LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

peterc · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: M3 somewhere

Oh, and can someone tell me who the big lines where at the front end.

I saw James, Erol and Garan go off the front, I spent a chunk of time in a line with (initially) Speedy Dave, Skoobs (Blueroom Dave) Alice D from Brum, Rick and some others, but I think I also saw that one split.

I assume there was another line between those with Ed, Dan and Brum Alex and I'm sure lots of others?

by the time I was doing rolling water stops it had got a bit confused.

Fred_Paris · Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:55 am Subject:

Sorry I missed all of that ! looks like you guys did very well Smile

it's great to see so many people enjoy the race.

Looking forward to hear all about it and see the pictures !

ed! · Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:24 am Subject:

Ok, I might be a little biased, but what a fantastic day that was Smile

As always, the organisation from the Camberley skaters (and their helpers) was superb - right from start to finish.

Thumbs Up

s

Working with Sparky, George, Alex (from B'ham) and Richard H (superby performance by him!) to keep the pace of our line
The sprint surge towards the end of lap 5 when Paul Murfin broke away. We all thought he was making a break away to split the pack...turns out he was only doing the half!
Seeing Liya twice on the track and encouraging her on!
George's superb, albeit crazy, sprint leadout out at the end of lap 11 which ensured I came 3rd
Getting a sub 1hour 20min time at Goodwood
Standing on the podium for a marathon, and honoured to share it with Errol and Garan who performed well.
Post race nutrition consisting of a 6oz Bacon cheeseburger, 3 Toffee Crumbles and an 8oz steak and chips on the way home

s

My aborted attempt to catch James and Garan as they broke away right from the start. It was definitely a good idea not to have continued chasing, and hindsight tells me I should never have gone for them in the first place
Cramping in my right leg from lap 3 onwards, limiting the amount of work I could do at the front and left me wondering how long I would last
The lower back pain after the race meaning I couldn't even take off my own skates

James, as always, was in a league of his own, but Sparky and George were truly phenomenal. Pretty much dictated the race of the second marathon pack and then go on to do another in near enough the same time!

Well done to everyone who took part, and glad to see so many people improve upon their times, especially those who have been coming to Tatem - the training is really paying off, so keep at it!

And on that note, a huge thanks to Fred, Hans and Adrian whose sessions at Tatem have really helped prepare a lot of us for racing. All those "lap the pack" and interva/speedl-based work really made a difference and came into their element yesterday.

george · Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 567 Location: Paris

RichardH · Joined: 02 Sep 2009 Posts: 207

That sounds about right George. Thanks to everyone in that line for dragging me around for 11 laps. I am well impressed at Sparky & George's half-dual, which was faster than my entire marathon. And you only slowed down by 3 minutes in your second half!

That was a personal best time for me - 1:19:47 ... sub 1:20 ... which was a personal goal, but I had not anticipated reaching it until Berlin. It's happened one race sooner than planned so now I'll have to set a new target lol.

Great day out - had really been looking forward to it and it really delivered. Thanks Camberly!!

EdP · Joined: 05 Aug 2009 Posts: 481

Barrie · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 1338 Location: Putney

Superb organisation! _Really_ impressive to handle so many competitors so smoothly that it seemed almost transparent to me.

I thought I might have to bail when I dropped off the 2nd line with breathing probs, but it settled down just in time for me to think about trying to claw them back again, but that was just on the incline in to the wind, so I lost them all Sad

Dunno if I could've hung on all the way or not, but it'd have been nice to have been able to try.

Then I had a few solo laps, caught and had a little chat with wifey, caught Speedy-Dave, found out he was doing the double so carried on... caught PeterC ( thanks for the water bottle earlier on btw, that lasted me to the finish ) and his dickie knee... so carried on...

Then, still not benig able to see anything behind me and realising I was on to a bit if a hiding to nothing doing 2/3rd of it solo I started losing some motivation - but thankfully, not long after I started hearing "shouty Paul" and noticed a paceline behind, about half a lap later it was Ben and Barbera calling me to join in, nice one!

I thought I'd tag on teh back and then work my way up... so I looked for the back... I looked a bit further back, nope, further back still....

OK, sod-it, and I slipped in in front of Paul I think... who then came past to do a fairly speedy stint on the front.

