This photo is courtesy of : weblogs.marylandweather.com/forecasts/
Little did I know that the post I had scheduled for yesterday would turn out to be one for the record books.
Short track skaters from around the country made their way to Dale City, VA through THE largest winter snow storm on record for that area. Terms like "Snowpocalypse" and
"Snowmageddon" were flying through the air like the heavy, wet flakes that piled inch after inch on every surface, including the Prince William Ice Center's roof.
I finished my post and within an hour, started seeing reports on Facebook that the skaters were sent home...too much snow....bent beams. Then my friend Hans, who was a starter for this meet, called me from his hotel and asked if I heard what happened. I said I had and I posted his account on the blog. He was glad everyone got out ok and as a true upstate New Yorker, was headed out into the snow to find something to eat! (
A side note here: we have had zero, nada, zip snow fall this year. Yeah, a few inches here and there, but all the "big one's" have just missed us and have stayed to the south. Maybe mother nature is giving us a little reprieve after freezing us out last year with a killer ice storm, but we are missing the snow! Who would think we would have to travel SOUTH to get snow!) :) I was glad to hear that Hans was ok and wished him safe travels home. Little did we know that as we talked on the phone, the roof was actually collapsing at the rink in which he just came.
Mike Looby's daughter Liz was skating at this meet and he has written a great post on the happenings as they unfolded yesterday. Check out his post on
It's Not Too Late to Skate.
I am so glad that all got out safely and averted what really would have been a disaster.
Some of us have had this very conversation while waiting in the heat box."What would we do if we had to get out of here right away?" I remember a meet where the heat box was set set up just outside the door we used to enter the ice. I was sitting on a bench that flanked a cement wall and could hear something that sounded like a sporadic "sizzle". You know when you hear something and you just can't place where it is coming from? I heard the bell (last lap indicator) and stood up to prepare entering for my race, placing my coat and sneakers in the bucket for the runners and forgot all about the noise. When I came back for my next scheduled race, I once again heard the sound, only this time I could place it, because the sound also had visual! In the middle of the cement wall was an electrical outlet box that was sparking bright white flashes and now emitting small trickles of smoke with each sizzle. The scary thing was you couldn't smell it. All of us sitting on the bench seemed to notice this at the same time and jumped off the bench (electricity and metal blades do not make a good combination) and all at once yelled at the heatbox attendant while pointing at the plug. Luckily, they were able to turn the power off that fed that outlet without disrupting the rest of the rink. That particular bench remained empty for the rest of the meet.
The last thing you think about when you are at a competition is being faced with a circumstance that would make you exit quickly while wearing your skates. I'm glad that the skaters that were laced up and ready to start racing were able to remove their gear and exit the facility safely with fellow competitors, family, friends and volunteers. There is a saying (among many) that one hears every now and then with this sport. "Never a dull moment in Short Track."
This story is definitely one that these skaters will tell for a long, long time. "Remember when we went to Virginia for the AmCup race and..."
