My first roller marathon was at the Goodwood circuit in Chichester. Unfortunately the organisers decided not to continue with the event due to the amount of time and effort required. As a result the owner of the Everglides skate shop have since put on a no thrills event (South Coast Roll) at Goodwood every year. So Everglides rent out the track, insurance sorted and you just pay £7 to enjoy the use of the track. I’ve missed it the past two years and I have wanted to revisit the track as I was eager to know how much I’ve improved. To compare my progress I wanted to use exactly the same pair of skates I used the first time around. Salamon Chill LX. 84mm wheels. I know conditions won’t ever be exactly the same but I was still eager to know what’s changed for me in six years. Eleven laps of Goodwood counts to a full marathon. 26.5 miles. My first two laps I was skating with my friend Van. He was using speed skates so it wasn’t long before he shot off. The next four laps I was pacing it on my own. Averaging 11 minute laps. My other friends arrived on the circuit on my seventh lap. I continued skating with them in a paceline. We took in turns to take the lead. However as we were of varying abilities being behind was sometimes more difficult even though you had no headwind. This is because you had to change your pace to get close to the person in front, this was done by reducing your stride length but upping your cadence to ensure skates don’t clash. (Matching their movements). As a result I was using up more energy. In fact this was quite reminiscent of my Mittelrhein race the previous week. On my final lap I broke from the pack. My friend Joe urged me to push on for a sprint finish. He gave me a little boost from behind to catch up with some people we knew, Chris and Van. Once we caught up it was difficult keeping up with their speed skates. Cramps started coming in so I slowly dropped back again. Joe pointed out that our friends who we raced away from was embarrassingly catching up at this point, despite our earlier sprint. Sometimes you need someone to motivate you at times like these. I pushed on and finished just over 2 hours. (46 minutes faster than my first roller marathon attempt). I brought my speed skates to Goodwood so I swapped them after my marathon for a test run. First attempt failed horribly with cramps setting in on all calf and thigh muscles. After bailing onto the grass for five minutes I made my way slowly back to the start point to stretch off properly. Second time around was better. I started off slowly, warming up again before attempting a ‘faster,’ lap. 9:46. Well that gives a baseline to look at for next year.. 1:47:25 should be achievable.. Summary. So yes I have improved with my skate endurance and it will be interesting to see how a full marathon on the speed skates will be next year. Most importantly however it was a great day out with everyone at the Goodwood motor circuit.
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Today I tried an old pair of skates which still has the heel brake attached. I managed to pull off a 'one wheel heel brake stop,' and also a variation with two heel wheels also known as the 'Wile E Coyote stop,' which was actually quite fun. Probably not the most stable way of stopping but one of the more comical at least! I would never have attempt this before slaloming. Braking on a single wheel almost feels like you're doing heel wheeling with stabilisers. What caught my attention with the Mittelrhein Marathon were the scenic views of the river Rhine which ran parallel to most of the course. Another thing that appealed to me with the course was that it’s a one way skate, so the start and finish point are at completely different points! I enjoy skating so it’s nice that it can take me places which I would otherwise have not considered venturing to. The Mittelrhein Marathon starts at Bad Salzig and ends in the town of Koblenz, situated between Cologne and Frankfurt. Koblenz itself is a very quiet town. Even for a Friday night the trendy bars weren’t that busy. Look elsewhere if you’re looking for a party, but Koblenz is a very pleasant small town to walk around, especially along the riverside promenade. For the three nights we were there two of us stayed in a little bed and breakfast Hotel Jan van Werth which was basic, but a comfortable place to stay. The staff were very welcoming. Goals. On my last skate marathon was in the wet with a time of 1:39:39. Mitterlrhein is known to be a fast race because of the track so getting a sub 1:30 would be awesome. Signing Up. For a change this was not so straight forward to do as the website was mainly in German. (Probably fine if you can read German). The English section of the website is really cut down with a lot less information than the main German section. You need to make the actual booking in German, which I did with the help of Google Translate. Everything seemed to go through except my payment, I ended up settling this in person on the day of the event. Expo. This was held at the Intersport store just outside Koblenz town. We had a rental car so it wasn’t too difficult to get to. Our main purpose for attending was to pick up our race number and timer chip so we weren’t so rushed on the day. However when we got there my race pack was not available as apparently I selected the option to pick it up at the event starting point. (Obviously Google Translate didn’t do a perfect job). The expo itself was probably the most disappointing I’ve been to. Only three stalls were there. My old primary school’s summer fair had more to offer! Event day. In order to reach the start point we needed to catch a train to Bad Salzig. (The station name is Boppard – Bad Salzig). If we had received our race number this would have also acted as our train ticket. We probably could have talked our way without the race number if we spoke German. Rather than chance it those of us without race numbers just paid the €5 for peace of mind. Once we arrived at the station a polite volunteer directed us to the start point where we collected our race packs (if we hadn’t done so already at the expo). We got there really early so had time to relax. One of the happy staff members came around with water while we were waiting. There were plenty of portaloos available at the start. Not a lot to do before the race but enjoy the vibes under a tree. The event. Skating wasn’t the only thing happening, there were also running marathons at various distances as well as team relays much earlier during the day. The exact course was slightly different for the events. For the skate our course included two laps of a loop at the beginning. Skaters were also separated into Speed and Fitness categories. (We were fitness). Twelve of us skaters were from London including three of us from the recreational ESS (Easy Saturday Skate), group, plus others from the somewhat more focussed LSST (London Skaters Speed Team). I wasn’t convinced I could keep up with the LSST guys but a few of them persuaded me to join them from the start of the race. Twelve of us skaters were from London including three of us from the recreational ESS (Easy Saturday Skate), group, plus others from the somewhat more focussed LSST (London Skaters