After that it was mostly Ben in front ( apart from when he shot off after Ed, Glen et al up the first incline ), with me trying to "do my bit" which worked out to be up the first head-windy incline for each remaining lap I think...
Though I did also try to catch up with Ed et al, but my common sense was faster than Ben's (even if my skates weren't ), so I dropped back to take the front from Barbera for a bit before rotating around again ( and eventuially catching Ben again by the finish striaght ).

Same again on the last lap, Ben leading to start with, me leading up the incline.
Claudiane had been working her way up the paceline, and tried a breakaway around the water area... covered by Paul, and I'd just recovered enough after leading up the incline to tag on the back to ( must beat Twydles... must beat Tywdles... etc.. ).

Then I guess the rest caught up.

Around the bend at the start of the finish straight Rick made a dash up the outside, but I was commited ( due to "crowd slalom" ), to going up the inside which allowed him a bit moer of a gap than I'd have liked, my own stupid fault for not planning ahead... I came out levelling-ish with Paul and someone else, but kept chasing Rick down. I was clawing him back, but was never going to catch him in time, let alone pass him if had a final surge in him, which I suspect he did..

So if Paul got 1.31.04, then I guess I was just a shade faster at the end.

Super happy with the time for Goodwood, especially with the less than ideal way it'd panned out for me, but a bit frustrated that I had to drop the 2nd paceline so early/at all - but well... breathing seemed more important at the time...

malspeedster · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 251 Location: Crossharbour

peterc · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: M3 somewhere

ed! · Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:25 pm Subject:

Torbaydos · Joined: 30 Jun 2009 Posts: 55 Location: Ealing

Hello, I don't post on here much

I'm glad I inspired you Barry. I don't know what it is about a gobby overweight smoker in semi-race skates that makes people want to beat me Very Happy

I started off with Markus in the second paceline but, after leading half the second lap I was too knackered to get back on the end of the line. Fail. Rick had dropped off prior to this so I stayed with him until I found Kai & Selena, and after that we found Ben and Barbara's line and Ben took us all round.

I didn't plan to breakaway as such on the last lap, I just had a bit of spare energy and there were too many fast people in the line to get ahead. However I had no sprint at the end to match Rick or Barry. I slotted in behind Hilton at the finishing straight, went to sprint the last 10m and my leg nearly gave way.

I didn't think I was leading the line that fast, oh well, I guess that's why I was so knackered within 300m.

I'm really proud of my time, (I beat my Berlin time from last year by 10 seconds) I've just been marshalling and consolidating this year but this has given me the impetus to do something a bit faster at Berlin.

I may even come to Tatem...

Thanks everyone for a great day

Sparky · Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 403

Wow what an amazing day.

The race went pretty much according to plan in fact it went slightly better than expected, my goal was -3hs so I reckoned I would sit in the second pace line taking as much shelter as possible for the first marathon and then hook up with other dual skaters for the second.

I was quite surprised how much myself and George drove the pace line on but we were feeling pretty good and wanted to keep pushing for the time so were happy to do the work with Ed and Alex.
Then when James came round to lap us on the finishing straight of the first marathon it presented the perfect situation, as James already had it in the bag the three of us could work together which really helped us to get the times we did.

It was a really great experience skating the 22 laps with George and working together, probably the most enjoyable race I've entered.

george · Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 567 Location: Paris

benw · Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 105

Good show everyone! Smile

Great weather too.

It's an interesting race for me. I think I did rather well considering I had no prep the two days before but plenty of dancing, drinking, no carbo and little sleep Razz

For the first 26 miles.. the pace line behind me was longer than I thought it was. Thanks to Barrie & Barbara taking some of the load.. At one point yes I tried to make a break for Ed & Glenn's line as they were passing. But I couldn't uncouple from my line in time and I was about 5 seconds off chasing Ed & Glenn just as they cleared the slower traffic and moved off... and about a lap later the first line picked me up again Embarassed

I think at that point I should be about 1:30-ish if I were to stop as full marathon.

I was still doing good pace until around lap 14 when the first cramp struck. That drained my reserve gel packs. Picked up maybe 75% speed from around lap 16/7 but ran into cramp trouble again in last lap. Luckily Barbara caught up and gave me a push to finish. The last 26 miles I did probably a 1:50 time.

Need to rethink about proper prep & diet.. and my soft knee pads may also have contributed somewhat to the cramps.. but I'm kind of accident wary..

Barrie · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 1338 Location: Putney