Done it! (NSIM I mean)

We left Amsterdam on September 5^th to have some holiday before the Northshore Inline marathon of 2012. We travelled from Minneapolis to Bismarck, ND (for the United Tribes POWWOW) and Medorah, ND (for the hot air balloon contest) as the most Westward point to visit.

Everybody we talked to asked us what we do in North Dakota, while tourists most likely go to the big international sceneries, like Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, New York, Los Angeles and other well known places. Besides North Dakota we also travelled a lot through Minnesota and Wisconsin.

North Dakota is one of the States in which rolling prairies and badlands can be seen as it was in the history as described in the books of Karl May. It was for me like driving through the books and seeing how it looked like when riding a horse was the only way to cross the immense nature. Besides that we have met very friendly people and visited small towns throughout the state. We really have enjoined our stay in North Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

In between North Dakota and Wisconsin we were in Duluth, where I would skate the Northshore inline marathon and finally meet with most of my Endomondo skating friends. The day before the race we had a dinner together, which was a great way to meet and talk to each other.

And there she was: RACEDAY!

On Saturday 15^th we had to gather at the DECC to get on the bus to Two Harbour where the race would start. In the bus I sat right next to Mike Williams and during the long ride we talked some to kill the time. As it took the bus almost 45 minutes to get there I was wondering if the distance would be more than 26.2 miles they told us.

The race is very well organized with chairs and toilets aside of the road and transport for the dry clothes to the finish, water stations at the start and three more along the road. At the finish are also chairs and food inside the DECC to recover after the race. A huge thanks to all the volunteers that made it possible for us skaters to participate in this race.

I started in wave 1 with an estimated time between 1:30:00 and 1:39:00 of finish time. The first five miles of the track was repaved and had a smooth black asphalt finish and was downhill most of the time. In that part the speed must have been at 00:01:30/km, later I heard some of wave 1 saying the speed was 26/27 mph. I could not check this, while my GPS failed to register the distance in the first 24 minutes (bummer).

That part of the race I was skating up front of wave one where two pace lines were formed. Downhill the right pace line was a steady one and uphill the left line had a better performance. Switching between the pace lines was done by everyone, leaving sometimes a gap that had to be closed again. On a regular base I filled in the gap and switched also to keep up my rhythm and speed.

I am used to long strokes and a pace line that skates the same way while I am skating the ice rink in the Netherlands. In the Northshore the strokes are much shorter and that leaves no time to recover while one leg is behind the other leg. At the half marathon check line I had to decide to go on by my own to find my rhythm I was used to. The short strokes took out too much energy and I still had to do another half to finish.

The second part I skated my own pace and that was way better, sometimes I tried to hang on to a group passing by, but as soon as I found out it didn’t have the rhythm I needed I stepped out again. The track has hills, most of the time rolling ones, but at the end there are two hills that are rather steep and you have to make it while you are getting tired. So you can understand I needed the cheering and cow bells of the fans to get to the top.

Then the final part, through the tunnels, is there and you can feel that the end is near. My friends told me that last year the surface of this part was not good to skate on. Well I must say I didn’t notice a big change with the other surface we skated on, so they did a great job altering the grooves. My speed didn’t drop in that part, only on the last cross over (up hill) to the finish line.

After the last part I crossed the finish line, rather tired but happy that I was able to cross it in the estimated time schedule and improving my best marathon time with more than 16 minutes. Almost all of my friends also improved their marathon time in this race!

Here are my official finish times of the Northshore Inline Marathon:

And now? Well I am not sure I will ever be able to do this race again. What I do know is that in the USA inline skating is far more a sport that is combined with actual racing and amateur marathon skating. And there is more possible to organize with the wide open spaces and make things happen by the local government. In Europe only the Berlin marathon is combined with an inline marathon event where even more people are participating (this year almost 6,500 participants).

Maybe an European tour can be combined with an event for the amateur inline skaters, starting in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Paris. Who knows what this will do for inline skating on the Olympic Summer games.

Next year I will focus on the Berlin inline marathon, as soon as the subscription is open I will enter it and will try there to improve even my time at the Northshore.

I find myself in a better shape already and I know I can improve even more by staying focused on my training and losing weight until my final goal. But i also know i am close to mid 50 now and not young anymore, but if i look at the time my fellow age members have been riding at the Northshore and in Berlin there could be a much better time to skate.

 

I will focus on that for next year.

Ed van Harmelen

October 2012

Achievements	Goals 2012	So far achieved	2011
Weight goal	87.0 kg	98.0 kg	107.0 kg
Weight loss	20.0 kg	9.0 kg	5.0 kg
Kcal burned	200,000 Kcal	165,397 Kcal	48,500 Kcal
Distance exercises Skating distance	3,600 km. 2,500 km.	3,209 km. 1,709 km.	1,600 km. 737 km.
Best time half marathon (skeelers)	45:00	0:42:33	1:04:04
Best time marathon (skeelers)	1:45:00	1:32:05	2:37:36