Speed Team). I wasn’t convinced I could keep up with the LSST guys but a few of them persuaded me to join them from the start of the race. Three hundred and forty two of us were packed into the fitness starting grid. I pushed my way near the front close to the other LSST members. The start is always frantic at these races as everyone fights to establish their positions. I managed to catch up with Richard and Fred from LSST. The paceline we were with was pretty pacey. Quickly changing and reforming on the sharp corners and steep up hills. After only ten minutes my back started aching. It’s not uncommon for this to happen but the exact reasons for this no one has ever put this in black and white. Richard had suggested doing situps to help build muscles to support the back. I have been doing a lot of situps but did not seem to help for this race. Another possible reason was that I did not warm up enough before the start. In the past I’ve started slowly at the back of the race, slowly building myself up. Going full on from the start may be part of the reason for my back aching early on. The scenery was beautiful but only from the short glances I remember. With so much happening with the race there was little time to take in the green hills and the River Rhine. It’s nice to have captured everything with the camera though. Not long after half way the person in front was feeling fatigued and moved aside to let me through. Fred called out for me to close the gap created. I was in a lot of pain, I was here to enjoy myself not kill myself. Therefore I too pulled aside slowing right down. I felt relieved to just stand upright, stretch out and relieve the pressure on my back. The good thing about skates is that while I wasn’t moving my muscles I was still rolling down the hill with my momentum. Over the last twenty minutes I had noticed my left foot had begun pronating, which normally isn’t a problem for me. My skate seemed to have become loose. I decided to take the bullet and come to a complete stop to adjust my footwear. The laces were a lot looser on the left boot which I had weaved my timer chip with. I have a feeling the timer chip moved about during the skate which slowly loosened my skate. (Perhaps..). I sacrificed a minute on the roadside but I think it was worth doing so. Richard later showed me an ankle strap he had for his timer chip. I’ll look into getting one too. I wish I could speak more languages. Twice during the skate someone said something to me. First time it sounded like he mentioned ‘pretzels,’ so I just smiled and said okay. The second time I only realised later that the person was talking to me as I heard him say ‘JC,’ as he skated past. I take it was words of encouragement, or perhaps gloating as he was passing. (We’ll go with the first option!). As we whizzed down the little towns there were a lot of families outside cheering us on. I thanked everyone who did so as I really appreciated it. “Danke.” The surface was okay, not quite as smooth as I hoped but the others were quite happy with it. However everyone was in agreement with the short stretch of cobbles, it was awful. I slowed right down and over twenty people somehow managed to keep speed and overtake me. Having taken the train to the start point I remember some landmarks such as the Koblenzer beer shop. This gave me some comfort that I was getting close to the finish. On the last stretch I could see the finish line. I love a sprint finish but today I could move no faster. Passing the final timer mats was such a relief. My time was 1:34:08. Post event.
They ushered you to carry on skating another few hundred metres where you got your medal, fruits, energy drink and non-alcoholic beer. I must say I could have easily have been fooled that it was alcoholic, very tasty. However anything is delicious after a marathon, even those electrolyte drinks. Summary. I missed my target by four minutes, but still had a respectable time of 1:34:08. While this is still a personal best I was just a bit disappointed I didn’t enjoy the race as much a previous events, mainly because of the back ache. Speed skates are quite unforgiving at times, so it probably didn’t help that apart from a brief session a few days before; I hadn’t worn my speed skates for over six months. (Been focusing on Tough Mudder). Next time I must get in more practice before using the speeds skates for a race. Koblenz town was nice and I would like to have another attack on the Mittlerhein course. However I don’t have an immediate urge to go back soon while there are still many other races in Europe to try first.. Run Frimley is an annual 2.5k and 10k run. It is a small local event held in Frimley, Surrey. The event is in aid of raising money for Breast Care Appeal, hoping to raise over £70,000. Last year they ran a last minute trial for the roller event with much positivity, so this year it was the first official Roller 10k race. I was still feeling a little achy from the previous weekend's Tough Mudder so thought it may be best to sit this one out despite already paying my entry fee. With a bigger marathon skate in two weeks I thought this was the right decision. However I still made the trip down to support my friends who were also partaking in the skate race. The event had a very nice small community feel and everyone there was filled with positivity. (My only gripe was there weren't quite enough portaloos). Best costume group is without doubt the Wizard of Oz people. Great effort! After the skaters shot off at the start I made my way to the hotdog tent ran by the local Scouts. I then had a little wander around before figuring out the best place for taking photographs. Feedback from my friends with the Roller event was that the surface wasn't particularly smooth but it was sufficient. Sometimes it was easier to go on the roads however the traffic could be too busy at times to do so. There are quite a few hills. Everyone said they'd definitely do it again next year however they would not recommend it to anybody who are not use to street skating. My friends did really well and took quite a few podium positions.
Woman's 10k Roller: 1st Elisabeth. 3rd Chidi. For the Men’s. 2nd Alex. 3rd Alan. 4th Bryan. 5th Muhayman. 9th François. The event was really enjoyable even though for a change I was spectating. Everyone I met that day was really friendly and down to earth. Hopefully the Roller event will gain popularity next year and it would be great to see other running events involve the skating community too. As in terms of logistics for road races, it's only a case of holding the track open for that little bit longer. It'll be great one day to see the London Marathon do the same, just as they do for the equivalent Berlin Marathon. What Frimley is doing is a great thing, so I look forward to taking part in the Run Frimley 10k Roller 2015.. |
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"Any tips, reviews and advice are my own opinions and are not to be taken as professional view points. The information on this site is what has worked for me and is here for guidance only, but I hope you gain insight into the various activities I partake in." Jonathan Chen Archives
December 2019
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