
The race started at 7 am on the Eastern side of Prospect Park in
I got to bed a little later than I wanted to, around 1130, and slept a bit fitfully, but when I got up at 0545 I was pumped. I got dressed and drove over to the starting area, arriving, getting my timing chip and getting ready to race by 645. And then I waited, along with everyone else, until 40 minutes past the start time before the organizers finally got their shit together and the race got underway. It was a staggered start, as usual in races like this, and the Rec division, which I was in, started last, 4 minutes after the men's Pro division. The race was 8 laps around Prospect Park, each lap being a hilly 3.35 miles, with the biggest hill just after the start and a longish downhill in the middle of the backside.I think that the first lap was the hardest, as I was afraid of the hill - which I was told was 1.5 miles long and super steep. It turned out to be a reasonable hill, but not as steep as some of the ones I skate up in Westchester, so even on the 8th lap I was able to get up it without too much trouble.
I was also concerned about congestion and running into other skaters, particularly the fast moving Pro skaters (you can see the pros in conga line formation in this picture on the right,
I tried to keep my pace solid, one thing I have learned running races is that I very often go out too fast and run out of energy. About 3 laps in I started to feel really comfortable and began to crouch on the downhills like the pros were doing, which got me going a lot faster and left my feet, knees and teeth shaking a little as I stood up at the bottom of each hill.
While I was definitely getting tired as the race went on, I managed to keep my lap time to about 16 minutes per lap, or about 11-12 miles an hour ... with my fastest lap being the last one. I guess that means I had a little more in the tank and could have gone a bit faster, but as it was I thoroughly enjoyed the race, taking in the pro skaters, enjoying the scenery and the people watching (or people whizzing as I went by) and generally enjoying the feeling of my body working efficiently under me as I cruised along. I finished the race in 2 hours and 12 minutes, which felt pretty respectable to me, particularly later on that afternoon as my body started to protest my continuing state of wakefulness and forced me into an extremely rare mid-afternoon nap.
First skate marathon ... fantastic exercise ... tons of fun. Check. Check. Check.
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