April Fool#

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:05:06 +0000

Let's review what we should have learnt at Koln:

• a race which is slow one year may not be as slow the next year
• so starting too far back is a bad idea

and what we should have learnt from Blenheim

• warm up properly

and what we should have learnt from the One-Eleven

• eat (well, "drink" would probably have done in this case)

and now consider whether there's anything good to say about how I tackled the Berlin half on Sunday

• no

While checking my skates over before leaving for the event I saw that one of the hubs had split. Not really wanting to chance it, when I got to the Junker tent I bought some new wheels from him and spent what should probably have been my jogging-to-raise-pulse time swapping bearings and spacers over. Then I had about ten minutes slow gentle skating up and down, then I joined the people at the start line and found I was already ten rows back. A little sidling got that down to seven rows, but still too far.

When the gun went off, I was boxed in. I spent the first 3km overtaking people until in sight of the lead pack, then I was joined by a line of two people and we then spent the next 10km (assisted by a couple of others who we picked up along the way) failing to catch the lead up. Unlike last year where the front of the group was an enormous crocodile, this year the lead pack was quite small and quite fast and the second line (which I passed quite early) was the skatersaurus

The first 13km of that race was basically the hardest I have ever worked on skates, to the extent that I tired my legs enough that I lost edge control in my right foot - very odd and more than slightly unnerving.

After that I'd had enough and waited for the second pack to catch me. Hopped on the back (I was so obviosuly toasted that nobody was lettting me in any further up), moved up through the pack on each corner until I was somewhere near the front (maybe sixth place or so - basically, aimed for the first place that looked like a gap would form) by km 20, then got myself taken out by someone's foot as the line disintegrated just before the last corner, as everyone jockeyed to be in a good place for the sprint. Well, with legs of jelly what else was I expecting? So I missed the second pack as well as the first. Grrr.

Still aching on Monday. Still aching Tuesday too, in fact, but I think that's viral or something (probably the return of last week's cold): for (a) I have lungsful of phlegm, and for (b) I certainly didn't smack my head on the ground at any stage, and that bit hurts too.

Final time: rubbish; final place: worse than last year

Lessons learnt: don't be so bloody complacent next time