On The North Shore Inline Marathon

Here are some statistics from the 2007 North Shore Inline Marathon (Sept. 15, 2007):

• Bib No.: 2256
• Overall rank: 417 out of 2564
• Division Placement: 23 out of 129
• Sex Placement: 353 out of 1499
• Time: 107 min 12 sec
• Time/Mile: 4 min 6 sec (avg)
• Speed (km/h): 23.6km/h

Here are the same statistics from the 2008 North Shore Inline Marathon (same path, Sept. 13, 2008):

• Bib No.: 1118
• Overall rank: 298 out of 2277
• Division Placement: 18 out of 114
• Sex Placement: 256 out of 1348
• Time: 84min 50 sec
• Time/Mile: 3min 15 sec (avg)
• Speed (km/h): 29.7

Reviewing these numbers, the improvement looks modest I admit, but what the numbers do not say is how much easier this race was. Last year, after I was done I felt completely spent. I could hardly breath, if I took a deep breath I started coughing, the small of my back was in such pain that I could hardly sit down or stand up, by the end of the race talking was an athletic event of Olympian proportions. This year, yes I knew what to expect, but instead, I never once worked my cardio system that hard, at the end breathing was no more complicated than after a Tuesday night Escape the Don Ride. During the race I had no difficulty communicating, I remember last year someone asked me where I was from, I stuttered out 'durunah', his reply, "well I've never heard of the place". This year I started calling out to people, I was yacking away with someone, at one point I yelled - and I do mean yelled - out a couple complete sentences started making fun of the pack for pushing so slowly, eventually I gave up and made a huge break away.

I have this to say about biking, holy #$&! I knew biking improved my cardio health, I knew I had lost a lot of fat - not weight, gained an awful lot of muscle. What I did not know was that despite the fact that I skated all of twice since, oh about May 20, my technical weakness - lack of comfort on skates, weak muscle groups that are used skating and not riding - was so totally offset by my cardio strength as to boggle my mind. Eric Gee and Georg N. were right, on the drive to Duluth they kept telling me I would surprise myself. Given the high regard I have for their opinion I figured I would be fine, I did not expect to set any sort of impressive performance records, but I figured I would be fine. I guess the moral of the story is, skaters should bike more.

I would like to point out my average speed at this year's inline marathon, 29.7km/h looks good even on a bike, but on the bike, I stop at red lights, this was a closed course. On a bike I get head winds and tail winds, this was all one direction with a steady, albeit gentle, tail wind. I make sharp turns on a bike, this course had a sum total of three turns of about 90 degrees. Had I been on Erin or Amy my average speed would have been 45km/h or probably a fair bit faster, the rollers are damned modest too, the one hill of any size, not nearly as big this year as last year, must have eroded a lot, no it didn't erode, I got faster.

Will I give up skating? No. I just do not think I will be doing it all that often anymore. I have to admit I am pretty disgusted at the inline industry actually. I mean, here just one story. I have custom made skate boots, they fit my feet and only my feet, except they do not. Well the North America representative of the company that made my skate boots was here so I spoke with him. He told me to take some lipstick to the part of my feet that is rubbing the skate, then put the skate on to mark where the boot needs to be reshaped, then send the boot to him. I replied, "why not just do it right here" after all, I don't exactly need the skate for a few weeks. Well he did not have lipstick. Except he was at the event as an official representative of a very big skate maker, so here is my rant. I have heard of people breaking bike frames by doing things out of warranty, the manufacturer sends a new frame and an apology, no questions asked. I am not asking for a new skate boot, I am asking for the guy to come prepared with a marker or lipstick because I will bet good money I am not the only person in this predicament, in fact I know I am not the only person unhappy with their customs. It seems everyone I talk with, who has a recent custom not made by Eric is fed up. Hey boot makers, you don't grow the sport by treating your customers like crap. (And yes, once upon a time boot makers knew what they were doing, I know people who have boots made years ago who swear by them, it seems that recent customs have issues, old ones are fine.)

And another thing that gets me, consider Riccardo Ricco, anyone who follows road biking does not need to read the Wikipedia article I linked to, they know that name. Here is a guy who is remarkable until it turns out he was on a baned, performance enhancing, substance, EPO. He was thrown out of the Tour De France and his team, Saunier Duva, had to withdraw without their captain. In the Inline Skating world it is no secret that there are people taking performance enhancing substances at some of these big events and nothing is being done about it, at least here in North America. I finish the race and hear about some of the guys that come in with impressive times and frankly I just do not care, I raced clean and suspect everyone else, why shouldn't I? (Then again I also came with no ambition and nothing to prove, but I was unusual that way.) There are so many things that need to be done in the Inline world to bring it up to a reasonable standard, but frankly I just don't see that happening, there is too much momentum to keep things crappy.

What a sorry state for a sport to be in.