I went racing today in the annual Canada Day Inline Marathon in Cambridge, Ontario. It's been a while since my last blog entry. Long story short, I came into the race today far from my peak condition. However, I did what I could to make sure I could accomplish two things:
- Maintain race pace for the entire duration of 42k.
-
No bonking!
Not exactly a picture of ambition, isn't it? Come to think of it, I had the exact same goals at this race in 2007. I was well-aware of my limitation and those who trained with me in the last couple of weeks could see it too. I stepped on the start line with so little expectation of my own performance.
Despite a similar attitude in 2007, as a skater and competitor, I have changed much since. My accumulation of race experience and the amount of training I've put in ensure a very different outcome. My start left much to be desired. I failed to hook onto the lead pack and soon found myself in no man's land with LG (Team Pyro Apparel) from Ohio. Both of us were skating hard though I really had no idea why. I couldn't see any packs ahead of us so the logical thing to do was to wait for the next pack. Lucky strike #1: our blind optimism paid off after we made turn number 2 and caught up to skaters dropped from the lead pack. I was relieved to meet up with my training partner JaS but we did not ease up our pace. A bigger pack was just ahead of us and I could see the bright skinsuit of AM (Team Pyro Apparel), a very strong skater. As we pulled closer, I saw more familiar silhouettes including many of my friends from TISC. Lucky strike #2: the guys were standing up (what was up with that?!) and we successfully bridged shortly after. I sat comfortably in the company of EL (TISC), SP (TISC), GN (TISC), DL (OISC), BO (Skater's Quest). Somewhere along the way, we also picked up JaP (TISC). I couldn't believe I was skating in the same pack with these skaters.
We skated quite coorperatively though there were obvious differences in speed depending on who was pulling. As one of the two girls in a pack of strong guys, I felt no pressure to pull fast nor particularly long. I held my own in the pack and was in no danger of getting dropped. I glanced at my GPS occasionally and saw that I was traveling at a good pace, speed that is beyond my ability in a smaller pack. This course is full of right hand turns which used to make me hesitate in fear every time. However, I am reaping the rewards of agility training and street skating tremendously. I had yet to corner with as much speed as others but at least I kept the gap reasonably small such that I could close the gap with just a few strides of hard acceleration. Not so much fun for anyone behind me, I suppose.
Lucky strike #3:After a few shuffling of positions in the pack, I found myself skating behind AM. I didn't even know how it happened but somewhere along the way, we dropped half the guys in our pack. At this point, we were left with AM and LG (Team Pyro Apparel), DL (OISC), and BO (Skater's Quest). If it was a breakaway, I was oblivious of it. All I did was tucking behind AM and skated. It was so coorperative, it was not unlike a training session. Everyone took turns pulling. Nobody jostled for positions. We just kept going and presumably opening up the gap even further from the guys behind us. I knew very well that AM, LG, and BO could drop me at any point if they wish. However, there simply wasn't enough incentives for them to whittle down the pack especially since we don't even compete for the same spots in the standings. I couldn't believe my luck. Did I mention I even had the BEST spot in the pack in terms of order and speed?
With about 6km to go, our pack picked up MG (OISC) and HG (Team Aloe Up). It was a strange moment for sure. The dynamic of the pack changed immediately and I was no longer protected in the safety of AM's draft. I found myself skating behind DL and not adjusting well. Our skating styles were incompatible enough that there were frequent collisions. Being short, I am accustomed to drafting really close and have little visibility to the road ahead. However, all those little collisions eventually had me seeing vision of crashes. I peeled off the pack with the intention to reposition myself behind AM again. At this point, the pace of the pack picked up and I got flushed out. I sprinted hard for about 200m but I could not rejoin the pack. That was a critical mistake on my part. I finished the rest of the race on my own.
Official result shows that I was 4th in the pro women division with a finishing time of 1:19:02. This is my fastest finishing time for a marathon to date, even besting my 1:21 effort in Northshore last year. I am getting ever closer to challenging DL. Most importantly, I accomplished my goals. Granted, I was very very lucky in this race...all the stars aligned.
Just as I handed in my bib number after the race, in one of those freak accidents, I fell to ground from a stand still. My right hand took most of the impact and my hand swelled up quickly. With some dutiful icing, I still lost full range of motion with my thumb and I had trouble to even pull my own glove off. I was justifiably worry. I went to the emergency room to get my hand checked out. After a few hours in the hospital, I was relieved to learn that the x-ray looked good. No fractures! The sprained soft tissue will likely take 2-6 weeks to fully recover. Things could have been a lot worse...I have no reasons to complain.
This is all fantastic news. Except for the hand. But who needs those anyway! Seems that this mini break was well deserved in a strange way. Just don't stop believing that YOU CAN DO IT....none of us have. I am sure you inspire so many with your improvements.
Posted by: Cor | July 03, 2009 at 07:24
Wow Candy, what a comeback!
Congrats - and you even managed to do a nice picture, full armswing, outer edge, perfect.
Just as Cor saig, you are indeed inspiring.
Posted by: Gabor Kmetyko | July 03, 2009 at 17:59