I didn't really know much or think about speed skating until Eric Heiden brought the sport into the spotlight during the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. And although I have worked in Lake Placid on and off since the mid 90's, I have never considered trying out those cumbersome-looking long blades on the oval in the middle of town, which has a life-sized figure of Heiden clad in his 1980 tight yellow outfit out front, with the face cutout for souvenir pictures.
That is, I didn't consider it until a few winters ago, when my husband started nordic skating. Nordic skates are longer blades that attach to nordic ski boots, usually, with bindings like those on a cross country or backcountry ski. I now have some old hockey skates to go along with him on occasion, but haven't gone on some of the long treks he and his friends have enjoyed on the big Adirondack lakes and ponds and rivers.
Those treks are possible when the ice forms due to consistent freezing temperatures followed by NO snow. Once the snow falls on top of the ice, it's essentially over for the nordic skaters on that particular sheet. Though the outdoor adventure of following a river through the wilderness for 20 miles on skates doesn't compare, we've talked about trying out the speed skating oval as a backup long blade option when the "wild" ice is too snowy.
And so on a recent weekday, my husband joined me in Lake Placid to try out the speed skating oval. And while he took off to do some laps on his nordic skate blades, I consulted an expert.
My buddy Christie Sausa is something of a skating aficionado. She and her family moved to Lake Placid when she was young (though I'd still put her in the category of young) so that she could pursue her skating dreams. She began figure skating as a very young kid, and added speed skating to round out her training routine. She writes about skating for local news outlets, organizes skating-related events, and she and her mother run the Lake Placid Skate Shop (2023 update: the shop is no longer in business) right across the road from the oval. And she's even published a book: "Lake Placid Figure Skating, A History".
I told her that I was going to try speed skating on this particular day, and she offered to lend me some skates, accompany me and give me some pointers. Turns out that was a very good idea.
It's not as if I've never worn skates. I grew up in a house located right on Lake Champlain, so a lot of our activities and adventures as kids were centered around the water, and in the winter - as it ALWAYS froze across at our house in the olden days - the ice.
Every winter, my sister and I couldn't wait until the lake ice was thick enough for us to skate on. Sometimes we were lucky and there wasn't much snow to clear, allowing us to explore along the shore without shoveling. Regardless, we'd always have our own private rink in front of the house, and would daily don our figure skates and pretend we were Dorothy Hamill (without the camel).
But figure skates have that little toe pick to help push you along, and the blades are shaped to a curve along the bottom edge, which is called the rocker. And, as Christie pointed out to me, the blades on figure and hockey skates are grooved, with a hollow running down the middle, which creates a user-friendly inside and outside edge.
Speed skating blades, on the other foot, are ground flat, like thin rectangles.
I put on a pair of the comfortable recreational speed skates that Christie's shop rents, (the boots are padded, and the blades are "fixed", rather than hinged, or "clap" blades like normal speed and nordic skates which allow the blade to stay on the ice longer) and headed out to the oval. I stepped gingerly onto the perfectly zambonied ice, and immediately froze: the thin, flat rectangular blades felt like I was trying to stand on two slippery I-beams to me. I was sure that I was going to fall if I moved my feet in any direction.
Christie explained that the blades were indeed sharp - but to engage them I'd have to move forward, use the edges, and put my weight entirely on each foot as I pushed out and away, then placed my foot back close again as I pushed outward with the other to proceed around the oval.
We took a couple of veerrrrry slow loops around the inside half of the oval - and I was slightly jealous of the recreational skaters on figure and hockey skates on the outer lane of the oval for this split session, who seemed to be easily gliding and laughing. There were a great number of them, as compared to those of us on the inside track. We stayed, per speed skating etiquette, on the very right side of the inside lane so that the few "real" training speed skaters could easily go by us on the left.
As we skated and talked, however, and I forgot to think about the I-beams on my feet, I was comfortably gliding with long, sweeping steps; right, left, and we were suddenly going quite a bit faster. This was FUN.
My husband had looped around the entire time on his nordic blades - comfortable with experience on the thin rectangles. The open session was two hours, and so I "released" Christie so that she could do a real speed skating workout. Just like the Heidens from 1980, she sprinted around the oval, using that cool crossover technique on the tighter corners - I could hear the "clap" sound of her blades as she switched feet.
I glided around the oval a couple more times, enjoying the view of the High Peaks in the distance, watching the crowds of other figure- and hockey skate-clad folks on the outer lane and fascinated by the clean, sleek motion of the training speed skaters that passed me on the left.
We left tired and happy, saying goodbye to the smiling box office folks, and stopping briefly to look at the cutout of Heiden.
Maybe there would be more recreational speed skaters on the inside lane if they knew that the tight yellow suit isn't required.
Try it! Get all of the information about ice skating, and be sure to check out the Lake Placid skating oval's schedule.
- Kim Rielly is the director of communications for the Lake Placid CVB.
