Pictures from Ice Speedskating

After a long summer completly away from speed skating, the new season is about to arrive! I have been busy with my job and my studies, aswell as my overall health and fitness. During summerice, some times came to me via Facebook or Twitter but it didn't say much to me yet.

But now things have changed. The past few weeks, the numerous trainingcamps across the globe have been rounded up with some races and the new season best times are waking me abruptly from my summer sleep. The new season is here!

IJsselcup

The first competition of the season for me, has been the IJsselcup 2011 in the newly roofed icerink in Deventer, the Netherlands. As I had never been to that icerink, I decided on a sunny saturday to head out east and see what it was about. I had to get back into the race again and was a bit rusty. But it was nice to hear the clap clap of the skates again and soon I was in my element as usual.

the logo of the IJsselcup 2011

Team Sprint

It was a short afternoon with only a 500m for ladies & men, a 1.000m for ladies and the 1.500m for men. It was also my first time for the teamsprint. I think this is an exciting race but at the Deventer Icerink, it was very difficult to follow as it was hard to see the whole track and see the difference between the time. However, I do think this is an element in speedskating with high potential. I can't wait to see team Japan battling against team Korea in the Team Sprint!

The pictures of the IJsselcup can be found here: IJsselcup2011

My season

With the page for the pictures of the IJsselcup, I also had to do some work on the website and mark the past events as last year's events and make some preparations for the new season. And this was quite difficult. Not the updates on the website, but the decisions to be made regarding the new season. Where to go? How much will it costs? How will I get there and what will it bring me? All the answers to these questions, had made me take a very hard decision. I will not go to Heerenveen as usual.  Instead,. I have decided to go to as much regional competions as possible, together with the biggest events of the calendar. I have plans to go to European Allround in Budapest, World Sprints in Calgary, World Allrounds in Moskou and World Cup Finals in Berlin. Of course I'd also love to go to the World Single Distance Championships in Heerenveen, but haven't decided on that one yet.

A new kind of sport?

This means, I will not be going to the Dutch Distance Championships, the KPN NK Afstanden, in Heerenveen next week, neither will I be going for three whole days to the World Cup in Heerenveen. And this feels weird. Knowing that next week the Thialf in Heerenveen will be the place to be for people who love speed skating in the Netherlands and I won't be there. To ease this pain a little and make things easier for myself and get my mind of off things, I had decided yesterday to go to my first Marathon ever. I once or twice saw it on tv and of course I check the results online when I have the change, but I had never actually been to a competition to see it live. I wanted to though, but the thing that held me back all the time, was that I did not know the game and most of the people. So for me it's almost like a new kind of sport!

Marathon Cup 3 in Utrecht, the Netherlands

But thanks to a tweet on friday night, I realized the next marathon would be not that far away and as I did not have anything else to do, I decided to just go. There's a first time for everything, isn't there. And I'm very glad I went to Utrecht for the Marathon Cup 3, because it was very entertaining to watch! First there were the men of the first division and I was a little bit overwhelmed by all the colourfull outfits and to figure out who skated with whom and who was actually in the lead. I think I even had question marks on my face, when there were still 10 laps to go, but almost everybody stopped racing.... I felt like such a noob that I didn't know why. (later it turned out the people who stopped where dubbled and the ones with a lap ahead, were able to skate to the finish amongst them)

Icerink "de Vechtsebanen" in Utrecht by night

Topdivisie Men & Woman

After this first competition, I felt I was getting the hang of it and started to enjoy it a little bit more. The Ladies of the Topdivision came on the ice, and I actually knew quite a few of them. Either by name or by face or by team. It was fun to see the girls race and I think my respect for them grew with every lap. Especially the difference in pace and staying afloat in such a large pack, can't be easy! Powerhouses! Mireille Reitsma won the race.

Mireille Reitsma wins the Marathon Cup 3 in Utrecht

After the ladies, the men took the ice again and now the names and faces were even more familair to me. I actually said to myself: see that's not all that different! I think the race was very excited. There was a big crowd by now and the icerink was full. The men put up quite the show and during the race I was able to take some pretty decent pictures. It was still difficult though to choose what moment to capture and not end up with a bunch of people together. Before the race was even finished I said to myself: I should do this again!

Jorrit Bergsma wins, before Crispijn Ariëns & Jan-Maarten Heideman

All the pictures of KPN Marathon Cup 3 in Utrecht can be found here: Marathon Cup3

Season 2011- 2012

Having thought that, I might give you the full scedule for the next season:

IJsselcup 2011

Marathon Cup 3

Marathon Cup 4

Junior World Cup Erfurt

Marathon Cup 7

Eindhoventrofee 2012

Utrecht City Bokaal 2012

European Allround Budapest 2012

WK Sprint Calgary 2012

World Allround Moskou 2012

World Cup Final Berlin

Of course, this schedule is not set in stone and I might skip a few competitions are add a few here or there, depending on what I feel like during the season. We'll see! Just like the rest of you, I'm super excited for the new season to finally begin and for the competitions ahead of us!