the skaters. Often they were accompanied by bands playing music to cheer up the atmosphere. At some places it looked more like carnaval than a sport event. It seems that the Frisians defrost when it gets colder. At those places we reduced speed to enjoy this special atmosphere for a while.
However the time in the cities was only very short. After
that we were alone again with the other skaters in the cold, the wind and the
fight against the fatigue. The ice was good and the speed was as I normally
skate in such tours around 20km per hour including short breaks. We arrived in
this way in Bolsward, halfway, after 5 hours.
There we made a longer break to eat and drink something away from the
crowd.
Around 1 o´clock we went on via Harlingen to Franeker. During my first “Elfstedentocht” I had problems on the canal from Harlingen to Franeker. This time it happened again but the problems were very different. In this tour the route was different. We had to skate more to the north. At some point before Franeker we had to go from one canal to another one at the other side of a high way.
Around 1 o´clock we went on via Harlingen to Franeker. During my first “Elfstedentocht” I had problems on the canal from Harlingen to Franeker. This time it happened again but the problems were very different. In this tour the route was different. We had to skate more to the north. At some point before Franeker we had to go from one canal to another one at the other side of a high way.
A distance of 50 meters had to be done walking on the skates, passing though a very narrow tunnel. This so called “klunen” is not very pleasant. An extra problem was that so many people wanted to enter the tunnel at the same time that there was a long queue and that there was a lot of pushing and pulling. I am not very good in that . Fred did it much better and so here we lost each other out of sight. I spent at least half an hour for these 50 meters. In the end it turned out that I needed two and an half hours to realize the 30 km from Bolsward to Franeker. This annoyed me very much because it was now close to 4 o´clock and I still had to skate 70 kilometers which meant that I would have to skate the last part in the dark.
This being the case I decided in Franeker to go on
immediately and to try to get in Dokkum
(50km) before it would be dark.
The first part consisted of canals where the ice was rather good and so I
skated faster than normally till a famous point in the tour: the bridge of
Bartlehiem. This point is famous because there you get on the Dokkummer Ee, a
canal that connects Dokkum with Leeuwarden, the last two cities of the tour. First one had
to go to the North east to Dokkum and after that with the wind in the back
normally to Leeuwarden.
I had to skate approximately 12 km to Dokkum and after that 24 km to Leeuwarden. One would say that this must be no problem anymore. One would say so but it was now around 6 o´clock and it started to get dark. The view of the sunset from the ice was very nice. But one could not look at it for a long time because the ice on the Dokkumer Ee was very bad. Boats had broken the ice several times. To provent falling one had to avoid to hit the edges of the ice floes. I had to reduce my speed. Nevertheless I fell several times. It turned out that this short distance took me an hour and what was worse; I arrived in Dokkum like frozen. I went to a warm bar, sat down and drank a hot coffee. That did not help. Then I decided to eat a hot soup. This also did not help. I was still shivering of the cold so much that I could not continue skating. After an hour it was still not better. Then I decided that the only solution might be a cognac, That I did and it indeed worked. After a while the shivering stopped and I was ready to continue.
One problem was solved but the problem of skating on very bad ice in the dark remained. Skating as much as possible with two feet on the ice I tried to prevent falling. I also tried to skate close to people with light but that did not help much. To make the story short, the last 24 km took me 2 hours and I fell in the last part after Bartlehiem at least 20 times. I reached indeed the finish but especially the last part was no fun and was worse than the enjoyment about finishing the “elfstedentocht”. I was not alone with this feeling because in the bus bringing us back to the centre of Leeuwarden nobody showed much enthusiasm. I supposed that they had experiences the same as me in the last part of the tour.
One problem was solved but the problem of skating on very bad ice in the dark remained. Skating as much as possible with two feet on the ice I tried to prevent falling. I also tried to skate close to people with light but that did not help much. To make the story short, the last 24 km took me 2 hours and I fell in the last part after Bartlehiem at least 20 times. I reached indeed the finish but especially the last part was no fun and was worse than the enjoyment about finishing the “elfstedentocht”. I was not alone with this feeling because in the bus bringing us back to the centre of Leeuwarden nobody showed much enthusiasm. I supposed that they had experiences the same as me in the last part of the tour.
Later in the house of my friend and his wife we celebrated our successes but I must say that I still was very annoyed that it took me so long and that I fell so many times. Due to all these falls I was blue all over my body and I was wondering how I ever could drive the next day to the other end of the country to make a presentation. The presentation was planned for 2 o´clock . I arrived 5 minutes earlier. The audience was very impressed by my success in Friesland but less by my presentation.
Also this last task I completed but the frustration remained. Fortunately, I found a solution for my frustration a few years later.
Also this last task I completed but the frustration remained. Fortunately, I found a solution for my frustration a few years later.