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Ed's Sk8toronto Website
ROLLING RAMPAGE -TORONTO (QUEEN'S PARK CIRCLE) -JUNE 2005 I went to The Rolling Rampage 10k* after dropping off Kaylee at her swim meet at 6:30 in the morning. After finding a good parking spot near the start/finish line, I had a healthy little snooze in the front seat of the truck. Later, a couple of people commented on how cute I look when I am sleeping. I signed up for this race at the last minute –partly in an attempt to put as little emotional capital into the race as possible. The idea was to “just skate the race” and skip the second guessing, nervousness and so on. It worked fairly well! The race was a lot of fun even though it lasted only 18 minutes and 47 seconds (for me). Around 45 skaters lined up for the start and one poor guy fell almost right away. It took the first half lap for things to sort out and at this point there was quite a large pack sticking with the fast guys. As things worked out, the large group that completed the first of seven loops around Queen’s Park Circle dwindled substantially by the end of the race. I was a bit surprised that the really fast guys (Aaron, Peter, Camilo, Adrian, Jordan) did not break away from the less gifted skaters early on in the race -but from their perspective the race was strategic and they didn’t have to worry about the bums like me that were just hanging on for the ride. So- the fast guys played cat and mouse with each other and the pace of the pack changed frequently. This was fine by me but a few skaters dropped off when the going got fast. According to Beth Clarke, who was competing for the first time in over a year, a sizable second pack never developed (because of the shortness of the race and the relatively small number of competitors). Paul Shoebridge, the winner of the 2005 Roller Sports Ontario (Grandmaster) distance title, was in the race and hanging out with me near the back of the lead pack. Even though he’s still just a young fellow (47?), I wanted to beat him to the finish line if I could. Paul seemed to me to be pretty comfortable and I was preparing to go all out for the last 200 meters. But I didn’t have to because Paul got dropped as we passed in front of the legislature building for the last time. Before he lost much ground the pace slowed dramatically and I thought he might catch up again. I even thought about pushing the pace myself at this point but decided that poor Paul would have too little time to recover from being on his own and would probably be beatable at the finish. I didn’t have to test my theory. The final mad dash came 300-400 meters from the end and the lead pack stretched out quite a bit. I was skating behind Eric and Martine in the final threesome and I made a half hearted attempt to pass them but gave up and came in wiping up the rear of the lead pack. I have pretty well gotten over being beaten by female skaters now –since it happens in almost every race! In one important way, it is great to do a race on a course with lots of laps because you get to see some of your team mates every once in a while -and trade encouragement. The venue is terriffic but road snakes are a problem on this course and several skaters went down. Twice I almost fell. Herb Gayle offered hardy congratulations for one recovery as he was right behind me at the time (and I may have saved both of us by staying up). Unfortunately, the recovery came at the expense of a bad sprain of my right middle finger (my right hand touched down and my hand slider took most of the impact) and a slight pull to my left hamstring (my left leg swung quickly back and up to compensate for my loss of balance). * It was not really a 10k race! (I have a “thing” about race courses being the exact length that they are said to be because it is not all that difficult to lay them out accurately.) It is just too unlikely that exactly 7 loops of Queen’s Park Circle would be 10k. In fact, when we did this race two years ago the start and finish lines were in different places. However, I can tell from the race times that the course was very close to 10k. I think the race actually may have been slightly long.
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