St. Paul Inline Marathon

All day Saturday, I kept pondering if I should race or not and did not sleep much on Saturday night since I tried listening for rain, thunder, etc.... On Sunday morning (6 AM), I watched the news and the rain looked south of here so I decided to go for it. I drove through drizzle on teh way to St. Paul and the rain stopped. Before the race, I even changed my wheels from old to new since the roads were dry. As we lined up for the start, the drizzle came. The roads became slick. The pacelines continued but not like the ones in the past with 30-40 people in line. Needless to say, I was very conservative on the downhills in the first 13 miles since I saw a few people go down (I even saw a women go off the road and jump a curb and luckily didn't get hurt).

As the race went on, the rain continued and got to the point in which I had to get remove my clear lense glasses since they were covered with rain. The course was in good shape except the turnaround locations (under a bridge and parking lot). Those areas were full of puddles and really slick. It was a bit scary going into tight turns with others while watching out for puddles.

In the end, I led and pushed the paceline for the last 5 miles of the race. Going up the last couple hills, the line slowed down so I took charge and led up the hill. The line followed and gradually passed me on the flats before the uphill finish. This gave me enough time to catch my breath and get legs refreshed before the quarter mile uphill finish. As we made the sharp left turn, you could see eveyones legs turn to rubber and that's when I gave it the rest I had. I finished in 1:43. Approximately 6 minutes behind my time from last year. I was disappointed with my time since I have new wheels/bearings (now drying out) but since the conditions were far worse than last year and I didn't get hurt. It was a good race.

Next race is the Chequemegon Mountain Bike Race from Hayward to Cable on Sept 15th. Next year, I plan to do the North Shore Inline Marathon (Duluth) versus the Mountain Bike Race so I can concentrate on fewer sports.... I'll post pix, when available.....

On another note, Riley got another haircut on Friday. He did not like the razor but looks much better!

Have a good week!