MELISSA BLOCK, host:
England, along with much of mainland Europe, is shivering through a cold snap and one place that's been great news is in southeastern England, near Cambridge. The Fens, the marshy wetlands there, were frozen solid enough to allow the return of a historic speed skating race for the first time in 13 years. And skaters hope the cold will last through this weekend, so they can hold the British and Fenland Championships.
Malcolm Robinson is secretary of the Fenland Skating Center. And Mr. Robinson, first tell us about the - what appears to be the glorious and long history of speed skating on the Fens. How far back does it go?
Mr. MALCOLM ROBINSON (Secretary, Fenland Skating Center): Way back to the 1700s and even sooner. Originally, it sort of started out as a means of transport, you know, traveling across the ice when it was frozen. Then it's gradually progressed to what it is today where we actually get and race whenever possible.
BLOCK: Now, you grew up, I understand, on a farm near where you are right now. And you would remember, I guess, skating on the Fenlands as a regular, normal thing during the winter.
Mr. ROBINSON: Well, whether the memory plays tricks with you or not I'm not sure, but I always remember as a child that we seemed to skate every year, whether it be little or much, somewhere on a piece of frozen water.
BLOCK: That's the memory anyway.
Mr. ROBINSON: Yeah.
BLOCK: But not so much now.
Mr. ROBINSON: In the last 10, 15 years, it's been very few and far between. Really our glory years, as far as sort of modern times go, was in the mid '80s when we had three years back to back.
BLOCK: Well, what was the scene this past weekend when you had the preliminary races there? Who came out?
Mr. ROBINSON: Mostly they was locals, anything sort of from 40, 50 miles away. But it was amazing the turnout we had from sort of general public turning up on hockey skates, or figure skates, even old Fen skates that they'd found in the cupboard and that sort of thing.
BLOCK: Fen skates?
Mr. ROBINSON: What we call Fen runners, the wooden style ones, that sort of fit to the bottom of the boot, rather than a custom-fit boot with a blade already attached.
BLOCK: Now, who would still have skates like that, or blades like that?
Mr. ROBINSON: As I said, it used to be a real tradition for this area. So, more or less every family that was involved would have a selection of skates sort of hanging up somewhere that would be dusted off should there be the chance to use them.
BLOCK: How does the race itself work? What's the course?
Mr. ROBINSON: What we skate on is an oval track, similar to a running track, and because of a lot of the history of it, we're still on yard measurement rather than meters. So it's 440 yards we skate, which would equate to quarter miles, half miles or miles. Well, we go up to - the longest race we've got is a three-mile race.
BLOCK: Did you race yourself last weekend?
Mr. ROBINSON: I did.
BLOCK: How did you do?
Mr. ROBINSON: I came second.
BLOCK: Well, not bad.
Mr. ROBINSON: I was pleased.
BLOCK: I bet that's just a great feeling when you were able to skate on the Fens this past weekend, to think about the long history, hundreds of years of skating there and to know that you were a part of that tradition yet again.
Mr. ROBINSON: It's something that seems to be in the blood because all of us don't skate on the rinks or anything. We only skate on the Fens when it's frozen. So, to actually just get stuff off the ground this weekend was fantastic.
BLOCK: Well, everybody is looking ahead now to this coming weekend and the hope, as we said, is that you can have the championship race. When was the last time it was cold enough and you had enough ice to hold a championship?
Mr. ROBINSON: Back in 1997.
BLOCK: Well, are you and your fellow skaters kind of sending great thoughts up to the weather gods...
(Soundbite of laughter)
BLOCK: ...to try to keep that cold weather coming?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. ROBINSON: We sort of go round and we listen to all the old folks and they say, well, if this is happening, that's going to be cold. And we listen to all that, rather than the weather forecasters where they say it's coming milder.
BLOCK: Now, what are the old folks telling you to look for?
Mr. ROBINSON: Berries on the hedge and what the birds are doing and that sort of thing, what the hedges, how they look, whether they're starting to bud up or whether it's still sort of shut right down.
BLOCK: And when you look at those signs, what are you seeing?
Mr. ROBINSON: It's still winter and I think we're in with a chance.
BLOCK: Well, we'll keep our fingers crossed for you.
Mr. ROBINSON: Great stuff.
BLOCK: Mr. Robinson, thanks so much.
Mr. ROBINSON: That's all right. No problem.
BLOCK: That's Malcolm Robinson, secretary of the Fenland Skating Center, speaking with us from the village of Sutton in Cambridgeshire, England.