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Ed's Sk8toronto Website
CANADIAN NATIONAL MARATHON (CAMBRIDGE) -JULY 2005 The Canadian National Marathon is held each year in conjunction with the Canadian National Sprint and Distance Championships. Both the track racing and the marathon, which is held on the road, take place on or around the Canada Day long weekend. The 2005 marathon event was held in Cambridge Ontario (for the third year running) -on some country roads just north of Highway 401. The event was well run and the course was very nice. Every Marathon takes on its own personality and this one was no exception. As always, it was great to get down to Cambridge and see all my old friends in the inline skating world. The day was pretty warm, and there was a strong west wind. They cancelled the smog advisory in the morning so I decided to race the event (I had been thinking of pooping out and going slow if the air was bad). As usual, the men’s marathon pack was pretty relaxed for the first 3 small loops but the pace hammering started as soon as we got out onto the first of the three big loops. Things held together a little longer than normal because the first leg was into a stiff wind. I was not surprised to see a serious gap open up as soon as we headed north and I decided to try to cover it. I chased the skaters in front of me for what seemed like forever and then the course turned west again (into the wind). After a while and I realized that it was no use. Before long, we had a pack of around 12 skaters. When I saw some of the distinguished gentlemen who were in this pack I realized why I had not been able to cover the gap. Morgan W., Herb G., Stephan T., and Robert? (to mention a few) are very strong skaters. It was not long before the course turned to the east and we got to skate with the wind for a good long stretch. At this point in the race, I was still recovering my failed attempt to catch the pack in front and was hanging out at the back. Herb, Morgan and Robert decided to try and catch the pack in front by taking short pulls and changing the lead frequently but I was in no shape to participate in this nonsense and could only watch is disbelief from my position near the back. In the end, Herb fell back to join the rest of us and Morgan and Robert got away at the front. I thought they were crazy to attempt this so early in the race. So our pack of around 10 coasted along with the wind -on a section of brand new high quality asphalt at a speed of perhaps 40kph. Then we came to a slight downhill and a very tight 90 degree right hand turn. I was astonished not to be able to hold my line as I made the turn and hit a traffic cone. I managed to stay on the road and finish the turn but as I looked around I discovered that our pack had split in half! (Later I heard that Herb, Stephan, Paul S., Pan, and one other had not managed to make the corner (volunteers need to point the way more emphatically!). I’m sure Herb and the others were disappointed but so were we because now our group was very small. I assumed the lead coming off the turn and I took a very weak pull -not really knowing what had happened to the others and trying to give them a chance to catch up. After a while, I knew that they were gone. Our little half pack crossed the place where the finish line would be in 30 minutes flat and had 2 more 13k loops to do. I figured we were in trouble because of the small number and, at first; a couple of the skaters didn’t seem to want to pull. However, as a group, and without really speaking, we settled into a pulling routine that was based on each person’s “ability to pull”*. Very few turns were missed. I have never seen better cooperation in a marathon. It was great! We were comprised of 3 men and 2 boys (Daryl from London (in his early forties), Dave from Whitby (in his late forties), me and a couple of scrawny teenagers. The kids were great, though, as they took their turns with the pulling. Pulling against the wind (and sometimes uphill as well) was really tough but it was fun to be up front because you had a great view of Morgan and Robert doing their best to stay in front of us. For a while they got some help from Derek who dropped off a leading pack but then he dropped off that one too (and didn’t even stick with us). He must have bonked badly. We did our second large loop in 27:07 and seemed to be headed for a time of 1:24+. In our third loop, Morgan finally lost contact with his buddy and got swallowed up by our pack. I felt a bit sorry for him since he had done so much work to stay ahead of us –but that’s skating. In the final couple of kilometers Morgan took off with one of the kids and Daryl fell off the back with the other one. That left Dave and me to have our own 2 man battle. I gradually slowed down my lead as we got close to the finish. Dave took off a little too soon and I drafted him for a while before passing him. (I had told Dave, before, that he should go to some TISC practices to learn about this sort of thing). My time was around 1:24:50 and I placed only 3rd in the Grand Masters category. Two fabulous American skaters (Dennis Humphries and Alan Marcossan) beat me easily. I was really happy with my race and believe that I did very well under the circumstances. *Economists talk about “ability to pay” in any discussion of taxation policy. I have turned this into “ability to pull”. By this, I mean that team members are all taking a turn pulling the pack but only in proportion to their ability to do so. Stronger skaters take longer, faster pulls.
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