2002 Long Beach Inline Marathon
Tried to drive the 26-mile course Saturday morning. This was nontrivial since some turns weren't opened to motor vehicles. I casually abandoned the difficult parts of the course. I decided skater in front of me would know where to go.I arrived at the expo half way into Chad Hedrick and Heather Elliot marathon workshop. Chad was teaching weight transfer and edge control. Not sure how useful such information was 1 day before the race. Half of class apparently already could double push; the other half struggled to get any outside-edge at all. Most wanted to be there just to skate w/ Superman.
I noticed Chad wasn't using the Chad-signature wheels I would use in the race. Chad supposedly endorsed these more expensive item. It was the only 84-mm wheels I could find after Northshore people bought all the popular stuff.
All the expected manufactures showed up. After getting my annual hug from lovely Skategrrl Kathie Fry, I test drove Rollerblade's new models. When I mentioned the pressure point I felt, the rep immediately guessed that my feet were too wide and basically told me the entire line of skates ain't for me. Interesting sales approach.
In the afternoon I made some effort skating parts of course that were not accessible by car. I met our FL members Paul and Stacey on the bike path. Just as 3 of us realized we didn't know where the course was, we met 2 women asking about race route. Paul turned on the charm and enthusiastically gave the 2 attractive ladies all kinda helpful information. Stacey accused his father of being a "clean young man" (not exact quote). After finishing A2A just the week before, Stacey had food poisoning and was unsure about her readiness for Long Beach.
The Race.
It was dark when everyone got to the start line. The temperature was low enough I barely sweated during warm up. My heart rate monitor said 224, which was a reasonable number if I were a hummingbird. It's the unadvertised beat-doubling feature of Polar sensors.
The advanced start was a zoo.
As soon as we crossed the start line, everyone wanted the same positions.
This led to constant forming and breaking of long pace lines. Several people crashed minutes into the race. A skater landed on her right ear; I saw the sunglasses frame snapped in slow motion. Scary stuff. After clicking skates couple time, I decided to play it safe and hide behind a lone skater who refused to join the fight. I eventually fought my to the front when most gave up changing their positions. I looked at my HRM, 186 (93% max). I should be OK as long as I stayed in the draft and didn't have to counter any attack before my heart rate slows a bit.
First 6 miles had many turns. Hay bales were placed at strategic positions. At one spot the orange cones were so confusing the lead motorcycle led the pro men in the wrong path, and the 3 pros who memorized the route broke away and won the race.
Advanced lead pack (motto: we could skate like the pro if we pretend) took the same wrong turn. The problem w/ U-turn having 100+ skaters behind you in a race is you can't just power slide into a 180 unless you want to test your helmet. By the time I stopped, ran over the grass, jumped over dirt, the directionally gifted were long gone. It felt like the race had restarted and some were allowed to start early.
A few of us sprinted and quickly realized the futility. I stayed in a small pack lead by 2 San Diego skaters and began our chase of the huge group 400 yards ahead. I found a tall steady skater to block the wind; few miles later I realized it was Paul. I concentrated on falling into my strides and saving energy; all the practice behind Critter's ridiculously long strokes was paying off.
We swallowed many skaters into our growing pack between mile 7 and 12, but a group of 40+ skaters managed to keep the distance. They disappeared at the end of the bike path alone the beautiful morning Pacific. I could swear one of them looked back and gave us the evil smile.
Before we entered a U-turn I saw Stacey skating alone on the other side of the street looking tired. Food poisoning was not a optimal activity before endurance sport. I hoped she was OK. She managed to maintain her speed; we never caught her.
Half way into the race we saw what could be the lead pack and picked up the pace. I pulled the pack and worried whether my legs would hold for another 13 miles. Then I saw the woman of my dream--the one who helped pull! We closed the gap and found out they weren't leader.
Some guy in Hyper skin suit pulled much of the way in his 4-wheel rec skates. We could hear him coming behind our pack shouting "AAAAAH," and all the sudden he would pass the pack as if he were wearing blue war paint and holding Wallace sword. Braveheart would slow down to lead the pack then disappear until the next charge. He did this so many times I started to think they were twins or triplets racing as 1 person.
We continue to pick up and pass skaters shed off the front packs, including a racer shouting encouraging words sitting at a bus stop. People were less and less willing to pull. My HRM says 165. Not a good sign. The lead pack was probably increasing the gap. It was tempting to push the pack faster, but I didn't know how the 30 skaters around me would react. A solo break away probably wouldn't do any good either. Wish Dave G and Duane were here.
We made the final turn just before mile 24. I couldn't see any skater in front of us. No more chasing. A few half-hearted attacked started and faded. The group seemed to slow down even more. I realized having 20+ skaters in front of me w/ 2- miles left was not a good idea. I decided to take the lead. As I started to move up from the left Paul opened a gap in front of him to let me into the 3rd position.
It's wonderful to have a teammate.
The attack finally started w/ less than a mile to go by the energized Hyper guy shouting something that's not "freedom" and suddenly opened a 10-yard gap. Thanks to Paul, I was fresh enough to chase him down, and our 2-man pack had what I thought was a comfortable lead. What a rush! Unfortunately we were both sprinters (AKA endurance-challenged), 3 other skaters caught us before the line.
It was disappointed to finish so far behind the leaders, but I was ecstatic to have finished the race safely and have enough left for sprint. It's also the first time I finished 26-mile course in less than 2 hr. The curse is broken.
Saw Stacey sitting by the curb looking beat. She skated much of the course by herself. Hope she'll recover soon from illness and the race.
Most pro men I talked to at finishing area appeared bitter about being directed off the course. The exceptions were K2's Josh Wood, who missed the wrong turn, and Eddy, who had a huge smile as if he won the race. Gotta hand it to Eddy.
