St Paul Inline Marathon

The first thing I did when I woke up is look out the window. Relieved to see no rain and almost dry asphalt I laced up. After a long warm up the race started and shortly after so did the rain. I was hoping for a race with a lot of attacks so I could really test if my hard training was paying off. The pace started off strong but nothing that fatigued the legs. I recall some strong pulls from Ramirez, Jono, and Team M. The rain made the course slick and the small corrugations in the concrete offered no help. I expected some hard hits on hills but when they came only a strong pace was set. We were standing around looking at each other for a lot of the time and I joked that the rec skaters were going to catch us. I do remember one attack from Robert Bell that got the peloton moving real fast. When we hit the turn around it was very confusing and skaters sprawled all over the parking lot trying to figure out what the actual course was. The confusion provided a perfect time to attack and out of the turn the hardest attacks came. I figured that this would have happened and so I came out of the turn with arms swinging. I was up with the lead group and looked back to see a long line of chasers. When the attacked ceased the pace was the counterpart of the attack, very slow. As we came closer to passing by the area where we would eventually turn to the finish the Pro Masters caught us. They comically badgered us a little and the pace started to increase. At this end of the course there was no rain and the course was dry. We skated hard into the next turnaround and again coming out the turn pace was hard and a pack of 6 of us gained a 30 yard lead on the rest of the skaters. We continued to hammer but it was not high enough of a pace to solidify a break away and they soon caught us. Soon enough we came back into the rain and Robillard skated away from the pack. No one tried to go with him and I figured that even if he gained a large gap he would not be able to hold once he hit the wind after the turn around. We hit the turn around and again the attacks came. I felt that this was an attack that could actually solidify into chase pack and break away from the peloton. I was behind Ramirez who was chasing hard but was not closing the gap fast enough. I passed him and closed the gap up to Jono, Sarmiento and Maybe one from Team M. Again we did not get away but once the group formed again a hard charge came from Team M. This was one of the hardest efforts of day and it was long as I believe all three skaters from Team M pulled but after there effort was over Jono skated to the front and skated leisurely to slow the pack from catching robilard. Again another attack came and it was from Pyro’s Robert Bell leading the charge up the hill. After we got to the top the pace slowed again. The attacks were too intermittent for any chase effort to have success. Robillard went on to win the day with a breakaway that payed off. The attrition had become present as the pack numbered less than 10. Robert Bell tried to attack a few more times but was quickly shut down. As we closed in on the finish everybody started to jockey for position. We skated at a consistent pace that did not match the high level of entropy that existed with in the pack. Skaters were moving up into position as fast as they were moving back. Everybody was acting very aggressive as they tried to stake out their piece of Real Estate that would put them in prime position leading into the sprint. A few shoving matches flared but nothing too intense. Sarmiento pulled off to the side, lifted his skate to find a loose frame rendering his skate useless in the sprint. The pace accelerated and everybody calmed as we came into the turn up the hill. I sat in good position as everybody started to sprint, I stayed in the draft. Then Jono accelerated from behind with pure carnage speed. I took this as my queue and accelerated behind him. I just followed his lead and we flew past everybody as we scaled the hill. My muscles uncharacteristically started to cramp and Jono was pulling away. I skated hard hoping to hold on to a podium spot and knowing they were all behind me. Then Scott Bliss from Team M passed me. I crossed the line 3rd in the pack sprint and 4th overall.

Results: http://www.peaktiming.com/2007spim/overallresults.asp?catid=PRO