Northshore Inline Marathon 2006

It was about 6:30am when I was lacing my skates praying for a dry start though the moment I stepped outside for a 20 min warm up it started to rain. It was not pouring but the rain was not light by any means. The gun went off and I skated to the upper half of the pack. Many teams put some of there guys in front to set a high pace. Joey Mantia skated way off the front for a few minutes like he was going to skate the whole thing himself. After the pack caught him he settled in at the very back of the pack lurking only coming to the front to inflict some pain. Hyper and Bont for much of the race were doing there team thing of sending one guy off the front on a break. When the attacks came they were dangerously fast for conditions though not at the usual intensity (don’t get me wrong that is relative of course). They were strong enough to whittle the pack down to about 30 by mile three and about 22-25 by mile 8. Creveling proved the dangerous speed by slipping once and after squirreling across the entire road managed to save himself from a fall. Then on one of the bridges he fell hard but Mantia got to the front to slow it down for him so he could catch up, I think.
Just before London Road is where the move that paid off happened. Mantia discreetly signaled Creveling to go and while every one thought Mantia was going to be the man of the day Creveling slowly slipped away. I mean slowly, anyone in the pack could have went with him accept for maybe 1 or 2. Mantia just skated at the front slowly watching it happen. Bont’s Robillard and Minn.'s Sarmiento crossed the gap and latched on to keep the break alive in which they finished at 1:08.17, a 23 MPH pace in the rain.
The race for fourth place was on after many unsuccessful attempts to catch the break away by Doucet, Riviera, and Matzger. After we came up lemon drop hill we hit the concrete and it was slick. Mantia jumped onto the shoulder, which was rough as hell but very grippy. It contained sewer grates with gaps capable of ripping the frame write off your boot. But, this did not stop Mantia as he hammered. I was about 2 or 3 behind him just hoping my foot would not hit one of the sewer drains. Finally he got off the shoulder and just accepted that it was going to be slick. I would describe the pack as having high entropy. One moment you could be at the front the next at the back and then fight your way to the front trying to avoid the skaters getting dropped. I was going under one of the tunnels feeling in good position being right behind doucet when he started to drop. On the next tunnel I gave it everything I had and brought myself as well as a few others back to the pack. We flew up the off ramp slighting side ways around the turn. Everyone was powering down the hill which brought us into another right turn in which I skated through a two inch deep puddle of water. I slid side ways bumping into Jimmy Blair. And then after one more turn it was the final sprint to the line in which I skated right on top of the expansion joints of the concrete because there was a foot and a half of dry space (the only dry ground I touched besides under the tunnels). Mantia won peloton sprint at like a 1:08.50. I finished 15th five seconds behind Mantia. I was uneasy at the beginning with the rain but the grip was surprisingly good. It is always a great race when all of the top skaters are present, for me it is what makes Duluth so special.