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Ed's Sk8toronto Website
NATIONAL CAPITAL MARATHON -(OTTAWA) -MAY 2005 The National Capital Race Weekend in Ottawa, each May, is the biggest and best (local) inline event. It's a lot of fun. As well as skating, there are other several running and walking events of different lengths. Events around the Marathon are featured on my weblog for May 29/05. This is only about the race. I was determined to get a good position at the starting line and was willing to forgo some of my warm-up time in order to do it. I did, in the end, manage to get a position in the second row and this was perfect for my plans. As I expected, the fast guys burst out of the blocks like gangbusters and set a relentless pace –in order to shake off as many potential threats as they could. I felt pretty comfortable and settled in to the paceline in a position that I thought would be pretty good for me. I watched a couple of gaps develop in the line up ahead and the really fast guys faded off onto the distance at a pace I can only dream of. Lindsay Chard led our little group for a while and I realized she was in trouble. I took over for her in a controlled sort of way but I guess she was in worse shape than I thought because the next time I saw her she was in a trailing pack. We had a group of around 8 decent skaters including the two fastest women as we made the hard left off Colonel By onto Hogs Back Rd. Over the next few kilometers we picked up a few stragglers and ended up with around a dozen. I checked my watch at the 12k sign and was surprised to see that the elapsed time was only 20:50. (Later I calculated that we did the first 12 K at a wicked 34.5Skph! At around 11k (and again at 32k) there is a place where the course turns 180 degrees. It is a great opportunity to get a look at the trailing (or leading) packs and on the first time through I was not sure that our pack would survive because there were a couple of trailing packs that were very close. My fears were unfounded as there were enough skaters willing to take a decent pull. All race long, there was another small group of 4? that stayed if front of us by around 20-400 meters. They did an awesome job of keeping us away but at least they inspired us to skate a little harder and, in this way we put some distance on the pack behind us. We came through the half way point at 38:50 and I started to wonder if our pack would manage to beat 1 hour and 20 minutes. I have looked at past results and it is rare that skaters do the second loop as fast as the first. I guessed that our group would manage to skate a 41 minute 2nd loop and sneak in under 1:20. I took a few pulls but I could not be a workhorse in this group because I was not one of the strong skaters. I had finally beaten the Ottawa jinx of being a strong skater in a weak group! I did not know a single skater in my group and am looking forward to reading the results to see who all these people were and where they came from. One guy told me he lived in Ottawa –and I figured out that one of the women was Helen Havrim –a New York City skater who is one of the best in the States. None of the men appeared to be close to my geriatric status so I was hopeful that I might win my category (men 50-54). Neither of the women ever took a decent pull but I was not surprised when the final sprint came at the end. It was like they had both been launched out of a canon. I would need to have a rocket engine strapped on my backside to go that fast. My own pathetic sprint was mostly spoiled by a rec skater just finishing the half marathon. I didn’t think it was worth endangering her (or even scaring her too badly) in order to pick up a position or two. Next Day: There were 3 women in my pack. My apologies. My time was 1:19:53 but somehow my timing chip did not stop the clock. I was the fastest 50-54 year old male skater (unless another old guy had the same problem that I did)! A great race!
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