LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

SprintMaster · Joined: 19 Jul 2006 Posts: 8

Right, I missed Sol. Embarassed

Only looked at the men's results.

Duracell · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:14 pm Subject:

Curlie · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:48 pm Subject:

Natasha · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 2973 Location: Basingstoke

Yes, why? Makes me feel guilty now for pulling out once I realised I'd lost my chip. I think you all did very well in very grotty conditions, congratulations everyone!

Alan · Joined: 19 Sep 2005 Posts: 641 Location: Hackney, London

andyman · Joined: 05 Apr 2006 Posts: 1945 Location: Suffolk

and another lady - albeit of dubious Belgian origin Laughing

196 (54) MAIN X1940 Shea, Kris (BEL) WAkt 01:57:23 01:55:37

Duracell · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 6:20 pm Subject:

Ray · Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 806 Location: Dagenham

All in all, taking all things into considerations and on balance I think I enjoyed that race!

Five of us (Rick, Natasha, Alan, Kris and me) decided to skate a pretty leisurely (safe) race starting from block D.
We stuck together pretty well, waiting for each other, till just past halfway when Natasha had the chip losing incident and dropped off. The remaining 4 skated on taking no real chances - trying to keep together and almost behaving like those irritating German pacelines which won't let you in. Kris dropped back as we were at about the 21 mile point and shortly afterwards Rick had his fall followed by the spectacular world record slide on his back along the road. While still sliding he told us that he was ok and so Alan and I continued.

Towards the last 2 miles Alan was feeling a little tired and told me to go on without him - I speeded up a little knowing the end was nigh. just over a mile out Rick surprised me by pulling alongside. He'd sprinted to catch us and we were together entering Unter den Linden. Helen and Chloe were there and encouraged us with there cheers (well Helen did at least) I speeded up again and passed a lot of skaters in those last few yards. Rick told me that he was a bit knackered from his chase and wouldn't keep up - but on the clock he crossed the line only 1 second behind me.

Bad points
the weather

Good points
Skating together as a LSST group, chatting most of the way
Feeling fit and having energy left at the end
My new Bont 3 point boots - felt gooood Very Happy

Ray · Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 806 Location: Dagenham

Photos in gallery
At Stansted on the way out we bought a new camera with a continuous shooting mode - it's really good (except in that mode it's limited to 2 megapixels)

Helen took a number of pics at about 11 km. She missed some of the team cos she was looking after baby Chloe but she took a number of sequences. I've put a selection up in the gallery. She's taken over 800 pics in all and it's really neat seeing the sequences (to analyse your technique) So if there's a pic on the site there's probably a few more in sequence at about the same time.

I've included shots of a fall as the lead pack went by - otherwise it's all LSST skaters. I've got some more to download of ed! Duracell, Peter, AlastairJ and Sol but can't get my pc to do it at the moment.

Hey ed! you were well ahead of this group at 11km - it must have gone bad later!

Glenn · Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 1082 Location: ST Pauls

One more result, my friend Mike Garvin was travelling with me and whom some of you met:

13 (3) MAIN T4127 Garvin, Michael (CAN) M30 01:27:13 01:27:09

Not bad considering he broke his collarbone just a little while back and hasn't been skating that long.

For me the highlight of the week was watching Gebrselassie celebrate his World Record on Sunday to Queens: "We are the Champions" giving high fives to the crowd and other participants completing their marathon.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/09/30/uath130.xml

Now that was special. I really wish I had Ray's camera with me.

G

AlastairJ · Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:22 am Subject:

Eine Kleine Nacht-arithmetik!

It struck me that it is very difficult to compare performances between races or between skaters within a race. This is especially striking when rain slows everyon down dramatically, and presumably leads to a dip in skater numbers, through people deciding not to skate. I think congrats are in order for all finishers in such conditions.

One formula which permits such comparisons could be 'percentile in sex/age category', which gives an indication of what proportion of finishers in one's age category you have beaten, expressed as a percentage:

[position in sex/age category] / [total in age/sex category] x 100 = x%

I have looked at only a few LSST results, but I think none compares with Sol's outstanding result : she is in the top 1.2% of women aged 40 - 49.... Well done Sol! I guess Greaser and Fred must be pretty impressive too.

(Naturally, modesty and good manners do not permit any mention of my own result!)