Now well into his eighth decade, Peter Blokker is clearly in a class of his own.
At 81, the former Prince George resident returned to his old stomping grounds and obliterated the rest of the field in the 80-85-year-old masters class at last weekend's B.C. long track speed skating championships.
The fact none of the skaters in the two-day competition was even close to his age is irrelevant. What mattered to everyone who watched him dig in to the ice with his blades was the example Blokker set to show how productive the golden years can be if you take care of yourself and remain active.
Blokker didn't set any 80-plus records with his times this past weekend - 1:12.83 in the 500 metres, 2:27.51 in the 1,000m, 3:56.87 in the 1,500m and 8:27.45 in the 3,000m - but he was quick enough for Andy Wong of Burnaby, who is half his age. Competing in the master 40-45-year-old class, Wong was elated to finally beat Blokker on a pair of long blades.
"He was thrilled that he beat me because I think this is the first year he's beating me," said Blokker. "I had somebody to chase."
Blokker competed in a long track meet two weeks ago in Calgary and has also raced two short track competitions this season. Although he's from The Netherlands, where speed skating is practically a religion, Blokker didn't get involved in racing until after he moved to Canada 50 years ago.
"I always had endurance as a kid, but I'm not a sprinter," said Blokker. "As a kid I didn't like racing because most of the races were short little dashes and I couldn't get anywhere. I always wanted to run at least a kilometre.
"I did quite a bit of long-distance skating in the old country. Skating there is a big thing. But when I came to Canada in '64 I hardly skated. I had long skates and when I lived in Quesnel I skated once or twice on Dragon Lake. What happens is the lake freezes and a few days later you get the snowfall."
It wasn't until 1977 when Blokker was 47 and living in Prince George that he discovered the joy of racing. Blokker, along with John Thobo-Carlsen and Ann and Alan Marshall, formed the Prince George Recreational and Speed Skating Club, which focused in its initial stages on short track racing. Neal and Kevin Marshall used their training base at Kin 1 as a springboard to international and Olympic success.
"We got organized in the middle of the winter, and of course, we couldn't get any indoor ice - at that time the city flooded lacrosse boxes in quite a few neighbourhoods and that's where we skated for our first practices," said Blokker. "I've skated every winter since, some years more than others."
The following season, in February 1978, the city hosted the inaugural Northern B.C. Winter Games, and long track speed skating was part of that, requiring construction of the city's first 400-metre outdoor oval.
Like the rest of the 80-skater field in the weekend provincial meet at Exhibition Park, Blokker was impressed with the quality of ice on the 400-metre rink, all a result of volunteer labour from the Outdoor Ice Oval Society.
Blokker knows how much work that takes. For five seasons, from 1988-93, he was one of the prime movers and shakers who created the 400m rink just off Ospika Boulevard on land now occupied by the CN Centre parking lot. The oval has been located in its current site west of the Kin Centre since 2005.
"We tried various spots for the oval - we did it once on the golf course at Ferry Avenue and Highway 16 and that was marvelous but the next summer you could still see the dead grass where the oval had been and they didn't want us back," laughed Blokker.
The club experimented with ovals at West Lake provincial park and College Heights secondary school, until the city gave approval to flood the site off Ospika. At the time, the only heavy equipment they had was a water truck and street sweeper.
"The trouble was, we got so little co-operation from the city [for help in clearing snow] and it was a facility that, on a Sunday, you could barely see the ice for all the people that were skating there. It was very popular."
Blokker moved to Vernon in 1992 and started a club there, now known as the Vernon Vortex Speed Skating Club. As head coach he brought five skaters to Prince George for the long track championships.
Blokker's son Matt is well-known around junior football circles. As a head coach he led the Vancouver Island Raiders to three junior national titles and now coaches the Calgary Colts junior team.
Before the provincial meet, it had been eight years since Blokker had a chance to skate outdoors in Prince George. He likes what's happening with the Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club under head coach Adam Ingle and says the city's role as host of the Canada Winter Games will only encourage more skaters to join the club.
"Things have progressed really well, there are quite a number of skaters in the club and it's doing very well," he said. "For me, the nice thing is there are people officiating or helping with the meet or coaching that I had when they were kids when I was coaching the club.
"It's a pity they didn't make this a refrigerated track because I'm afraid if this weather keeps up, and it's another three weeks before the Games start, if it gets too warm they will have to go to Fort St. John to skate."
Blokker has no health ailments and when he's not skating he stays active with cycling and cross-country skiing. After he turned 80 in June 2013, the B.C. Speed Skating Association informed him he was no longer covered by their insurance during competitions.
"They don't insure people over 80 but I said I couldn't give a hoot, if I break my leg it's my own fault, " he said. "I wouldn't sue them. That's why we have a medical system."
