Preparing for my second “Elfstedentocht”
.
After the “Eleven Cities Tour” of 1963 there still were many possibilities to skate on the canals and the lakes in the Netherlands during a month . I was using this opportunity a lot, especially skating on the big lake in the middle of the country (Ijsselmeer). It was one of the few occasions that one could go from Monnikendam to the island Marken, to Volendam and even to Hoorn and Enkhuizen. These tours are extremely nice to skate crossing the big lake and then entering the little towns. still
After the “Eleven Cities Tour” of 1963 there still were many possibilities to skate on the canals and the lakes in the Netherlands during a month . I was using this opportunity a lot, especially skating on the big lake in the middle of the country (Ijsselmeer). It was one of the few occasions that one could go from Monnikendam to the island Marken, to Volendam and even to Hoorn and Enkhuizen. These tours are extremely nice to skate crossing the big lake and then entering the little towns. still
This winter time being over I returned to my regular sport, field hockey. Unfortunately, I got a meniscus injury which kept me away from sport during a year . After that year I decided to have an operation especially because I wanted to skate again.
Unfortunately there were only very few opportunities to skate in the next years. The winters were rather warm and there were only very small spells of frost which were not enough for an Eleven cities tour.
I could have gone to a 400m ice track with artificial ice. The first ice track was opened in Amsterdam in 1961 but as a real tour skaters I thought that skating on a 400m track is very boring. So I did not do that.
I used the few opportunities there were to skate on natural ice. Besides, I worked hard and got married. I of course also introduced my wife to tour skating by going with her to “De poel” close to Amsterdam and skated with her behind me around the lake. She was holding my hand and so I pulled her with me over the lake. She was impressed by the atmosphere of the skating scene but decided that skating itself was not something for her.
Our interest in skating in the Netherlands in these years was not reduced because the Dutch speed skaters Kees Verkerk and Ard Schenk were very successful in international championships wining very many medals. The sport was so popular that many people during the championships were listening to the radio and looked at the TV and recorded for themselves on paper, obtained from the newspapers, the times the skaters made in each round they were making. In this way you could see if a skater was improving compared with earlier skaters.
However after 10 years of this life without regular skating the people in general became impatient. In 1971 marathon skating was started officially as a sport. Semi-professional skaters started a competition whereby they were doing every week at least one speed skating race of 100 or 200 rounds on the artificial ice tracks of 400m. They used these races and training in order to prepare for the next Elfsteden speed skating race. But because it was not clear when this one would come many of these skaters participated in other 200km tours in Finland where it was more certain that one could skate.
This I could not afford to do given my work at the University. So in the year 1973 I decided to go to the “Iaap Eden baan in Amsterdam, a 400m track with artificial ice, where you could skate from October till March every day, In this way I could at least stay in shape and prepare for the next “Elfstedentocht”. I will report about this activity in the next section because it turned out to be very different than I thought before.
Unfortunately there were only very few opportunities to skate in the next years. The winters were rather warm and there were only very small spells of frost which were not enough for an Eleven cities tour.
I could have gone to a 400m ice track with artificial ice. The first ice track was opened in Amsterdam in 1961 but as a real tour skaters I thought that skating on a 400m track is very boring. So I did not do that.
I used the few opportunities there were to skate on natural ice. Besides, I worked hard and got married. I of course also introduced my wife to tour skating by going with her to “De poel” close to Amsterdam and skated with her behind me around the lake. She was holding my hand and so I pulled her with me over the lake. She was impressed by the atmosphere of the skating scene but decided that skating itself was not something for her.
Our interest in skating in the Netherlands in these years was not reduced because the Dutch speed skaters Kees Verkerk and Ard Schenk were very successful in international championships wining very many medals. The sport was so popular that many people during the championships were listening to the radio and looked at the TV and recorded for themselves on paper, obtained from the newspapers, the times the skaters made in each round they were making. In this way you could see if a skater was improving compared with earlier skaters.
However after 10 years of this life without regular skating the people in general became impatient. In 1971 marathon skating was started officially as a sport. Semi-professional skaters started a competition whereby they were doing every week at least one speed skating race of 100 or 200 rounds on the artificial ice tracks of 400m. They used these races and training in order to prepare for the next Elfsteden speed skating race. But because it was not clear when this one would come many of these skaters participated in other 200km tours in Finland where it was more certain that one could skate.
This I could not afford to do given my work at the University. So in the year 1973 I decided to go to the “Iaap Eden baan in Amsterdam, a 400m track with artificial ice, where you could skate from October till March every day, In this way I could at least stay in shape and prepare for the next “Elfstedentocht”. I will report about this activity in the next section because it turned out to be very different than I thought before.