Non-Race Report

I think I first did the Roll for the Roses 10K about 18 years ago.  I can't find a record of it in my skating logs; back then I had just started speedskating, and my data obsession record keeping system wasn't quite as highly evolved as it is now.  What I do remember is that the race scared me.  It's quite possible that it was my first inline road race ever; I know I did the inaugural Northshore Inline Marathon in 1996, but I can't remember if the R4R was before or after that.  I'm suspecting before, because one thing I distinctly remember about R4R is that the 90-degree corners freaked me out enough that I decided to forgo using my racing skates, and did the race in my "rec" skates...which were these guys:

Rockin' the 70mm's...

I say "rec skates," but actually these were, for a time, my speedskating training skates.  A lot of thought went into their selection.  My first pair of inline skates, bought around 1990, were Rollerblade Zetra Blades (I think "Zetra" is Greek for "really slow.")  Despite the fact that they barely rolled unless you were actually pushing, the Zetra's still felt wildly out of control and scary to me.  So when I started speedskating a few years later, and then decided that I should do inline training in the summer, I wanted skates that would allow me to "get lower" than the high Zetra boots would permit, but that also wouldn't go too fast for my comfort level.  Enter the above skates: Rollerblade "Racerblade" boots, which are slightly lower than standard Rollerblade boots, with "Lightning" (worst choice of name ever; these frames were not designed for speed!) frames and 70 mm wheels.  A local skate rental place had this boot/frame combo made for renting to folks who wanted to skate around the lakes; I'm not sure why they wanted the lower boots, but they seemed like a perfect match for my needs.

Until I started skating on them at the oval, anyway.  Not surprisingly--given the lower-but-still-high boot, the small, slow wheels, and the short wheelbase--I was having difficulty simulating speedskating technique on these skates.  After a  month of frustration I ran into a couple of actual inline speedskaters at the oval one day and they told me that I needed "real racing skates" if I wanted to practice long track technique. And then they sold me their used skates (but that's a story for another day).  Anyway, I used my rec skates in the R4R and was scared enough by the experience that I haven't done that race again.

Until this year.  This year I decided to lay the Roll for the Roses demon to rest, and skate the event (in "real racing skates," none the less).  I was even excited about it.  And then Mother Nature dumped rain and tree branches and even a couple power lines on the course the night before the race, and the R4R was cancelled--for the first time ever.

So far, that's been the story of my inline road racing season, Version 2013.  Here's how the season looks:

• The Baxter half marathon, usually held in early June and which my sister Energizer Bunny and I did last year, was cancelled.
• I discovered that the mid-June Madeline Island marathon was on the weekend we'd be out of town with the Hubster's family.
• R4R was cancelled due to weather.
• The next race I want to do, the early August Minnesota Half Marathon, falls on a weekend we'll be at a family reunion.
• So I looked around and found another marathon in August, this one in Grand Forks. Turns out this one is the weekend that the Hubster will be rally racing, and since I'm his service crew, I'll be rally racing as well.

So unless I can find another race reasonably close to home, I won't be doing an inline road race until the Northshore Inline in September.  And the oval inline races, the Summer Inline Series, haven't fared much better.  The first one was rained out; the replacement date for the rainout was rained out; and I was up north for the first week racing was held.

Tomorrow, though, I'm hoping my luck will change.  The Summer Inline Series races are supposed to happen again; I'm in town, and as long as the 40% chance of rain behaves itself, I'll be racing.  Of course, my legs are fried from three days of workouts in a row (necessitated by another upcoming cabin trip), but you can't have everything.

And at least I won't be skating on my old rec skates.