Tag Archives: Skating

“I Love My Rollerblading…”

I know, I know, it’s “Inline Skating” and not “Rollerblading” but I wasn’t going to argue (Rollerblades are to Skating what Hoovers are to Vacuums, it’s a brand name).  Anyway!…

A few months ago the local newspaper did a shout out via their twitter feed looking for people for their “I Love My” section.  Always looking for free publicity I replied back saying that I’d be happy to do something about my skates and skating in the local area.  We swapped details and I never heard any more, I figured they had dropped me for someone more exciting.

Last week, I received a phone call from the Surrey Hants Star Courier asking if I still wanted to do it, Of course I jumped at the chance.  Unfortunately I had now committed to being attacked for Children In Need and so the photo shoot was going to be me with full on face fuzz!

Click for full size

Not a bad interview at all.  I’ll never be able to get them to add everything in, I had talked about Goodwood Roller Marathon and the Winter Sessions at Sandhurst but they mentioned Cskate and the Arena so I’m happy 🙂

Bath to Bristol to Bath Skate

This week myself an fellow Camberley Skater Hannah went to check out the Bath to Bristol Railway Path.  As you can probably imagine it’s a path along the the now obsolete railway line between Bath and Bristol.

There isn’t really much to say other than it’s a really good skate.  99% of the surface is excellent to skate on and there are plenty of coffee shops along the way to get drinks and snacks.  The full route is 13miles end to end but we skated all the way into Bristol for a proper lunch and ended up doing a nice round 30 miles that day.  Very tiring but well worth it and I’d highly recommend it to anyone wanting to stretch their legs.

Some pictures from the day…

B2B

… and a silly video I made along the way…

N.B. This is a backdated post as I take some of the things I have been doing elsewhere on the interwebs and add them to this site 🙂

Le Mans 24 hour skate 2007

Another fantastic trip to Le Mans for the 24 hour race… and you have guessed it, on skates!  For those that don’t know the “24 Roller” emulates the 24 hour car race pretty well.  Each team has up to 10 members (and three pit crew) and your team has to do as many laps as possible in 24 hours, they even do the Le Mans start where all the skates are lined up on one side of the track with skaters on the other.

This year was hard work, both from the organising from (with the new job) and the actual event.  In a complete change from last years heatwave it decided to rain this year.  It could have been a lot worse though as it wasn’t driving rain with setting up the campsite and taking tents down done in the dry which makes a HUGE difference.

The new rota went down well with people changing shifts every 40 mins (was 30 last year) which for 9 people meant 2 hours on and 4 hours off and it was fantastic having pit crew there this year! It made such a huge difference having someone to cook and wash up so that we could get on with sleeping between shifts.

As per usual, the hotel on the Sunday night was bliss, a clean bed, showers and a slap up restaurant meal.  Roll on next year.

Pictures up on Cskate.

London to Brighton on skates!

On Sunday 17th June 2007 I skated from London to Brighton, yes roller skated, the full 54 miles!!  It hurt! but I did it and managed to raise £1000 for the Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust 🙂

Back in 2006 some very fit skaters skated from London to Brighton as part of the BHF bike ride.  I liked the idea of it and have done marathons before (26 miles) but they tend to be flat, smooth and nothing like this.  I really wasn’t sure about this so sponsorship seemed the best way to make up my mind.  I don’t do sponsorship very often (I am not a fan of people that ask for sponsorship to do something they are going to do anyway) but set myself a stab in the dark target of £1000 for the Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust who looked after my grandfather wonderfully during his last days.

The challenge now set it was time to train for this event… unfortunately skating is not a wet weather sport and we have had one of the wettest springs for a long time.  Typically the events I have gone for in the past are at the end of the year, my fitness usually gains nicely throughout the year.  This year I didn’t get anywhere near enough training in, not helped by organising skating events and starting a new job.  Anyway, enough of the excuses!!

