Three down, three to go....
Merten, Wednesday, June 27. 2007
We are halfway through our monster racing period, so an update is needed.
In order of weekends, the first one on the list was Damp Marathon. Quite a nice 21km loop, 2 laps to complete the race. Michi I still have not settled whether the course should be described as "hilly" or "gently inclided"
Anyway, there's nothing really steep, but still some parts where you have to work your way up.
A quick race report: Guess what, I started a little back again... So by the first turn, I was in the lead pack, but at the very end, so when the first split happened in a narrow section, no chance to get further ahead. Anyway, I still had a nice race afterwards, being able to try out some tactics and be one of the "actors" in our 30 people pack. Tried to break away with two km to go, but the two of us were caught. Using some confusion that started when some people started to sprint for a timing system which was only there for control reasons 1 km before the actual finish, I just took off at the 500m mark and managed to be third over the line. 1:20 hours, not bad. Michi had a nice race as well and even got a podium in the state championship - which we then missed because we had not realized it and decided to go swimming and sunbathing instead of the ceremonies... we still managed to get hold of the champagne though
Only six days later, we embarked on our journey to Koblenz to skate the Mittelrhein Marathon. A point to point race on the river embankment, the course is very flat and on well surfaced main roads. One of the key races to skate a personal best this year.
The trip to the start was done by train, and after a quick warmup we set off. Whoah. Something that happens in such big races, especially the "PB races", is that people all want to be up front, even if they are way too slow. So, after a lot of overtaking at the start (I really need to think about this...) I managed to hang onto the pack that skated a 1:12 later. But - I had exhausted myself too much, so I dropped back to the next pack and finished in a 1:15. NEW PB!!! But I do not feel really proud of it. and did not really like the race either (very hectic, jammed in a pack of 200 skaters, with a couple of serious crashes...). But the job is done, Michi got a 1:23 PB as well, and we had a very nice weekend. So I might return anyway
The last race to report on today was Hamburg's half marathon, held last Sunday. Due to a couple of reasons, we both decided not to skate this one as a race. But as entries were paid we went anyway and had a nice chilled "race stroll" around Hamburg's beautiful places. The finish time of 56 minutes does not really matter under such circumstances
So - things are still going nicely. On Monday we hosted Sebastian Baumgartner and Daniel Junker for the Hamburg stage of their "Mirror Bus Tour". Using the famous mirror video instant feedback on DVD later technique from the Sardinia camps, this was good fun even though some rain tried to spoil it. We skated anyway, and finished with a nice chilled barbeque.
By the way - did we already tell you that Michi and I got molded by Daniel for some new babies? Hehe, 4x100 here we come...
And - something really cool is coming up. this weekend we are going to skate the "world's most famous tarmac" again... Le Mans 2007 is almost there, we are leaving on Friday afternoon and I might be allowed to start the race for LondonSkaters Speed! I'm soooo excited!
In order of weekends, the first one on the list was Damp Marathon. Quite a nice 21km loop, 2 laps to complete the race. Michi I still have not settled whether the course should be described as "hilly" or "gently inclided"
Anyway, there's nothing really steep, but still some parts where you have to work your way up.A quick race report: Guess what, I started a little back again... So by the first turn, I was in the lead pack, but at the very end, so when the first split happened in a narrow section, no chance to get further ahead. Anyway, I still had a nice race afterwards, being able to try out some tactics and be one of the "actors" in our 30 people pack. Tried to break away with two km to go, but the two of us were caught. Using some confusion that started when some people started to sprint for a timing system which was only there for control reasons 1 km before the actual finish, I just took off at the 500m mark and managed to be third over the line. 1:20 hours, not bad. Michi had a nice race as well and even got a podium in the state championship - which we then missed because we had not realized it and decided to go swimming and sunbathing instead of the ceremonies... we still managed to get hold of the champagne though
Only six days later, we embarked on our journey to Koblenz to skate the Mittelrhein Marathon. A point to point race on the river embankment, the course is very flat and on well surfaced main roads. One of the key races to skate a personal best this year.
