Wolverine Inline Marathon

Detroit

I arrived at the hotel at midnight having to get up at 6am. After a quick loosening up midnight roll I went to bed. In the morning as I walked out of my room the ground was dry. This dry condition lasted about 30 seconds at which point it started to rain… Damn. Rain is really not a big issue but the thought of messing up a set of bearings is not favorable in my mind. After registering for a race that they decided to charge $60 for instead of $50 the night before the race, I did a little warm up and waited for the start. Three minutes till race start, ahh! I don’t have my bib number. I made it back with bib just as the gun went off. The first two laps, of eight were pretty easy. I sat there pleasently watching Mike Anderson deliver a respectable break away from the gun. He was out there with a pretty good gap for a while. Then, Peter Doucet kindly brought up the pace putting the hurt in the legs of all competitors to shut Anderson down. Then the trend of Doucet putting in attack after attack began. I did not have my legs with me and I was hurting. I barely was hanging with him and as I looked around it was just Rookard, Mike Anderson, Peter Doucet, and Me. We were splashing through 2-3 inch deep puddles of water that stretched for nearly 50 feet. Then came another acceleration that dropped Rookard. Again it came and I chased, Anderson tight to my wheel. The fatigue was too great and my speed started to falter. My legs just were not at %100 this day. Anderson made the pass and latched on to Doucet. I sat there frustrated with legs that wouldn’t move watching them skate away. I pushed through the pain, accelerated through the turn and just barely got back. I really thought I had cracked and had lost them for good. 30 seconds later another attack came. I felt strong but did not have good position as I was in front and Doucet attacked from the back. I chased and was matching Doucet speed but he had a gap of 10 feet. Not being able to catch the draft I yelled for Anderson to help out but he was as fatigued as I was. That was the winning move and Doucet skated away as we looked at each other. Anderson and I worked together for the rest of the race to catch Peter Doucet but he was the man of the day. We chased for two laps and then with a half a lap to go I through in an attack where I gapped Mike Anderson by 20 feet. I felt his weakness and slowed to dual it out in a sprint. Then the sprint came and we started playing the game of cat and mouse as the rain started to monsoon. I tucked in right behind Anderson and with 150 meters left mounted a sprint. Anderson gave an honest attempt to answer but did not have the sprint. A competitive race though I was not very fond of the sub-par race organization.

Mens Results:

Peter Doucet
Peter Starykowicz
Mike Anderson

Womens Results:

Jilleanne Rookard
Helen Havam
Mechele Busby