As people very kindly started to sponsor me some decided to offer double if I did it in fancy dress, after a bit of indecision I figured that in for a penny and in for a pound.  Jon (Lemming) kindly offered to skate with me and get dressed up too so I felt much better about that, a Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble outfit was ordered. Jon being much taller than me had Fred although with his drinks backpack and my drinks bum bag under our outfits we did look like the hunchback versions!

The day before the event I had a phone call from BBC London (radio station), they wanted to do an interview with me at 7:30am the next morning and again between 2pm and 6pm in their sports show!!  I still to this day don’t know where they heard about me or got my number from!  I was staying the night up in London with Jon and his girlfriend ready for the early start the next morning.  At 7:30 that night (still the night before) my phone rang, we were in very loud restaurant at the time and it was the radio station (yup, wrong 7:30).  I did my interview in a phone box outside and babbled badly but managed to mention the important things such as sponsorship, the London street skates and thanking BHF.

The alarm goes off at 6am, Cheryl joins us and we get a ride to Clapham Common from Jon’s lovely girlfriend.  Clapham Common is heaving as expected so a quick stake through the traffic and we are at Clapham Common South tube station for 7:30 for the off.  There were about 20 skaters there ready to skate with us and another 10 had left at 6am to avoid the rush.  We all left promptly and after pausing for a group photo we quickly got caught in the traffic.  That early on it was very hard not to go into marshal mode and nip through all the bikes and traffic but Jon and Cheryl would get left behind so I didn’t (that’s the last time you will hear me say that).  I had an SMS from mum saying I had just been on the radio!  They used different bits of my interview throughout the day as the “and finally” piece on the news although I would have to wait to hear it.

Played on 7am & 8am news (34 sec)

Played on 9am & 10am news (47 sec)

Played on 11am. noon & 1pm news (17 sec)

The first third of the skate was hard, very hard, it is very hilly getting out of London and really not the best roads at all.  Boy was it a wake up call and really made me think about if I could do it.  Jon and Cheryl kept skating ahead but very kindly kept stopping for me to catch up.  At the 18 mile mark (just outside the M25) we met my parents at one of the water stops.  A lot of skaters had gathered there and it made a good rest and photo shoot before moving on.  It was great to see mum and dad there and gave me the push to carry on, I still really didn’t think I could do this but I wanted to get over half way before I stopped, I couldn’t pull out this early.

The next 10 miles were tough, I lost Jon & Cheryl quite quickly who were finding it hard to go as slow as me.  The hills carried on now with accidents at the bottom of most where cyclists had collided and to make things worse we heard there was rain ahead.  This was all we needed, the roads are bad enough without water on them.  One BIG hill later and I found myself at the top of Turners Hill at the 30 mile mark.  I met up with Jon and Cheryl again, we later found out that the skaters which left at 6am were in the pub opposite.  It seems Turners Hill is a bit of a milestone for the London to Brighton and certainly for me, after the event, it is.  We were 55% of the way there but the way we felt we weren’t sure if we could do the same again, we had already done over a marathon and had almost the same to go. We remembered the elevation graph we had seen and seemed to remember the second half being much flatter albeit with Ditchling Beacon there too.  Jon was going on holiday the next day, while he felt confident he could do it he wanted to be able to walk!  Myself and Cheryl still weren’t sure we could do it but after a good long rest and feeling confident that the second half was a bit flatter we all set ourselves the task of hitting 40 miles and then probably calling it a day.

After a lovely glide down Turners Hill I lost Jon & Cheryl very quickly.  The next miles were hard, on my own and spurred on by not wanting to let everyone down.  I would like to say a HUGE thank you to the people that called and SMS’d to encourage me on, I could not have done it without you. The cyclists were great too, especially being dressed as Barney Rubble they would shout “keep going Barney” and “almost there Barney”, it did help.  There were two guys doing it on clown bikes where the axles are offset and the whole bike bucks up and down, funny to watch but hats off for doing it the entire way!!!  The miles were still long and hard though, I kept wanting to stop but knew that would put more distance between myself and the others.  In the end I had to and collapsed for 10 mins at a scout hut that had put on food and water.  I stopped a few times after that, just to catch my breath and eat a snack, I remembered being told that eating and drinking were very important but it was hard to eat when your tired.  I tried not to call Jon too much as I didn’t want to hold him up but he called and while he was definitely getting further away from me he never seemed that far.

