Speed skaters race away in 24-hour marathon

JACK MALCOLM

Local speed skaters finished their 24-hour skate-a-thon in style by digging deep to break the 500km barrier.

Averaging over 21kmh, five skaters tag-teamed across the 24 hours of non-stop skating over the weekend to raise funds for 15-year-old Mikaela Macdonald as she prepares to represent New Zealand in the junior ladies’ grade at the World Inline Speed Skating Championships in Italy. Speaking at hour 20 of the marathon, coach Alan Bartlett says it hadn’t been all easy sailing, particularly through the night hours.

“It’s had its ups and downs. I’ve had one hour sleep, the kids might have managed a bit more. We’ve also had to deal with other codes coming in to use the rink.”

As he was talking, the doors opened up for the public session on Saturday, with the skat- ers having to weave through waves of people coming out onto the rink while the music started pumping.

Throughout the night, skaters took one-hour shifts to give the others a good break, but it was also the cold that they had to contend with. Several hot water bottles and a handful of blankets were all they had to keep them warm as they circled the rink a total of 5052 times throughout the 24 hours.

“My feet were almost stuck to the floor,” Alan says. The idea to do the marathon came as they were watching the coverage of Kiwi swimmer Jono Ridler setting the new ultra-distance marathon swim record after 33 hours in the water earlier in May, Alan says.

“I thought, if an individual can do that, we can get five skaters to do 24 hours.”

It’s not the first time a 24-hour skate challenge had been done in the region, with one done in the 1980s to raise funds for the rink’s roof and one about a decade ago to support the 40hour famine.

The fatigue of the skaters was clear to see as they pushed towards their goal of reaching 500km, which was on track by the halfway mark but started to slide in the morning hours of Saturday.

As the finish line neared, the shifts got shorter as they looked to break their target. By the end they were changing out every two laps, battling right to the end as they fought to their goal.

Alan says he was proud of how the club came together to support Mikaela, with skaters of all different abilities getting in behind the region’s top racer.

“Everyone else is here to support, to get some funding. Some of the other skaters are several grades down the ladder and for them to be here doing it is special.” Visit the Skate Nelson Facebook page to support the fundraising.