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The temperatures climbed as high as 7.4 C on a sunny Wednesday afternoon as I laced up my skates for what I knew would be my last time on the Rideau Canal Skateway for the winter.
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There was something poetic about staying open for 56 days of skating in the Skateway’s 56th season of operation. On March 4, in the last few hours before the Skateway was shut down for the season, I knew I owed my winter happy place a proper goodbye.
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While there’s often very little to look forward to during gruelling, frigid Ottawa winters, skating on the Rideau Canal makes them a bit more bearable. This winter, I made it out onto the Skateway more than a dozen times, skating a total of 117 kilometres.
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As my blades dug into the ice on my way downtown, I joined dozens of other skaters, walkers and runners also wanting to enjoy the Skateway one last time this season.
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The sun’s powerful and unrelenting rays beat down onto the ice and made for some of the most challenging skating conditions I experienced this winter, the warmth turning the top layer of ice into a wet slush that grabbed onto your blades as soon as you tried to pick up speed.
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But feeling the ice deteriorate under my blades and knowing warmer temperatures were on the way almost made it easier to say goodbye.
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Among the people enjoying one last skate on Wednesday afternoon were Jim Blakslee and his daughter, Lizee, who also happened to be celebrating her 26th birthday.
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They had made a point to get out on the Skateway for “one last hurrah,” and Jim planned to get his daughter a birthday Beaver Tail to mark the occasion.
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