Inline to ice

Having done so well in KC’s Inline to Ice clinic gave me the confidence to skate in an outdoor invitational 10k in 3rd place for men's 4-wheel division, a 100k in 6th or 7th place amongst roughly 23 skaters, and skate in my first marathon in Long Beach, Oct '02. Word to the wise, though, don't plan on skating well in a marathon after you've just spent two entire days at Magic Mountain, and then a day each at Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland--you can't skate worth crap!

So anyway, back to the ice skating. The others were quite surprised at my comeback that they invited me to join their ST club. "The Puget Sound Speedskating Club?" Isn't that where Apolo and KC got their start? Jan Zurcher said, "Well, yes, you can skate there too. You just won't be seeing Apolo or KC there--Apolo's in Colorado, and KC is at the Olympic Oval in Utah." So I said, "Don't be pulling my leg. I just went through hell out there on the ice. I'm not so sure how far this ice skating thing will go." Jan replied, chuckingly, "You did come back from Hell, didn't you?" I was thrilled that I found a sport I thought I could excel at, and accepted the offer to skate for PSSC.

I entered my first meet in Burnaby, BC, a suburb of Vancouver, a day short of my birthday. It was an ability-based meet, so I would be paired up with skaters about my speed, but all different ages. The top two skaters moved up, the bottom two skaters moved down, and the 3rd and 4th skaters stayed in the same grouping. There were four heats that day, a 777, 500, 666, and 1000. I got so discouraged by not being able to do better than 3rd or 4th in each heat that by the end of the day when the 1000m came around, I was pooped and drained of energy. But I was frustrated, too, that I was so close in speed, but couldn't get past the others to just fly at top speed.

It didn't help that I worked all night on Thursday, then skied on Friday, and slept about 45 minutes before leaving for the 3-hour drive to the rink. I somehow convinced my 16 year-old niece who lived with us to drive for me in exchange for her having the car for the rest of the day. We almost missed our exit a few times, 'cause I kept falling asleep as she drove.

When we picked for placement in the 1000m, I got pole position. I made up my mind I was going to rush off the line and get in front of everybody else. Good intentions gone bad! Before we were half-way to the first turn, there were already two others way faster than me, ready to take over lead. Something quickly got in my head that said, "Dude, get on the heels of your skates in the crossovers, and on the outside edges on the straights, and don't look back. If you fall or trip over any of the others, the worst that will happen is you'll be disqualified."

I scrambled to the turn, just barely making it a couple inches from the turn markers. I got on those heels of mine and noticed that there was a group of five skaters just passing the red line on the back straight as I was about half-way through the second turn. Someone said I was 1/4 lap in the lead at one lap. By the end, I pulled away to at least a 1/2 lap lead. I'd like to see myself pull off a feat like that in Long Track, but that may take some work.

Self Discovery

So I said to the others, "You want me to, like, teach you something? I thought you were the ones who knew how to skate. Ya know, I've been doing my darnedest to keep up with you guys for the past two years. I'm surprised you never asked me to find some other group to skate with since I was so slow." One guy said, "We just figured out you'd just give up and never come back. Now we're just trying to see how long you can go. Ya know, you COULD slow down every now and then!" They seemed impressed with my improvements, so I was invited to skate a 100k in Seattle. A few of the skaters thought I would only make it about half-way and have to take a bus. In the meantime, someone said I should instead sign up for some "Inline to Ice clinic" to be presented by KC Boutiette. I was thinking, who's KC? Should I know him? Why would I want to ice skate? I've fallen in love with inline skating, how could I possibly find interest in skating indoors, on ice, where it's freezing cold, and skate in small circles over and over again? I signed up. I showed up at Pattison's West in Federal Way, WA on a Friday evening in August '02. I looked around, and figured I'd be skating indoors on inline skates--BORING! I never liked running track; cross country was my favorite. But I did run in winter track on an indoor 200m track and ran the 3200m relay, 1600, and 3200. Those were tons of laps, indoors, so I figured if I could go from long distance outoor running to long distance indoors. It drove me nuts, though, we didn't get on the ice until Sunday afternoon in Kent, WA. I probably looked just as bad as Derek Parra supposedly was when he came to ice--maybe worse. I didn't understand I needed to be on the EDGES, so I just would glide around on the flats of the blades, and when the turns came, I smacked into the wall on every turn. I was so PISSED, I wanted to take my skates off and toss them in the garbage--it didn't matter that I had just purchased a new pair of blades from KC. I got as far as unlacing the second skate and ready to walk to the car that I realized in all my years of teaching skiing, I would stop my students who said, "I can't do it--it's not working." and I'd say, "Think of it this way--not that you can't do it, but that you haven't yet done it yet." I laced up my skates and pondered the situation a bit. I said to myself, "You see all the others doing crossovers when they're banked over on the edges of their skates. Go give it a try." It worked! KC pulled me aside and said later, "Tim, I saw you were having a lot of trouble on the ice--you should've come talked with me, but I can see you reall got a hold of the technique the faster you went. I'm dumbfounded, though, most skaters fall apart at faster speeds, but you look more solid." I don't know if he was trying to inflate my ego, but I've found some of what he said to be true. Granted, I don't achieve "perfect form" once I reach a certain speed, but I do hold my own relatively well at speed.

So you think I should try speedskating on ice? Why would I do such a silly thing?

