Lots of falling over. The wheeling is brief but it's possible!

I love the organised street skates run by LFNS and the London Skate. There are two things which stop me from doing so. Social life or bad weather.

Throughout the week I hawk BBC Weather hoping for a dry skateable forecast. If it's looking bleak for some reason I start browsing Google in the hope for better weather.

Up until this day I thought it was just my weird self doing this. Around lunch with some skaters today I discovered that pretty much everyone else does exactly the same. Call it obsession, or just call it passion for the skate.

After my first skate marathon, Goodwood 2008 I said I’d never do another. Four years later I found myself signed up to the Berlin Inline marathon. So what changed? My memory of exactly how I felt back at the Goodwood had faded. However the main reason is after attending the Easy Saturday Skate (ESS) and everyone’s infectious enthusiasm got the better of me. It wasn’t peer pressure, it just sounded exciting!

So was I worried about the quiche effect again? No. I had clocked up a countless amount of mileage on the street skate and some of the people at ESS were incredibly experienced at skate marathons. They had given me loads of advice which I wished I had the first time round. In particular the idea behind pacelines was helpful, knowing how close you should be behind someone and how you can use this to conserve energy and work as a team. 



I'm a bit can be a bit stubborn and to leave my previous inline marathon experience on a bit of a low seems like unfinished business...

My Friday nights usually involves taking part in the Friday Night Skate in London. However today despite the weather being really good for it opted to take part in a meditation flash mob in the British Museum.

I was there to support my friend Elina who organises these events but I have also come to enjoy the time out from the usual hectic walks of life.

See their Facebook page for the next meditation flash mob.

The title and picture sums it up.

As I tried to focus filming the people behind me by facing my chest towards them my body got confused with the combination of skating backwards. The best way to film while skating is with an extension pole instead, you can just face the camera in one direction and actually see where you're going!

I live and learn.

Having missed yesterday's skate I felt the need to get my fix somehow this weekend. I decided to go to the Easy Saturday Skate (ESS) as I had really enjoyed the two sessions I did the previous year. 

On the ESS Facebook group a skater, Neil posted that he was skating to Battersea Park (where ESS takes place), from Liverpool Street. Another girl Ashley replied that she was going too. It meant I had to wake up slightly earlier to be able to do this but it also gave me a chance to street skate too.

This was the first time I used social networking to meet some unknown skaters but as it turns out I had met Neil a couple of times before. (His profile picture was an artist portrait). 

The ESS Pre-skate was a lovely start to the Saturday morning through the city of London.