LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

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

Had fun at this marathon today;

It was a point to point Marathon ending in Simmern. We had to get up at 5:30 to get a 7:15 bus to take me to the Start. We started at 8:45. It was cloudy but much of the course was damp and slippery. It started with a very fast downhill Very Happy

and I sailed past loads of skaters - one guy came a cropper at a sharp left hand corner going straight into the straw bales placed there for that purpose but I swerved to avoid him and carried on accelerating. Then we came to a long uphill Crying or Very sad

and I started being passed - even by the guy who had fallen earlier. it was a pretty undulating, very challenging course. It became even more so when the rain started falling. Some speedy downhills were followed by uphill sections and when under the trees my skates were getting no grip at all but I stayed with a paceline made up of a number of Bad Duffy skaters from Bonn;

After thirty km the course was pretty steadily downhill an our paceline made some pretty impressive speeds - my garmin clocked my 20th mile at 1:36 - averaging over 30mph Shocked

The course was narrow and overtaking was not at all easy, or possible in places. But as we turned off the cycle path onto wider roads about a mile from the finish I was able to attack and overtake a few on the uphill Laughing

A final downhill sprint took us to the finish in the Schloss Platz. My time was 1:36.32 - not too bad in the circumstaces 5th out of 20 in my age category just over two minutes behind the guy who came first!

Thanks to Merten for entering me in the race. Thanks also to Annette (from Sardinia) and Andrew (whom we meet at lots of German Marathons) for their help and support - we were in the same paceline and finished only seconds apart. Thanks also to the Bad Duffy team for all their help.

The race was won by Oliver Engel in 01:11:24 with Michael Puderbach second one second behind!

And a special thanks to Helen for amazing logistical, moral and photographic support!

Maybe another race for next year's calendar

merten · Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 10:59 am Subject:

There's some pictures and a video here... Found one pic and a glimpse of Ray's start in the video, mostly running footage afterwards.

See http://germany.maxfun.at/phpbilder/bilddetail.php?aid=598

Seems it was a very small event on a narrow course - well done!!!

Michi · Joined: 11 Jun 2005 Posts: 658 Location: Hamburg

For this course: fantasic result Ray !

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

Thanks guys. thanks for the links to the pics - there were two of me before the race and one in the race and a brief glimpse in the video.

Michi · Joined: 11 Jun 2005 Posts: 658 Location: Hamburg