So I said to the others, "You want me to, like, teach you something? I thought you were the ones who knew how to skate. Ya know, I've been doing my darnedest to keep up with you guys for the past two years. I'm surprised you never asked me to find some other group to skate with since I was so slow." One guy said, "We just figured out you'd just give up and never come back. Now we're just trying to see how long you can go. Ya know, you COULD slow down every now and then!" They seemed impressed with my improvements, so I was invited to skate a 100k in Seattle. A few of the skaters thought I would only make it about half-way and have to take a bus. In the meantime, someone said I should instead sign up for some "Inline to Ice clinic" to be presented by KC Boutiette. I was thinking, who's KC? Should I know him? Why would I want to ice skate? I've fallen in love with inline skating, how could I possibly find interest in skating indoors, on ice, where it's freezing cold, and skate in small circles over and over again? I signed up. I showed up at Pattison's West in Federal Way, WA on a Friday evening in August '02. I looked around, and figured I'd be skating indoors on inline skates--BORING! I never liked running track; cross country was my favorite. But I did run in winter track on an indoor 200m track and ran the 3200m relay, 1600, and 3200. Those were tons of laps, indoors, so I figured if I could go from long distance outoor running to long distance indoors. It drove me nuts, though, we didn't get on the ice until Sunday afternoon in Kent, WA. I probably looked just as bad as Derek Parra supposedly was when he came to ice--maybe worse. I didn't understand I needed to be on the EDGES, so I just would glide around on the flats of the blades, and when the turns came, I smacked into the wall on every turn. I was so PISSED, I wanted to take my skates off and toss them in the garbage--it didn't matter that I had just purchased a new pair of blades from KC. I got as far as unlacing the second skate and ready to walk to the car that I realized in all my years of teaching skiing, I would stop my students who said, "I can't do it--it's not working." and I'd say, "Think of it this way--not that you can't do it, but that you haven't yet done it yet." I laced up my skates and pondered the situation a bit. I said to myself, "You see all the others doing crossovers when they're banked over on the edges of their skates. Go give it a try." It worked! KC pulled me aside and said later, "Tim, I saw you were having a lot of trouble on the ice--you should've come talked with me, but I can see you reall got a hold of the technique the faster you went. I'm dumbfounded, though, most skaters fall apart at faster speeds, but you look more solid." I don't know if he was trying to inflate my ego, but I've found some of what he said to be true. Granted, I don't achieve "perfect form" once I reach a certain speed, but I do hold my own relatively well at speed.

What did I do when I didn't speedskate?

I was a new grad in respiratory care at the University of Washington Medical Center, and had to work the night shift. Most of my shifts started about 30 minutes after each speedskating session began, so I had to resort to skating in solitude without any technical advice. That September, in the fall of '01, I enrolled in a registered nursing program at Seattle Central Community College--the college I attended for my AAS in Respiratory Care. I had already been active as a volunteer firefighter and due to firefighting being viewed in a different light in the days post-9/11, I felt privileged to be part of North Highline Fire District in White Center, a suburb of Seattle. In addition to full-time at the UWMC and SCCC, I was part-time at Northwest Hospital and Virginia Mason Medical Center's Department for Hyperbaric Medicine, and shared the responsibility of providing the needs of an invalid in our home. In March of '02, I became so depressed from the over-committment of school, work, and obligations at home. I wound up not having time for any form of exercise for 15 weeks the winter of '01-'02. In addition, we had a leak in the roof over our garage, and despite all the work I did, I could not afford to pay a contractor to fix it, so I worked under a tarp for a week to install new OSB sheets, tar paper, and composite shingles. It was a professionally done job, but only at the cost of materials. (Thanks, Dad, for letting me help do those roofing jobs during the summer months in Bethlehem, PA!) I quit school, as I was already earning just two dollars an hour less than I would as a nurse, and quit the fire dept. My Lieutenant was very understanding of my situation and praised me for choosing priorities in my life. Our live-in had peacefully passed away in December and I quit my job at the UWMC. My wife supported me in my decisions--even when I was so busy, but was of course, quite pleased that I made these choices to make her and my exercise my priorities again. I now had plenty of time to skate, and work a little overtime.

Who am I? What am I doing here?

Hello, let me introduce myself. Timothy Scott Demerjian is my given name. I love my name, as 'Timothy' means, "honoring God." Some can read me like a book; others ask me what it is that gives me purpose. I center my life upon God's purpose, not my own. I am not a religious person; instead I have passions. They are -- my God, my wife, my family, my farm, and probably the most obvious to those who know me personally--Long Track Speedskating on ice.

So you might want to know where I get my drive from? Let's not forget about my '04 Subaru STi in WRC Blue Pearl w/gold BBS wheels-- especially when it comes to drifting on ice, snow, rain, or grass. Since it's my daily driver, I don't consciously think of it as a street-legal race car; but it does get me from point "A" to point "B." I have had the pleasure and privilege of experiencing this ride of a lifetime for the past two years--65,000 miles in all! Yeah, that was a little bit of a play-on-words, but Subaru's magazine is titled, after all, "Drive."

That's why I am at the Olympic Oval typing this essay--I am training on the "fastest ice on earth." I have Rex Albertson for a coach. It's amazing--we understand each other so well--it seems we "clicked" the first couple days working together. I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I thought I'd be technically, so I already have a sense of fulfillment.