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Ed's Sk8toronto Website
NORTHSHORE MARATHON (DULUTH MINNESOTA) -SEPT 2007 What I already knew was confirmed when I stepped outside the hotel on race morning. It was really cool (below 40 degrees F) and the giant US flag, in front of the public library was indicating a strong wind from the south-west (the worst possible direction). To make matters worse, it was slowly dawning on me that I had misread the instructions for taking the bus to the starting line. Time was really tight. I made it –but only just. When the bus finally arrived and the start area, I barely had time to pee, put on my skates, remove my extra clothing and drop off my surplus gear. There was no chance for any warm up and there was no chance to re-tighten my skates after a few minutes of skating. On the upside was the fact that I didn’t have much time for pre-race jitters. My worst fear was that the fast guys would start to really hammer from the very beginning. Thank goodness they didn’t and I got my warmup during the first part of the race. It was a big pack –about 60 altogether. Technically though, my competition was with only 15 other skaters in the 55+ category. Although I was hoping to skate further up in the pack, I kept finding myself pretty close to the back. It was only a few miles into the race when the line started to spread out too much and I knew the guys around me were going to get dropped. Three or four times I went around a few guys and made up a sizable gap –leaving everyone else far behind. I brought my ‘good stuff’ for this race but I was quickly using it up! Once or twice a gap developed far ahead and I knew that I would never be able to make it up –and once or twice the gap close up anyway. Finally however, past the half way point, about a dozen of us dropped off the back and stayed together for the rest of the race. Later I found out that, up ahead, the pack split again. This happened to most of the divisions in the race. Everybody got spread out. Fighting such a strong headwind, once a gap develops, it is hard for the skaters to close it. I skated the first half of the race at a pace that would have put my time around an hour and 20 minutes. Then the wind picked up even more and no one among the 12 of us was willing and able to take the sort of pulls necessary to keep up the former pace. In one sense I was disappointed that I wasn’t skating with the pack ahead but I knew I was where I deserved to be. Really, I was in pretty good shape compared to most of the guys in the pack because mostly they were 45-54 years old and already out of the money in their category. I wasn’t sure how many ‘Grand Veterans” there were in the pack but it couldn’t be that many and I knew I would win a few dollars at the end of it all. I always took a good hard pull when I worked my way up to the beginning of the pack but there were a few guys who would drop back only a few positions most times they did a lead and so they had more work to do. I wasn’t complaining –but we were sure going slowly some of the time. I kept looking back to see if the pro women or even the advanced men would catch us. Neither group did but the winners of both groups posted better times than the dozen of us. As we came through the tunnels at the end of the race I realized that Bob Harwell, another Grand Veteran, was in the pack. On the last ramp he went out wide to the right so I followed him. He was climbing pretty well at first but he started to get tired and I jumped back in with the main group on the left. I came to the top of the ramp and into the hard left turn in about 6 th position and I held that place to the end. I figured that Bob was not going to catch me and I was right. It was pretty tight with a couple of other skaters at the mats but I didn’t want to fall and I coasted for the last few feet. If I’d known there was a ‘Grand Veteran’ skater just ahead of me I might have tried a little harder but the difference would have only been one position and $10. When they posted the results I found out that I was 6th place. Technically, 6th place in my category is my best ever finish (unless you count the time I finished 11 th overall (but first in 50+) in the advanced category). My time of 1:25:21 is, by far, the slowest I have ever done the Northshore. However everyone did a slow time so I still have my self respect. One of the pro women and 7 advanced men posted faster times than my pack of ‘elite’ skaters! I knew it would happen some day. Thankfully, none of those skaters actually passed us on the course (they started after us). That would have been embarrassing.
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