Blade Runner

Talk about an unlikely world champion. Bill Burgess ’01, TH’02 fell short in his attempt to be a walk-on with the Dartmouth hockey team as a freshman and has little time for an intense training regimen. But never underestimate the power of a childhood dream that began on a frozen pond on long winter afternoons. The Washington, D.C., patent attorney is America’s top speed-skating marathoner.

Burgess learned to skate at an Alaskan military base when his father, also named Bill, who served in the U.S. Army Special Operations, was transferred from Arizona to Anchorage. Determined to make life fun for his transplanted family, Bill senior taught his 7-year-old son to skate, a gift that would bond them for life. He also inspired the boy with tales of the Elfstedentocht (Dutch for “Eleven Cities Tour”), a 200-kilometer race through the frozen canals of Holland. “For the Dutch this event is bigger than the Super Bowl. Racing it became a dream of mine,” says Burgess, who stays in shape playing hockey, biking and running marathons.

The Dutch canals have not frozen solidly since the 1990s but that hasn’t stopped Burgess from joining the hundreds of long-distance skaters who compete each year in other races, most famously the Finland Ice Marathon. He has competed three times in the grueling 200-kilometer race just south of the Arctic Circle.

In 2015, on a day when thawing ice shortened the course and confounded his European competitors, Burgess was first to the finish line of the altered route. When the Dutch ambassador to Finland handed him the coveted marathon trophy, Bill senior was cheering from the stands.