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.