LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

tanya g · Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:47 pm Subject:

tanya had to work Crying or Very sad

tanya still at work Crying or Very sad

Mikey-two-Names · Joined: 24 Feb 2004 Posts: 4108

Oh shame, that sucks. I hope they're paying you overtime, not that it makes up for it.

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

Fenu Alex - 5:16.41,51, average speed 21,029 km/h.
Quadros Glenn - 4:11.56,29, average speed 26,435 km/h.

First of all very many congratulations! How was the race chaps?

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

back from holidays....
No traning equate bloody hard... will post more tomorrow

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

Another year, another one eleven.

This was my second bite to this race and confirmed just how brilliant it is. Pity only two of us made it to St Gallen. It is the best course I have skated on and the organization is second to none!
Next year get your asses in gear and make sure you race or at least take part!

Now on the race itself.
This year, I reached St Gallen using the scenic route via Frederieschaffen, the boat trip is nice and relaxing, but reaching the sports hall at 22h00 is not.
I also forgot to take the accommodation details and the sleeping hall had changed from last year, so I wasted another 40 minutes finding it... Not a great start. To top it up, while I slept like a baby last year, the late arrival stressed me and I barely slept more than 1h30... Next year, zurich it is, no matter what the cost.

Still wide awake at 4h30 I got up earlier and went for a hot shower to get me ready for the day. One nice breakfast later, and the usual chase for the elusive empty loo, its nearly 7. At 7.00.00 (we are in Switzerland remember) we all went into slight uphills where I find a good pack to follow, that is untill we hit the first downhills and first scares for me, I haven't skated that much and really feel rusty on my skates. None the less the first 40 km are a laugh. I just love the course. So much to see, enjoy, so many people out encouraging you. Pit stops still full of everything you need short of a full English breakfast.

Trouble is my lack of fitness and skills (no cycling in the past moth due to stolen bike and no more than 8 skates in the last 6 months) start to play havoc with my right leg showing signs of cramps. With 60k to go the race for me stops there and I move to the lets make sure I finish mode... From there on, I cant follow any packs and stay with few struggling skaters, all of us in obvious pain, but not letting go. At one point I realized my speed was well below 12km/h (no GPS but when you are not moving any more you know it) and its just become silly. Enough is enough and I stop at the next rest point for 5 minutes drinking and eating. Glad I did that this helped to recover enough to skate at acceptable speeds again and I quickly catch up and dropp the people I was struggling with before.

With still 30 km to go and now closing in on the hills, doubt start creeping into my mind if I will manage the climbs. well luck is that when I climb I use slightly different part of my tights muscles and avoid a major cramp that would have ended my 111.
reaching the finish felt even more of a victory than it did last year. For 3 seconds I thought never again... yeah right! See you in St Gallen next year! Its just to good to miss, pain or no pain, there isn't another race like that in Europe!

Ps
I stayed an extra two days on the lake skating with Cat and Chloe 40+20km. The Swiss side is much better than the German side for skating as all of the route has tarmac!
Too bad I missed Linda and her group but it was difficult to get organised with a baby.