As I came into Ditchling Jon called to say they where staying at the bottom of Ditchling Beacon until I turned up.  5 mins later my phone rang, it was the radio station, I had completely forgotten about them!  Worried about skating, being out of breath and loosing signal I pulled over into a side lane to do my interview, it actually went quite well even if I do say so!  It forced me to have a 5 min break and because I didn’t want to sound grumpy on the radio I had put on my best cheery voice which helped the spirits.

Radio Interview at 3:15pm (4 mins)

I never realised Ditchling Beacon was so far outside of Ditching village, actually, looking at a map now it isn’t but it seemed it at the time.  You see the Beacon loom up in front of you too, the pictures don’t do it justice.  I have a break at the bottom and call Jon to find that he and Cheryl are now at the top, it’s no good, I have to have a break.  A friendly house at the bottom of the Beacon had opened their large garden up for cyclists to rest in, it was very relaxing although hard to relax knowing what was coming.  My GPS read 46.5miles and I knew it was 6 miles into Brighton from the top of the Beacon, 6 miles downhill!!  That makes it a 1.5 miles to the top of the beacon.  I set off hoping the encouragement Jon had given me was true.

While it would be impossible to go straight up the side it would definitely get it over with quicker!  Of course the road winds up the side of the hill which makes it longer and also hard to tell when your near the top.  I have to stop a few times, only for 30 seconds but just to get my breath back and point my feet in the opposite direction.  Skaters actually have gearing, not in physical sense but the wider angle that we set our feet down the lower the “gear” but the more strides you take.  By now, with all these hills it was my hips that were hurting the most, I am used to taking long slow shallow strides instead of so many “penguin steps”.  On finally getting to the top it was hard to take in the view, I asked Jon to take some pictures while I went to the loo only to have BBC London call again.  I had told them I was about to embark on the big hill and wanted to know if I was in Brighton yet!  LOL

Radio Interview at 4:10pm (1 min 20 sec)

We set off from the top of ditchlng (750 feet above see level) knowing that while it was all downhill to the seafront it was still six mile, I was dreading it being a big steep downhill and 5 miles of flat!  It turned out to be not to bad and after a big push to stay with Jon and Cheryl we managed to pace line most of the way into Brighton which I am sure looked rather cool too, we had a few comments on it.  One mile from the sea front and the traffic stopped us, while they had cone’d a single lane for us they still had to let traffic move around Brighton and so were stopping the cyclists at the lights.  If I had any energy in me I would have loved to nip into the slow moving traffic and weave through them to the front as I do most Wednesdays but not today.  BBC London had asked that I call them as I crossed the finishing line but apparently they were about to go to the news and so would all me back.  As the final set of lights changed and we rounded the final corner to see the finish line a way down the prom.  I won’t say I sprinted but I don’t think we hobbled either it was a final push over the line.  The British Heart Foundation were stamping official cyclists time cards and handing out medals.  Kindly they give medals to non registered participants for exchange of a donation which we gladly did.  After a sit down at the seafront we slowly made our way to the station to catch the train back.  BBC London called again for their last interview, I think you can tell I am a bit tired by now.  A very long queue for tickets and a sandwich later and I am falling asleep on the train back home.

Radio callout at 5:20pm (35 sec)

Radio Interview at 5:50pm (2 mins)

All in all I am glad I have done it but one week on and I am still saying never again!  Not unless I become a Lycra wearing super fit speed skater and that is unlikely, I like my food too much.  I am glad I did it though, it’s by far the hardest thing I have ever done and I don’t say that lightly but I am so glad I have raised so much money for a good cause.  Thank you to everyone that sponsored me!

For those of you that are interested, here is the map and elevation graph from my GPS…

Thank you to Chris for recording 10 hours of BBC London for me.

