The race of the year
Date: Samedi, avril 14 @ 19:48:20 PDT :: Topic: long track
 Calgary, March 13th 2007 – a day that will go down in history as the day of the very first Olympic Oval 500m race on wooden skates, or ‘houtjes’, as the Dutch call them. How did the mere hint of an idea become reality, how well were the two skaters (Jamie Ivey and Denny Morrison) actually prepared, and what exactly happened on the day of this ‘race of the year’? Here’s an eyewitness account.
By Denny Morrison
About eight weeks before Finale, Jamie Ivey and I were out with some friends at Joey Tomatoes. Through the conversation, it was brought up that Jamie had a pair of very old wooden skates hanging in his living room. A few drinks later, we decided that it would make for an amazing race at Finale if we were to skate a 500m against each other on these skates. Since Jamie had three pairs, we figured we could rig up at least two pairs of them and make them skate-able. We also though that Finale would be the perfect place to have such a race and to pay a tribute to the pioneers of the sport!
We signed up for the 500m at Finale, which was on the Tuesday following my Monday afternoon return from the World Single Distances Championships in Salt Lake City. This gave us only half a day to prepare for the race the next morning. We took the skates to the 7:00 public skating session, and after a short and harsh sharpening job, we tested our ankle strength with a few laps around the track. Ivey had the 14" wood, while I only had 12". We didn’t think this would make a huge difference, but once on the ice it was definitely noticeable. After successfully using the skates as a conversation piece to coax a couple of good-looking girls into talking to us, things got serious. The 8:40 ‘Links’ ice session started and after Ivey skated a few laps behind a senior skater on Clap skates, we took turns doing our pre-race tempos. Ivey clocked a 37.69, while I failed to complete a lap with my first effort on my skates. I swapped Ivey and after a lengthy one lap warm-up on them, flew to a 39.1 second tempo. Two broken leather straps, and a split rivet later, we called it a day. We took the blades to the High Performance Olympic Oval Skate Tech, Dustin Johnston, who did an excellent, hand-coordinated job, smoothing out the rocker on my blades to a perfect 8m ( +/- 5m ), with the hockey skate sharpener. He did the same with Ivey’s skates, achieving a very nice 12m rocker ( +/- 5m ). At 10:45 pm me and Jamie finally left the Oval and headed over to James Lewis' house for some quick skate repair. (James Lewis is a friend and teammate of ours who makes high performance carbon fiber boots for Jamie and other High Performance skaters.) He was able to sew the leather strap on one of the skates back together, but had to hammer a new rivet through the clasp on the other skate. We left his house at about 11:30 and decided to leave the final sharpening touches until the morning before the race.
The morning of, we use Shapton stones to sharpen our blades to an illustrious polish, and head onto the ice 30 minutes before our race. Wearing the traditional warm-up blazers, overtop of our classic one-colour skin suits, hand-knit toques, (with custom two-toned ‘J’, and ‘d’ lettering woven respectably into the upper portion of each), formal black business dress shoes, with of course ‘houtjes’ strapped right onto them! To top it off, brand new, 2007 model, Kaenon HardKore high performance racing glasses with large sized G-12 polarized lenses. Skating together with our game faces on, we do two sets of warm-up laps, some light accels, and attempt a roll start and standing starts – Jamie performing the first ever toe-start on houtjes. We get our arm bands, and relax on the bench as the pair before us lines up to race. Sitting quietly on the bench looking at the ice, our heads intensely jerk up, Erben-style, as the gun fires, starting the race before us. Now focused and poised for the upcoming 500m, we remove our warm-up blazers and make our way to the line.
In the ready position, we demonstrate an ultra low tuck F Yu style start position and the gun goes. I immediately have one, two, four slips and finally find my groove. Ivey is fast off of the line, but tops out early at the 50m mark. I attack and sail past Jamie in the first inner. He responds and counter attacks in the second half of the first turn. Mark Wild shows us our 12.15 and 12.77 second openers, while Jamie manages to get close enough on the back stretch to gain a draft – saving him approximately 1.5 seconds in the final time. My second corner is as sloppy as a Dutch groupie at Café Bok, after the World All-rounds, and Jamie pulls ahead. Far far ahead. I try to gain easy speed in the final 100m, but it is too little, too late. Jamie wins the race, skating a new track record, provincial record, national record, and unofficial world record for houtjes skates with a time of 47.55. My time of 48.17 is also good for a provincial record in BC on houtjes.
We glide around in our victory lap, and two minutes later make it to the front stretch where a standing ovation and elated crowd cheer us on as we struggle our way to the bench. The houtjes race is bound to become an annual event, and may eventually be given its own time slot for racing at Finale. A victorious day for Jamie Ivey, but more importantly, a special day for the history of the sport of speed skating throughout the world!
On June 9th 2007 Morrison is planning to take part in the MS Bike Tour, a two day 180 km trip from Airdrie to Olds and back to raise money for MS. Last year he raised just over $1000, this year he’s planning to raise at least $1250. Anyone interested in helping him reach this goal, see: Ms Bike Tour
Photo 1: Jamie Ivey and Denny Morrison
Credit: Robert Braam
Photo 2 - 3: Jamie Ivey and Denny Morrison
Credit: Crystal Phillips
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