photo by Steve Penland

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Hard Day

It was a hard day at the Oval yesterday.  Not because of the slow ice or the wind or the tired legs or the bad times, but because of what we found out after we finished skating.

The Minnesota inline skating, broomball, and long track ice communities had lost a great guy Friday night.

I have referred to him here as Broomball Guy, because that's where I met him years ago.  His real name was Andy. Andy was a talented inliner and new but fast long tracker, a broomball player, a husband, a dad, and a genuinely nice guy.  He's the one who led the ice and dryland workout last weekend that I wrote about here; he was always happy to help other skaters, and he was excited about working toward MAT I again this year.

Andy was signed up to race Saturday morning.  He and Sprinter Boy had been texting back and forth about it Friday night, so we were all surprised and a bit worried when he didn't show up yesterday morning and didn't return Sprinter Boy's texts.  Finally, a couple hours later, Andy's wife texted back; she said call me, it's important, and she left her number.  Unfortunately it was a wrong number.  By now we were very worried, and Sprinter Boy and Inliner Boy began texting and calling anyone they could think of who might know Andy's wife's phone number.  Sprinter Boy finally reached the girlfriend of another inliner/ice skater, and we could tell that the new wasn't good.  When he hung up, in shock, he told us that Andy had passed away Friday night.

We are all still in shock.  Andy was a young guy--early thirties--and incredibly fit.  He raced inline marathons all summer and was hitting the ice workouts hard already this fall.  We don't know what happened yet; all we know is that we lost a great guy.  I can't imagine what his wife and young daughter are going through, so if you can, send some good thoughts or prayers or whatever kind of positive energy you personally believe in their way.

3 comments:

  1. I can't even imagine what his poor wife and daughter are going through. Sending my positive energy their way.

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  2. Thank you, Sharon. It's truly unbelievable and heartbreaking...

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