UNMC Off The Clock — Dr. Turpen carves out her niche on the ice

It’s just after 7 a.m. on a Tuesday in February and Paula Turpen, Ph.D., is picking herself up off the ice at an Omaha-area rink.

After a short talk with her coach, UNMC’s director of research resources takes off across the ice again and glides into a spin move. While twirling Dr. Turpen begins to lower herself closer to the ice but, as she does, loses her balance and falls again.

She’ll try again. She has to. She needs to get the sit spin down before she takes off for the 2007 Adult National Skating Championships in Chicago in April. And besides, she said, the falling doesn’t bother her.

Paula Turpen, Ph.D., skates during a recent figure skating workout at Omaha’s Hitchcock Park. Dr. Turpen will compete next month in the 2007 Adult National Skating Championships in Chicago.

“It’s part of this process,” Dr. Turpen said. “It’s impossible to learn to skate without falling, so you accept it, get up and try again.”

Learning to skate for Dr. Turpen began in earnest four years ago. She was 46 at the time.

Growing up in New York state she skated a lot but never took lessons. She followed the sport a bit and when her daughters were old enough, she enrolled them in lessons.

It was while watching one of her daughters practice that she got the idea to try the sport for herself.

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She loved it. It wasn’t long before she began competing in adult events in the region. She now competes in about four events a year and this year’s trip to nationals will be her first.

At regional events, Dr. Turpen, 50, often is matched against younger skaters because of a lack of older competitors. At nationals, she will skate against others her age.

“That definitely will work to my advantage I think,” Dr. Turpen said.

To prepare for her competitions, she skates four or five times a week at Omaha’s Hitchcock Park.

While the competition is fun, skating itself serves several functions in her life, Dr. Turpen said.

It’s great exercise in that it’s physically and mentally challenging and at the same time fun, she said.

“It’s exercise that doesn’t seem like exercise,” she said.

Paula Turpen, Ph.D., during a recent figure skating practice at Omaha’s Hitchcock Park. Dr. Turpen, 50, started skating lessons four years ago and now competes in about four adult events each year.

It’s also an activity that allows her to face her fears. Trying to jump and spin in skates is a dangerous and potentially embarrassing proposition, she said.

“But once you do it you see how useless it was to be scared in the first place,” Dr. Turpen said. “You fall sometimes but it’s no big deal.”

And there’s one other very cool thing about the sport that’s intrigued her ever since she first tied on skates as a young girl.

“When I’m out there skating I feel like I’m flying,” she said.