Co-Founder of Whatcom Speed Skating Club Bruce Guthrie talks gold medal at U.S. nationals

Bruce Guthrie has a keychain to carry all the punch-cards he’s gotten from the Lynnwood Ice Center.

“There are five punches on the top and five punches on the bottom,” Guthrie said. “Each one of those punches represents 100 laps. And there’s ten of these suckers, so this represents 10,000 laps.”

Guthrie is just two weeks removed from winning the speed skating gold medal in the 60-64 age class at the U.S. Long Track Age Group National Championships.

“It’s all a function of who shows up,” Guthrie said in an interview with the Herald. “There are probably ten other guys who are 60 and over in the country who are faster than me. But they didn’t show up. So here I find myself a national champion.”

That’s one of the things that Guthrie, who now lives in Edmonds, loves about the sport.

“One of the cool things about speed skating is — it’s like swimming — you can set a personal best,” Guthrie said. “You don’t have any control over who shows up. If the other kids who show up for speed skating or swimming are really good, well you’re not going to get a good place. But you can always set a personal best.”

Guthrie first found the sport after a cycling crash when he was living in Chicago. A friend suggested he take up speed skating instead and he got in touch with the club in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. When he moved to Bellingham a few years later, there was no speed skating club in town, so he decided to change that.

“At that time it was the Whatcom County Sports Arena. It was a former cold warehouse – I assumed for fish – but the county converted it to an ice rink. I just said, ‘I’ve gotta start a speed skating club here,’” Guthrie said.

He started handing out flyers around town and received enough interest to start the Whatcom Speed Skating Club, where he coached until 2006.

“The speed skating club needed a coach,” Guthrie said. “So I got myself certified as a coach by taking coaching certification classes through the BC speed skating association in British Columbia. Back then it was much easier to cross the border. I would coach at the Whatcom Speed Skating Club on, say, a Tuesday night. Then I would go up and skate for myself with the Langley Blades, in Langley, B.C. on maybe a Thursday night or a Saturday afternoon.”

He didn’t think of competing on a national level, though, until his 40th birthday.

“When I turned 40, I realized I was in the 40-and-over ages class for U.S. Speedskating’s national championship,” Guthrie said. “I came in fourth place because only five guys showed up in my age class… I started thinking, you know, if I can just hold on doing this long enough when I’m 60, there’s only going to be three guys left, and I’ll have a podium position.”

Guthrie’s plan almost worked — there were four competitors in his age group, so he still needed to do some work to reach the podium.

“When I went to US nationals this year, I show up and, oh my gosh, there are three guys in my age class,” Guthrie said. “But then, the 500 meter time trial happens and I’ve got the best time.”

Guthrie didn’t just win the 500 meter, he swept all four events in his age group at the Roseville, Minnesota event.

Guthrie lives in Edmonds now — after his first wife died, he remarried and moved. But he says he still thinks of his home for over a decade often.

“My heart is still in Bellingham,” Guthrie said. “I loved that I could move there in ‘94 and it ripped my heart out to have to leave there in 2006.”

There’s no speed skating club in Edmonds — Guthrie wore Whatcom Speed Skating Club gear at nationals — so Guthrie has had to practice alone for over a decade.

“I would go to public sessions in the middle of the day in Lynwood and turn in 100 laps on my own,” Guthrie said. “From soccer, it’s fun to play with a bunch of other guys. With cycling, it’s great to be in a pace line. But I had to slog it out on my own for 14 years.”

And now he has a keychain full of punch cards and a gold medal to show for it.

This story was originally published February 18, 2024 at 3:50 PM.