LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

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

I'd like to try another marathon before the winter and I can't go to Stockholm - so I thought I'd give this one a try.

I can fly direct from London City Airport - about 10 minutes from my home.

I know that the weather could be foul - but if so Frankfurt's a pleasant city with plenty to see. If the weathers OK it could be a good skate.

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

Some of us did that one two years ago. It was wet then too. There are a fair number of tram lines to cross but there aren't many hills expect for man made ones.

darylw · Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Bristol

I'm just about to book up to go on this marathon. Are you going there for late registration at the weekend, or did you manage to get yours in before 8th Oct ? I've sent the organisers an email to see if there are still places, but haven't heard back yet. Although in Stockholm there were 2000 spaces and only just over 1000 took part, so i'm sure it will be fine in Frankfurt.

See you there !

Daryl

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4107

You could try ebay for tickets - apparently lots of Berlin ones were sold that way. Don't know if it's strictly approved of by the organisers.

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

Yes, I registered before the 8th October. But the website says that you can register on the 29th or 30th. I suppose that's dependent on there being spaces left.

Details are here:

http://www.frankfurt-marathon.com/en/skater.php

Look forward to seeing you in Frankfurt. How do you plan to travel?

darylw · Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Bristol

I have just booked my flight, so will be flying from Birmingham early Saturday morning. What day are you travelling ?

Let's pray for dry weather !!

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

I'm flying from London City on Friday morning. Maybe we can meet up sometime Saturday.

my phone no. is 07736 546294.

The forecast on weather.co.uk doesn't look too good - but you're used to skating in the wet after Stockholm!

Farhana · Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 259 Location: Surrey

Good luck with the marathon guys. Have fun.

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

Good luck! We'll do an anti-rain dance for you, if it works they'll be mighty peeved in France or Switzerland!

roger · Joined: 26 Feb 2004 Posts: 531

The weather doesn't look too bad on wetter.de - a bit showery but quite mild.

Good luck und viel spass, as they say in Deutschland.

darylw · Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Bristol

Thanks for the anti-rain dance ! Maybe the good weather forecast for the following week will be early !! But then again, you can never trust weather forecasts !!

Smile

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

The forecast is getting worse - I think some more frenetic anti-rain dancing is called for. I'm sure whatever happens we'll have viel spass in Frankfurt - or maybe it'd be more fun staying in London and watching the dancing!

Thanks for the good wishes - the more luck the better!

See most of you tomorrow evening at the AGM

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4107

It's just a bit early to be worrying about the forecast now. 24-48 hours before is the first chance of even the slightest accuracy.

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

Just back from a brilliant weekend in Frankfurt. Well some aspects were more brilliant than others but I enjoyed most of it thoroughly.

Helen and I met up with Daryl from Bristol at the marathon fair - I think we were the only two skaters from the UK. We had a couple of meals together and compared notes on skating and equipment!

The organisation was not as good as Berlin - the start was a free for all with no timed blocks.

The route was smooth (mainly) and there we no significant hills. I decided not to go off too fast but stick to an average of about 14 mph. All was going well until just over 5 miles when a sticky-backed number came loose from someone's shorts and wound itself round my wheel and I rapidly ground to a halt - I got it off in a few seconds but by then had lost the pace line I was with.

Shortly afterwards we hit some very damp road surfaces and pushing out hard was impossible - but this only slowed us down for a couple of miles - the road surface changed and the rest of the race was damp-free.

My major hiccup came just before halfway - I was at the back of a paceline cruising along at 18 mph (according to my GPS) when I suddenly hit a bad patch of road and went down on my right side - I now sport angrily vivid road rash on my shoulder , forearm, hip and thigh. I was up on my feet pretty quickly and was encouraged by the spectators and other skaters to join the next paceline which I did - the rest of the race went without mishap and I finished in 1:52.03 - just 1.5 minutes faster than my Berlin time - but I didn't fall there!.

Daryl came in at 2:00.19 - just failing to get under 2 hours - but he too had had an eventful race falling three times - and medical attention helped and hindered him - but he can tell his tale.

Helen was our official event photographer but my digital camera gave up the ghost after half a dozen shots - she immediately switced to using the camcorder and shot some nice video of the race at the 7, 8 and 41.5km points.

I'm glad I fitted in this as my last (2nd) marathon of the season - now back to training to improve my technique and get my time down to under 1:50

Hans · Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:47 pm Subject:

Well done to Ray and Daryl it sounds like you made the best of a very challenging race. I cant wait to see the photos Helen took and if you want some help grabbing stills from the video give me a shout.