14.2

The St. Paul Inline Marathon is this Sunday. My sister N and I are skating the 10 mile tour event that is associated with it. Last night while we were at the Greenway we skated 14.2 miles trying to prepare.

I realize that the 10 mile event is not timed and is not considered a race but I still want to do a good job with it. We are also skating the half marathon (13.1 miles) in Duluth this September so I thought this would be a good practice run for us.

N and I skated 7.8 miles prior to Mark's arrival. When he showed up we went on another 6.4 mile skate. The second half was surprising better than the first as we skated in a three person pace line. This allowed me to skate faster despite the wind blowing in our faces.

(Picture to left is a three person pace line. This picture was taken at the 2006 Metrodome Inline Marathon earlier this April and was taken from the St. Paul Marathon website photo gallery)

Wind has always been a huge factor when skating out doors simply because my lung capacity (already being impaired) is nearly non existent when the wind takes what little breath I do have. By skating in the middle of a pace line I can avoid the initial force it would usually have being the front person is blocking it.

Once I got into the grove of things and with a bit of help from Mark behind me I was able to finally keep pace with N up front. We were skating faster than I have ever skated before. What sucks is that Mark is unable to skate this tour with us and I will not get this kind of help while we are skating on Sunday.

(Picture to right is an idea of how fast pace lines can go. This picture was taken at the 2006 Metrodome Inline Marathon earlier this April and was taken from the St. Paul Marathon website photo gallery)

The skate was liberating but hard as hell. My legs were seriously dying when we were done. However, that didn't stop Mark and I from taking a mile or two walk later that night.

All I can say is that I'm ready. I'm excited for the skate-expo on Saturday and I am looking forward to getting myself a new skate bag.

Oh... and by the way - spectators are welcome...