But it is only held when the entire course freezes over, which isn't often. With the weather in recent weeks promising favorable conditions for the first race in a decade, the local economy has ground to a halt. Many of the able-bodied are playing hooky to practice their skating. Indeed, many Dutch are obsessed with the Elfstedentocht. De Telegraaf, the country's top-selling daily newspaper, is saturated with stories on the state of the ice.
Radio stations carry hourly ice updates.
Entertainment in this part of Holland naturally revolves around the coast and the canals that dominate the otherwise bare, flat countryside. Others favor wadlopen, or mudwalking, where hundreds of men and women wade through the low-tide mud of the Waddenzee for up to four hours to reach nearby islands. Skating as a sport can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when plucky Dutchmen zipped up and down the canals on polished animal bones. Champion skaters become national heroes in Holland, and those capable of enduring the trials of the Elfstedentocht are equally revered. In the Elfstedentocht museum in Hindeloopen, a toe that belonged to one Tinus Udding sits on a little black dish in a glass case.