Is it pouring yet?! In the coming days, the temperature will drop slightly below freezing, especially at night. Danny Stam, a marathon skating team leader from Sprang-Capelle, is starting to get an itch. “I think it will work,” he says in the Omroep Brabant radio program Afslag Zuid.
“Those jobs are already ready at -1,” Danny says matter-of-factly. His team, Hamco/Motorama, is in the top division of marathon skating. There, the skating rinks are often the first to open in the event of frost, because they are ‘sprayed’ rinks.
“They can already lay an ice floor at 0 degrees, then it goes quite fast and then we have to do our best.” Because then you have to put on your skates at breakneck speed.
Ready for the start
“Then we have to ensure that everyone can arrive at the start fresh, fit and rested,” says the team leader. But where that is is a surprise every time.
Although Danny thinks that the chance is greatest in Winterswijk or Haaksbergen, a little further to the east. “It is an honor to have the scoop. And when the time comes, you will see it on the app of the Royal Dutch Skating Federation. With information about how, what, when and where.”
Finally on the ice
The team trains all year round on an indoor track. “But these are those special things, to be able to skate outside.” The frost won’t last long, but that shouldn’t spoil the fun.
But now comes the downer: Danny is a team leader. And team leaders don’t (actually) skate along themselves. “That’s a bit of a switch, but so far I quite like it,” says Danny. “And if the boys also listen to me a little, it’s really nice.”
And when the men have finished after an hour, Danny also straps on the irons. “I’m not crazy, am I.”