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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: 10/26/04 - 17:02 Post subject: A2A, THE SECOND HALF.....non competitive.
The next leg:
I also head up the local National Skate Patrol (NSP). At the present not a lot on presence here am I am trying to change that. I opted to skate the rest of the 87 mile course as NSP. At the finish line I have a small first aid kit, a tool for quick repairs, my NSP shirt, a new set of drinks, and my cell phone. I get back on the course to help and aid the weary skaters (add fanfare trumpet music here).
A skater I am very familiar with and friendly with is the first person I head out with. This is Joel, last year he fell and broke his shoulder skating with me, Disney he fell on the wet boardwalk, while skating with me, and he’s also the one I beat out on a very close sprint at Disney.  so we head out. I ask him if his wife allows him to play with me still since he always falls when he races with me. He responds “I’m back here; it’s not a race anymore.” Poor Joel was having a bad day due to the weather. So we skate along for 20 minutes and we get to the merger of the 52 mile event ( longer distance but easier course) Here I came a long with an old Team in Training friend named Danielle, Dani for short. She is a mentor for TnT and she has her little ducklings with her, skating O…H…..so….slowly. Poor Dani, I bid farewell to Joel and decide to help Dani out. She has two skaters. One guy who is doing ok and a woman doing ok on the flats but skittish on down hills and slow on up hills. I help by actually pushing her up hills. I guide traffic around this group and give pointers and warn of hazards coming up. At this point the guy’s skate suddenly goes POP. Not a normal or good sound from a skate. One of the cuff screws has started to strip out. We pull out my tools and tighten it down. A few miles later it’s loose again. We tighten it and this time tie my bandana around the cuff and double knot it over the screw. We make it to Check Point 4 (CP4), the first checkpoint after the 38 mile finish. We meet a few other TnT’ers from DC and talk to them say, “hi” and suddenly realize that Miss Steph is here too.  so we talk, I tell her I am going to hang with this group and she should go on this group will slow her down. Well she and they take off and as I fixed another skate. I catch up to them and the group of eight of us head down major roads of Gwinnett county. Their lovely horns blowing at us to “get off the streets” and other lovely greetings. We pick up a skater that looks familiar; it turns out him, Arthur, did the race back in 1998 and has lost 40 pounds now. He also had a memorable experience in ’98 by having a car illegally cut him off and he putting a wrist guarded hand thru the rear windshield. We catch up some while we skate; he and Miss Steph leave our group and head u the course. I pass Dani the tool, tell her when to check the guys boots before major road hazards (there’s a set of train tracks and the 45+ mph down hill on Silver Hill Dr. yet to come.) I take off and catch up to Miss Steph and Art. Blocking traffic when needed and guiding them through the course. We get to CP5. where two of out lovely ladies from the club have set up a picnic like environment. We hang out here for a little while and Miss Steph’s friend, Lisa, shows up. She’s having a really bad day out here. Now while I can sympathize on that I have a hard time being around Lisa for any length of time. She yammers on, and repeats herself 5, 6, 7 times. It gets annoying to me. So Miss Steph, understandingly, releases me of my boyfriend duties and I skate ahead. I come across a girl, Jen that was at CP5 having some foot issues, she’s sitting alongside the road checking her skate. I stop and check on her she say’s she’s ok but because of what I saw at CP5 I hang out and decide to skate with her for a while and determine on my own. Well she has frame issues, her frame slipped and I don’t have a tool on me that fits her skate. She tightened it down but in the wrong position and it causing lots of ankle issues. She’s ready to quit now with only 10 miles left?? I won’t let that happen. We continue on to CP6 she stops and tries to make corrections but is not able too and no one has a tool to adjust her skate. Miss Steph and Lisa pass us by while we, CP6 staff and I try to help out Jen’s skate. Unable to correct it I stay with her pushing her up hills. We come eventually come across an older gentleman (72 y/o I think) having a “Dickens of a time” as he put it. I gather the tree of us up and keep us together giving support and pushing Jen up the hills. With 1 mile left to go the older gentleman “guns it” and heads off to the finish. I push Jen up to the last bend and let her go to the finish line with no one seeing me release her and I head back out to go collect Miss Steph. There she is on the last intersection, so as she crosses I roll up alongside and we go onto cross the finish line together.
TIME FOR FOOD AND A BEER over 9 hours in my racing skates. OWWIE. But it was fun. Part of the attraction of this skate is the camaraderie, the morale support. To me this is a family re-union. New friends are always made and enemies rarely made. It’s a night to celebrate your friends’ accomplishments. To share stories of past and present. To hear another’s account to see different viewpoints on the same topic. Compare an Ultra runner to a marathoner and that is the difference for Athens to Atlanta compared to a skate marathon... There are great athletes and there are great people but rarely do the two get combined. I think that Ultras attract those that are combined. Any athlete can train to do an Ultra and say that they’ve done it. It takes a special person to return time and time again. There are people that do not race for time, they go out to finish and participate. They go out for the love of their sport and enjoy every miserable moment they have. A great athlete need not have a resting heart rate of 40, a great athlete need not have a 12% body fat. A great athlete needs to have heart, for both their love of the sport and those that participate in it. Sure they may never be an Olympic Medal wearer but for this day they have adulation, they have jubilation, they have beaten most people’s expectations of what is human endurance. They say the 38 is a marathon compare to Pike’s Peak Marathon, and the 87 is a full Iron-man in the amount of effort put forth. Whatever it is it takes a unique person of mind, spirit, and body.
Someone pass the Advil please.
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