LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

Down to three in the car now. So have room for the gazebo so I'll bring the club banner too.

ed! · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:34 pm Subject:

Ok, I'm really confused now...

- Is it an atheltics style track we're racing on (as implied on the website), or a go kart track (with many turns) which I've otherwise heard?

- Is it outdoor or indoor (this talk of go karting course leads me to think indoor, yet talk of weather leads to outdoor)?

Not that it makes a huge amount of difference, but it would be nice to know - was also wondering if I should put new wheels on.

tanya g · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:42 pm Subject:

I wonder if it's this..

The Arena has a 1.5km cycle track and a 0.75km junior cycle track, open for use by individuals, clubs and cycle races/meetings.

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

1.5k would be 28 laps then. I haven't got that many fingers. Very Happy

KateB · Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:00 am Subject:

Duracell and I are thinking about joining in the Sunday daytrip. Unless someone has car space (??), we'll be on the train.

If anyone else is interested here are the train details. It's basically 4 hours each way.

cheers
KateB

Train:
saver return: GBP60.30 - this is a fully flexible, anytrain return ticket
value advance: GBP47 - this is for a specific pair of trains (combination of 2 value advance single tickets) and cost GBP10 to catch a different train

Outbound trains (London Euston to Preston) are:
08:36 arrives 13:03 - one change
09:15 arrives 13:11 - direct
09:36 arrives 13:44 - one change
10:15 arrives 14:17 - direct

Return trains are:
18:01 arrives 21:59 - direct
18:28 arrives 22:22 - with one change
19:01 arrives 22:53 - direct
19:28 arrives 23:33 - with one change

Tortoise · Joined: 10 Apr 2006 Posts: 22 Location: Southport

Marathon is mostly experienced Speed Skaters.

Half Marathon skaters are mostly recreational or new to the sport. Same with Mini marathons.

I doubt the field is as elite as London, but the course is a good one and fast and forecast is good.

Loop is 1.6km, so venue have guaranteed. The 1.5km on the web page is confusing.

Big trophy to first Team. 4 to score. You need four skaters out.

See you Sunday

Wink

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

Well we got the team trophy in the Marathon. Okay we were the only team with 4 or more skaters there so nobody else was going to take it. However, we still had 4 over the line before Birmingham Wheels had 3. All three Powerlside skaters finished before our 2nd though.

Surprising to see so few Powerslide people there considering they were helping out with the organisation. A number of them raced in the half marathon.

It turned out to be a 28mile race as the circuit was 1600+m as confirmed by Ray's GPS but the lap board was set for a 1500m laps. This makes the times pretty fast for a UK race with only 18 people in it.

There are problems with this timing system. So we definately want the multiple mat system for LIM. I am wondering if the timing system is too low spec to handle near simulataneous chip registrations. In a larger or tighter race with more simulataneous traversals this could be extremely problematic. Having said that there were no problems on the first lap where 7 people have the same time. There seem to have been 3 failed chip registrations in the race. You can see the long lap times for Vinnie, Sara and Andy on laps 19/20, 8/9 and 10/11 respectively. However, Tanya is missing two laps because she is missing 2 laps. I think she was confusingly told she had less laps to go because she was skating with a line that was two laps ahead when they were told they had finished. Given her times and considering she would have been skating solo for the last 2 had she done them she would have placed 17th. Lesson to be learned there in counting your laps. However, she did complete a full marathon much of it solo in 1h48:18 which is pretty commendable!

Oh, and I was in the lead after lap 1 and on the front pack for 4 whole laps. Quite happy about that. Got killed on the first kick in lap 5 though and let them go and waited for my marathon skating buddy, Ray. We stuck together for the rest of the race occasionally picking up extra skaters for longer or shorter periods. After taking off my last two lap times to calculate full marathon time, this was officially my third fastest marathon of all time the other two being last week and three weeks before that. It's a good year I tell you Very Happy

Pity there were only 18 starters in the full marathon. LSST made up 10 of them!

My feedback. Nice course. Good organisation for a first time event. Could have done with the registration desk manned by someone who could actually do the registrations while the half marathon was going on. Look forward to doing it again next year. Lap ranks were a little confusing on the spreadsheet until I worked out they show, in order, who had the lastest lap time on that lap rather than what the race positions were at the end of each lap. Not particularly useful.

Journey time from my house was about 4½ hours each way including stops. Total distance (round trip) 480miles. Gazebo came in handy.

Thanks everyone for a great day but especially Jill (Tortoise) for the effort that went into it.....and a special thank you to the weather gods.

dan_b · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 2417

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

I got it emailed to me. Thought everyone else would have too. It should be on the website sometime soon but I'll put them up on my site so you can have a look.

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

Looks like she just sent it to four Andy, John, Ben and me.

Half Marathon+ (14miles) for Helen
Full Marathon+ (28 miles)

ed! · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:10 am Subject:

Michi · Joined: 11 Jun 2005 Posts: 652 Location: Hamburg

Congratulations to all these great results.
Semms to be some kind of LSST training as there was hardly anyone around for the marathon who belongs to another team...

dan_b · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 2417

Gav · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:06 am Subject:

I think Hans deserves a special mention for his performance... Coming in 2nd, being barely nipped on the line by Vinnie.

Yeah, ok, decent result.... BUT then you factor in that he did a 60km endurance session on saturday morning! Nicely done dude. Le Mans here you come! 24 hours!? pah. easy as pie.

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5888

Not sure he should be rewarded with praise for skating 60km before a marathon. Very Happy

However, things are looking good for Hans Solo.