The trip to the start was done by train, and after a quick warmup we set off. Whoah. Something that happens in such big races, especially the "PB races", is that people all want to be up front, even if they are way too slow. So, after a lot of overtaking at the start (I really need to think about this...) I managed to hang onto the pack that skated a 1:12 later. But - I had exhausted myself too much, so I dropped back to the next pack and finished in a 1:15. NEW PB!!! But I do not feel really proud of it. and did not really like the race either (very hectic, jammed in a pack of 200 skaters, with a couple of serious crashes...). But the job is done, Michi got a 1:23 PB as well, and we had a very nice weekend. So I might return anyway
The last race to report on today was Hamburg's half marathon, held last Sunday. Due to a couple of reasons, we both decided not to skate this one as a race. But as entries were paid we went anyway and had a nice chilled "race stroll" around Hamburg's beautiful places. The finish time of 56 minutes does not really matter under such circumstances
Skating behind the mirror bus - wet skater barbecue
molded feet in our kitchen, guess which ones are mine -> more pictures
molded feet in our kitchen, guess which ones are mine
-> more picturesSo - things are still going nicely. On Monday we hosted Sebastian Baumgartner and Daniel Junker for the Hamburg stage of their "Mirror Bus Tour". Using the famous mirror video instant feedback on DVD later technique from the Sardinia camps, this was good fun even though some rain tried to spoil it. We skated anyway, and finished with a nice chilled barbeque.
By the way - did we already tell you that Michi and I got molded by Daniel for some new babies?
Hehe, 4x100 here we come... And - something really cool is coming up. this weekend we are going to skate the "world's most famous tarmac" again... Le Mans 2007 is almost there, we are leaving on Friday afternoon and I might be allowed to start the race for LondonSkaters Speed! I'm soooo excited!
Keeping up
Merten, Friday, June 1. 2007
Well... it's been some time again since the last posts here. I'll better stop promising any rapid updates, it seems my free time is rather unpredictable at the moment. So apologies for any "traffic jams", I'll try.
So - loads of skating happened since April... a quick recap is needed. First off all, our special project - which involved skating the Karstadt Marathon as an advert "sandwich" for the main sponsor - was a great success. As a group of four, we skated the full marathon, at a leisurely pace just to make the time limit of 2:30h. It is very different to ususal races, as there's little time to notice samba bands, crowds cheering and so on. This time we got the full programme - check out the pictures here...
The weekend afterwards, the racing season continued with the first stage of the Northern Leage club team series. A full marathon team time trial, on the beautiful yet very windy island of Nordstrand. Starting with only four of seven team members, we just barely achieved a very good 4th place among the teams by seven seconds, which is more than we hoped for. Hopefully we'll keep that place in the rankings for a bit, though I doubt it can be preserved until the end. We'll see.
What else? Right now we are enjoying what looks to be the last weekends without any races before the start of the super racing season with six races in seven weekends, among them the Le Mans 24h relay (yippee) and Prezelle's 84km double marathon. First up are two marathons on June 10th and 16th, I'll keep you posted.
So - loads of skating happened since April... a quick recap is needed. First off all, our special project - which involved skating the Karstadt Marathon as an advert "sandwich" for the main sponsor - was a great success. As a group of four, we skated the full marathon, at a leisurely pace just to make the time limit of 2:30h. It is very different to ususal races, as there's little time to notice samba bands, crowds cheering and so on. This time we got the full programme - check out the pictures here...
"Rolling Shopping Bag" Adventures
The weekend afterwards, the racing season continued with the first stage of the Northern Leage club team series. A full marathon team time trial, on the beautiful yet very windy island of Nordstrand. Starting with only four of seven team members, we just barely achieved a very good 4th place among the teams by seven seconds, which is more than we hoped for. Hopefully we'll keep that place in the rankings for a bit, though I doubt it can be preserved until the end. We'll see.
Norstrand team time trials
What else? Right now we are enjoying what looks to be the last weekends without any races before the start of the super racing season with six races in seven weekends, among them the Le Mans 24h relay (yippee) and Prezelle's 84km double marathon. First up are two marathons on June 10th and 16th, I'll keep you posted.
