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HYPERASHEL
Member
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Joined: 18 Nov 2003
Posts: 15397
Location: The South's Sauna, Atlanta
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 Posted: 10/24/04 - 20:53 Post subject: Athens To Atlanta.. updated.....FULL LENGTH FEATURE
WET!!!!!!!!
but the temps were ok. Took 7th overall, and Silver Medal in AG.
38 miles in 2:33:ish. I'll find out true time soon.
Thank God it's over.
Lomg to come later.
Hyper
With a wake up call scheduled for 5am I am already awake and showered when the phone rings. Drinking a cup of coffee and walking around the parking lot, a dry parking lot, observing temperatures and making final race decisions about clothing, wheels and bearing I feel I am properly set-up for the day.
The hotel is 1 mile away from the start. I get all my gear packed, and on my back and start out the door just shy of an hour till the gun. Then the rain starts, it’s too late to change anything my only “comfort” is my knowing everyone has the same conditions. This however totally changes my race strategy. On dry roads there are wipe outs in town by the elites and professionals on the turns as they scramble for position, I imagine it will be worse on wet and oily roads, it was. I set myself in towards the middle of the pack, behind the professionals but in front of the recreational skaters and set out on a more defensive and survival mode. I’ll wait for the long straight-a-ways before I ramp up my speed. Sure enough people are sliding out as I cruise through what looks like a set of extras of a futuristic war scene, Lycra clad bodies with sleek helmets strewn along the first mile. I found later out a pace-line of 13 people wiped out.
I spend the first 12 miles picking off single skaters and going by slower pace-lines and signaling faster pace lines to go by me, no “contact” desired. Around mile 12 I catch a pace line that had passed me earlier. I hop on and catch a ride. A group of maybe 8-10 people in this line, one being an old team mate from DC. This section we are now on we call “gatorback”, in cycling terms it’s shake-n-bake, in layman’s terms, “this sh!t sucks” for a 10k we have this. The next checkpoint marks the end of “gatorback”. We each take a turn leading the line and about 6 miles after catching up I am leading now. I realize the group is falling behind so I slack up a little, we reform and continue, this happens two more times in my two mile pull. We pass the checkpoint, the surface smoothes out and I once again start pulling away form this line. It is time for me to say “farewell” and move up the chain of stragglers falling off the faster pace lines.
About mile 19 I catch a lone skater, pass him and he hops on my draft. Failing to see which division he is in I decided to try to lose him but I am unable too. At this time I also get a chance to see he is not in my division, the bib numbers give it away (this is one of the advantages of being part of the set-up committee) so I slack up on the effort and we take our shifts pulling each other up and down the rolling hills, soon we catch 3 more skaters. Just in time for the infamous mile 21 left turn. This is a high speed descent, with a 90 degree limited view left turn. Due to the sharpness of the turn most “speedies” take the turn on the inside lane (opposing traffic) to cut the angle down some and swing wide out. Thinking along the same lines I get ready to and just before the turn a van comes into view. With no-where to go it’s hunker down in my best ski tuck, dig the heels into the road and I anticipate the road-rash and sounds of sliding plastic. I am pleasantly denied both of those as all five of us made the turn. We once again form up and continue on just up the next rise is where last year the course was dug up, literally a mud pit. This year sweet smoothness. We all reflect on last years tribulations here, share a laugh and time to race again. In this line of five I know one is in my division, as they say “GAME ON”.
We see a line ahead of us. We can tell it’s a large line by the fact they make a large distance on the down hills. We have problems catching them due to this but I know I was determined to catch them, there might be someone there I need to beat, I need placements. The five us pickup the pace and see the line closer then further, which each steep downhill they add more distance between us. We know this, it is the nature of skating, larger pace lines move faster. Small ones need to change shifts at the lead more frequent, and that is what we all did with barely a word spoken. Two fall off out small line, making it more difficult and meaning more shifts up front albeit shorter shifts, the idea is to keep a set of strong fresh legs leading. One of the two that fell off I’ll admit I am happy he’s gone. His form was horrible and I was tired of being kicked in the shins by his kicking back. (Proper skating is a side to side motion with no backward kick on flats and only a little, if any on up-hills.) For what seemed like an eternity we finally caught up to the line in front of us. I feel my spirit pick up knowing I now have an easier time ahead of me. I am in better striking position on this group if there are any in my division. Time for race strategies to fully kick in. Turns out that no one in this group is in my division except for the one guy in the smaller previous pace-line. He’s behind me, which is not good. The good news is that we have about 4 miles left. Normally there is a grove of pine trees that cast a dark shadow on the road. I have affectionately called this the Dark Forest. There are two reasons. The obvious and then this marks the last 4 miles of the race, and it’s almost all up-hill. The problem this year is that the Dark Forest is not there?? I remember turning left seeing a climb, my legs tell me its mile 34 but where is the Dark Forest? They built a house there. I pull for a mile or so and fall to the rear, my dues paid for the greater good. Still looking for the Dark Forest I see this whole area had a lot built in the last year. Skate yet another mile, “Where is he? Boohoo he’s up front. I hope he stays there until the end” While still waiting for my Dark Forest I suddenly realize that there are the LAST TWO TURNS!!! “CRASH”!!!!! A woman in my line wipes out sliding to the left. Thankfully I was already cutting right. We come around the corner with me on the inside. My competitor is in the lead of the line. This means he has tired legs. I pour on the juice and sprint fully out passing him before he has a chance to respond and cross the line about 90 seconds a head of him.
Final Stats
38 miles 2:32:16
avg speed 15.0
avg pace 4:.02
winning a silver in my division PRICLESS
7th overall and 2nd Age Group
Last edited by HYPERASHEL on 10/26/04 - 13:22; edited 3 times in total
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way to go hyper
