A terrible skating problem
Johan Brouwer
In 1997 I was one of the 4,200 lucky ones obtaining a starting licence by a draw out of the 14,156 “potential participants”. For my group this implied departing at 10:45, losing a lot of precious daylight! Halfway, between Harlingen and Franeker, it was already pitch dark. And I still had about 80 km to go. At a certain moment I had an urgent need to relieve myself. So I skated to the bank near a rather wide bridge in an abandoned area. Due to the strong wind this biological necessity required careful planning. First determine precisely from where the wind is blowing. Then, with the wind in the back, I took off my thick gloves and put these two meter aside. I had just begun fighting with my many layers of clothing when another skater joined me. "Were you going to do the same" I asked. "Yes, I give up here too" he replied. Then I replied that I just wanted to relieve myself. The man didn't know how to react. He just stood there motionless. Only when I had asked him “ could he please excuse me” he skated on.
During aforementioned activity suddenly there was a strong gust of wind, which did not only transform my superfluous bodily fluid into a fine spray, but also got hold of one of my gloves, which was taken up and blown over the fence at the bank. When I saw it happen I could not do much: only later I (just) managed to get hold of it...
For the complete story of his Elfstedentocht of 1997 in English look at his website: http://jjbrouwe.home.xs4all.nl/elfsteden/01e.html