Skating in Germany

So Brendan's passion for inline skating has taken us to some interesting places... Montreal, Miami, Ottawa, St. Paul Minnesota, Long Beach and many more... and this weekend we ended up in Köblenz Germany for an inline marathon... Here's the recap Brendan sent his racing buddies from D.C.

Yes, I was fortunate enough to get up to Köblenz and skate the Mittelrhein Marathon. What an unbelievable event, skated right down the Rhine River for 42 km.

Germany (think it might be most of Europe) has a rule that you can't start within the speed wave unless you are a registered inline racer. I guess this keeps the slower folks out of the way of the pros since there are only two choices for groups here, speed or fitness. I found a way to get myself into the speed wave although I'm not registered yet, and that was quite an adventure.

Some of the local teammates from the Stuttgart speed team were in the speed wave and I decided I'd try and skate with them, even though they were expecting to finish around 1:11-1:13. That is DEFINITELY faster than anything I've ever skated, but I decided I'd try to keep up with them for as long as I could.

So the women's speed wave started first, and then the men started a few minutes later and it was just pure chaos!!! It didn't help that it had rained all day leading up to the start of the race, but somehow the rain stopped 1+ hours before the start and that was enough time to dry most of the roads...(coincidentally enough, less than an hour after finishing the rain started back up again).

I was able to stay with the lead pack (with the pros) for the first 5 km, and we averaged a pace around 24-25 mph. It was fun/interesting to be close enough to the front and watch the pros play their games with each other. Around mile 3.5 I just couldn't exert myself that much anymore, and dropped off of the first pack. I was then picked up by the next pack, and there were about 3-4 pacelines that raced side-by-side for the next 10+ miles. That was a new experience for me, and it required a bit more concentration than I liked... but I found myself smiling many times during the race, just thinking about the situation. Skating in Germany, down the Rhine River, the only skater within 5 minutes either direction not wearing a skin-suit (still don't own one) and just having a blast.

Eventually the 3-4 pacelines combined into 2 pacelines, and then we jockeyed back and forth the rest of the race. We skated through an old city center with cobblestone which was quite fun. We came screaming down a hill, and then all of a sudden everyone is braking as we take this turn because sure enough right after the turn was a cobblestone city center about two-tenths of a mile long. Not sure how I knew how to skate on cobblestone, but I was definitely able to pass some folks on that stretch.

We continued cruising at about 19.6 mph for most of the race and I realized around mile 16 that I was skating some of the most technically sound strokes I had ever done... I think it was because my body was just tired, and so my weight shifting just ultimately allowed my body to gradually fall to the side until my skate landed just outside my body... then continue the DP, and just keep on hammering it out.

One of the interesting things about the races over here in Europe is that most of them start in the mid-late afternoon. So instead of the 5-6 am wake-ups to get on a bus to get to the start by 6:30 am, we instead got on a bus at 4:30 PM, and the race started just after 6 pm. This was something I had never experienced before, and I was trying not to eat too much before the race so I didn't have a heavy stomach... well this plan backfired. I ended up not having enough fuel (didn't have ANY water) and around mile 23.5 my body just died.

Physically I wasn't able to skate much faster than 13-14 mph, but mentally I just wanted to finish. So over the last 3 miles my average speed dropped from 19.6mph to 18.5mph... and it was the longest 3 miles EVER! I just kept telling myself that it's only a HP loop, but it may as well have had 35+ mph head-wind because I was not moving. It was tough just to get one skate in front of the other... but I eventually made it. My time ended up being just over 1:25, which I should have been pleased with but I wasn't. I easily should have had under a 1:20 had I continued with the group I dropped at mile 23.... although overall it was a fantastic race.

The other skating group in Stuttgart, Skate X-press had over 20 people traveling to the race so they actually just rented a bus for the day, and Andrea and I rode there and back on the bus. Quite an adventure to say the least... we stopped at 2 or 3 rest stops to pick up one or two skaters, and then we stopped at another rest stop to open and drink a bottle of champagne(tradition I found out).