Northshore Inline Marathon (Duluth)
My Girlfriend, Danielle, was happy this picture got in the newspaper. Yes, ot was a bit chilly
For me A2A and Duluth are my big races of this season, the ones I really want to perform my best at. At this point I am in the best skating shape of my life. I woke up Saturday morning ready to exploit the months of conditioning aimed at this race. I started my warm up where I like to throw in two good intervals…. Empty…. Slow. My legs were not feeling bad but they were in no means in any good.
The race started and it started fast. It reminded me of 2004, my first Duluth ever. I settled in line and began skating. I was having trouble holding the pace. What the Hell is going on here, a fast steady pace is my specialty and and I’m having trouble holding. Then the first real acceleration began. The attack came from behind and the train was two tight to jump in so when I went to jump on the wind shut up my already empty legs.. Hopeless, Pissed, Damn it. Well now I’m in the second pack after a minute it forms a divided group of some strong skaters and some just barely hanging on skaters. I’m already thinking about the next race the next year while were pacing along. I always consider the first attack to be the most important because it weeds out most of the riff raff. Well I was the riff raff and I watch a pack with skaters that I know I can hang with skate away.
After a little while I started to tire of this pace line, take your pull type skating, I came here to race not pace a Heterogeneous pack of those who wanted to pull hard and those who liked to suck. I came to the front, my turn to pull and I up’d the pace so that it was real fast, not a sprint. Most everybody fell off except for Rob Bell and Sutter. I attacked, we are away, who wants to pull, nobody, great. I should have kept on pulling. If I would have opened the gap a little more I think it would have given a little more incentive for the others to pull. One mile later we were all back together. Now I am skating at a pace that will be my slowest of the season. I wish I would have went with Rob Bell because together we could have skated up to the pack that finished 2 minutes ahead of us. Hindsight is 20/20. Well there is still a pack of three in sight so lets chase them, still nobody wants to pull.
Now we are at lemon drop hill. I planned to drop all the extra baggage at this point so I attacked. I am at the top of the hill where I have just caught Ramirez, I look behind me and there they all are, I don’t know,stopping for a cup of tea or something. I stand up and wait for them. Last year at this point it was fast fluid and chaotic all at the same time. This time were coasting down the highway. Then the off ramp comes and out of no where Eddy Matzger passes us. I jump behind him. Then were coming down the hill and I step out of line to reorganize myself midpack and behind some of the stronger guys. We come around the turn and Ramirez attacks arms swinging with Anderson and Sutter on his wheel. They have a gap on the guy in front of me. I pull out and cover the gap. Now I am in perfect position and we come around the turn and I dash to the inside. Hammer down, it is Anderson, Sutter, and me sprinting dead even. I am Cramped up against the fence and not able to really open up but we all finished Within a tenth of a second: Sutter, Anderson, and me.
I came here to race the best and missed out on the chance because of empty legs. That is racing and I know I have good and bad days. Though I was frustrated with the race I was happy with how I set up for the finish. I had a good time talking with all the skaters which is one of the great parts of Duluth.
Next year……..
The race started and it started fast. It reminded me of 2004, my first Duluth ever. I settled in line and began skating. I was having trouble holding the pace. What the Hell is going on here, a fast steady pace is my specialty and and I’m having trouble holding. Then the first real acceleration began. The attack came from behind and the train was two tight to jump in so when I went to jump on the wind shut up my already empty legs.. Hopeless, Pissed, Damn it. Well now I’m in the second pack after a minute it forms a divided group of some strong skaters and some just barely hanging on skaters. I’m already thinking about the next race the next year while were pacing along. I always consider the first attack to be the most important because it weeds out most of the riff raff. Well I was the riff raff and I watch a pack with skaters that I know I can hang with skate away.
After a little while I started to tire of this pace line, take your pull type skating, I came here to race not pace a Heterogeneous pack of those who wanted to pull hard and those who liked to suck. I came to the front, my turn to pull and I up’d the pace so that it was real fast, not a sprint. Most everybody fell off except for Rob Bell and Sutter. I attacked, we are away, who wants to pull, nobody, great. I should have kept on pulling. If I would have opened the gap a little more I think it would have given a little more incentive for the others to pull. One mile later we were all back together. Now I am skating at a pace that will be my slowest of the season. I wish I would have went with Rob Bell because together we could have skated up to the pack that finished 2 minutes ahead of us. Hindsight is 20/20. Well there is still a pack of three in sight so lets chase them, still nobody wants to pull.
Now we are at lemon drop hill. I planned to drop all the extra baggage at this point so I attacked. I am at the top of the hill where I have just caught Ramirez, I look behind me and there they all are, I don’t know,stopping for a cup of tea or something. I stand up and wait for them. Last year at this point it was fast fluid and chaotic all at the same time. This time were coasting down the highway. Then the off ramp comes and out of no where Eddy Matzger passes us. I jump behind him. Then were coming down the hill and I step out of line to reorganize myself midpack and behind some of the stronger guys. We come around the turn and Ramirez attacks arms swinging with Anderson and Sutter on his wheel. They have a gap on the guy in front of me. I pull out and cover the gap. Now I am in perfect position and we come around the turn and I dash to the inside. Hammer down, it is Anderson, Sutter, and me sprinting dead even. I am Cramped up against the fence and not able to really open up but we all finished Within a tenth of a second: Sutter, Anderson, and me.
I came here to race the best and missed out on the chance because of empty legs. That is racing and I know I have good and bad days. Though I was frustrated with the race I was happy with how I set up for the finish. I had a good time talking with all the skaters which is one of the great parts of Duluth.
Next year……..
posted by Peter S. @ 1:57 PM
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