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.