Santa Skate 2006

This weekend saw the 2006 Santa Skate and WOW!  If I wasn’t feeling full of Christmas before I am now!  300+ skaters hit the streets of London for a street skate and every one of them is dressed as Santa!  I’m sure the London, Camberley and any other skaters will post pics up soon however two videos have already appeared on YouTube taken by passers by!  I shouldn’t be surprised, as I must be on at least 100 strangers cameras and phones.  Everyone was taking our pictures!

Halloween is a wonderful time

Definitely one of the most fun of the Pagan festivals and a great excuse to get dressed up!

I had three fancy dress Halloween parties this year over two days and all of them skating.  Two roller disco’s at Camberley Arena and a Halloween street skate in London.  I had been subtly growing the stubble/beard for the last three weeks and had decided to shock everyone by shaving my head and cutting a goatee!  I think it worked 🙂

Yes I know I look like an idiot but you have to give me an A for effort! 🙂

(Photo by magichow)

Berlin Marathon Race Report

This was my first Berlin marathon and as such I don’t have much to compare it to.  I have previously done two marathons but they were 2 and 3 years ago at Goodwood, I actually got a faster time three years ago than two!! For the people trying to imagine the Berlin marathon (especially those that have only every done races on circuits) it is just like the London marathon… only in Berlin… and on skates! It is through the streets of Berlin and crowds line the streets shouting encouragement.  Unlike the London marathon it is also very smooth and a very nice surface to skate.  The Berlin marathon is both a skate race (on the Saturday) which draws around 9000 skaters and a running race (on the Sunday) which draws over 40000 runners.

I decided to fly out on the Friday and fly home on the Saturday after the race, a decision which I am regretting as I sit here on the plane home writing this.  With the race at 4:30pm and not finishing until 7:30pm the rush to catch our plane at 9:45 has almost killed me more than the actual race!  Plus I miss the party afterwards but I have heard mixed reviews about that anyway!

The race went well though, yes Berlin is supposed to be one of the easier marathons but I thrashed any of my previous records by doing it in 1:45:48!  I am quite chuffed with that! Previously I have taken just under 3 hours and my training was telling me that I wouldn’t do much better!  I guess the big difference with training is the lack of pace lines, I got very lucky and managed to cut behind a skater that kept me going the entire race.  In fact I think it was a really good partnership, he stayed in front all the way which was a bit cheeky of me but I was able to give him a push every now and then to help catch packs up and of course I got his draft nearly all the way.  Thank you Howard if your reading this!

My ankle started to rub at about mile 4 and I was petrified that it was going to cripple me but while it didn’t stop and I have a nice blister it was skatable.  I tried very hard not to keep looking at my GPS, obviously I wanted to know how far it was, It was strange that huge chunks of miles would go in a flash and then you would seem to make no progress at all.

The starting of the marathon was interesting, we started in blocks which were based on ability.  Block A was Professional teams, Block B was professional individuals and then it was teared back to block G for anyone with a previous marathon time of over 2 hours… which is where I was!  I tried to start at the front of my block hoping that as faster skaters passed me I could hop behind them and that worked quite well.  It wasn’t long before I had caught up with the back of block F which had left 2 mins earlier but after that all the blocks had merged.  I was amazed at the number of skaters that couldn’t pace line though!  Especially on corners, it would seem that the entire line would break apart on a corner and then scrabble to re-form afterwards.  There was a bit of slalom to do to as most of the race we seemed to be overtaking people who were weaving all over the place!

All in all a great race, I think I would still recommend Goodwood as a good first marathon but from what I hear then Berlin is the best introduction to a foreign marathon.

Grand total from Goodwood Roller Marathon

All the sponsorship money is finally in from the Goodwood Roller Marathon. It’s been a long hard job but I was so extatic when I calculated all the money we had in our account that was for the charity (bucket shakes, donations, etc.) and it worked out to the penny! I am pleased to announce that Goodwood Roller Marathon has raised £2141.48 for The NCYPE. Even better, the charity should be able to claim GiftAid on every penny which brings the grand total up to £2741.09 from the event! I could almost kid myself that I’m looking forward to organising next years!