FLYING LESSONS !!!

If you were to hear someone ask, "Would you like to learn how to fly? " you would probably assume they meant a plane, right? I know I would. But with speed skaters I have learned, never ASS-U-ME anything!

This is the 3rd and final story of Josh Wood's adventure while completing a recent photo shoot with photographer Steve Harriman from Rancho Cordova, CA. We met Steve through speed skating (Wow--nothing new here). No Steve does not skate, in fact he works for the City of Rancho Cordova doing something TOTALLY different than photography and it doesn't include roller blades either. But because of his obvious skills with a camera and his eye to see things a little different than maybe some of us, and on top of that have the skills to bring them to life for all to see, became apparent to me the first time I came across his photos.

As most of you know, we just finished our Inline March Madness Invitational (March 6-9, 2008), which included a full Marathon at the end of the 3-day indoor competition held at SUNRISE ROLLERLAND in Citrus Heights, CA. The outdoor portion would be our first attempt at bringing a marathon event to the Sacramento County area. In doing so, after literally hundreds of phone calls, the City of Rancho Cordova opened their doors to a sport they had never seen before.

As we worked with John at City Hall many emails went back and forth through City Planning, to the Department of Transportation, Police and Fire Departments and obviously Steve's department. When the event finally came to town, Steve who seems to be the unofficial resident city photographer, decided to show up for a few minutes to see what "inline speed skating" was all about. He was intrigued and took several hundred photos and loved our sport (how can you not love this sport?!). The next week he wanted to share his experience with a few of his co-workers and sent a link to his photos. Well the guy John who I was originally working with passed the link on to me, and shall I say.... the rest is history! Since that time Steve and I have spent hours sending emails back and forth as well as our thoughts on photography (mine being that I WISH I could photograph the way he does and him telling me some of the stories behind his favorite shots). That brought us to the photo shoot with Josh and the craziness at the end of it all. It was indisputable that these two guys had a "need for speed from wheels as well as a camera's shutter mechanism" and they wanted to bring the two together.

What could they do if Josh jumped? How would he get over the top of Steve? What angle would Steve need to use? How fast would Josh really move and could Steve capture the intensity and the fun of it all?

I don't know..... what do you think?

To see story one and two on this crazy morning, click here:
www.inlinemarchmadness.blogspot.com



As you watch this, listen to the birds chirping in the background as Josh rounds the corner and prepares for "flight"!! ENJOY....

OUTDOOR SKATING-MARATHON IN CALI

Several of the World Class Men and Pro Master Men skate away on this
11-lap loop that completes the 26.2 Mile course
Photo by: Steve Harriman-City of Rancho Cordova

Just in case you have been hibernating the last few weeks... we just completed the FIRST ANNUAL INLINE MARCH MADNESS INVITATIONAL AND MARATHON! We are so excited about the outcome and wanted to share just a little bit of information with you:










Chris Beirn of Citrus Heights, CA steps out from the
pack and cranks it through a turn. Beirn finished
the Advanced Marathon, skating in the 15 & under
group

In this picture, Kyle Haggard of Victorville, CA

finishes first overall in the 15 & Under Advanced Marathon while
David Tauruso from Santa Rosa, CA goes down right before the finish line. David
finished 3rd overall in his age group of 16 and above Advanced Marathon. Good thing
he was wearing knee pads and gloves!!

Some of the results that we have are:

TOTAL # OF SKATERS: 108

Men: 72 skaters
Women: 36 skaters

COMPETITORS:

Marathon: 79 skaters
5K Skaters: 29 skaters

COUNTRIES THAT PARTICIPATED:

Canada: 9 skaters
Belgium: 1 skater
Hungary: 1 skater

STATES THAT PARTICIPATED:

Arizona: 2 skaters
California: 63 skaters
Colorado: 1 skater
Florida: 1 skater
New York: 1 skater
Texas: 1 skater
Virginia: 4 skaters
Washington: 18 skaters

We wanted to thank all of you who participated. Check out our other sites for additional information:

For Results and photos:
http://www.inlinemarchmadness.com

For stories and photos:
http://inlinemarchmadness.blogspot.com

See ya soon. Linda

OUTDOOR UPDATE - IMMI BLOG

I just updated the most current weather conditions for our upcoming Marathon in 7 days. Check it out by clicking here IMMI.

WHAT IS INVOLVED IN "COATING" A TIGHT FLOOR??

This is where it all started a few weeks ago. Round and round and round we go... sanding down till it's as white as snow.

Ok, ok... I never said I was a poet! But it's true. Pete Wood and Josh Jozwiak of TRIAD RACING and SUNRISE ROLLERLAND work on the floor preparation several days before they even think about pouring the floor. Usually this process is done with the typical floor scrubber but it has more stringent pads with a heavier grit to sand more of the floor off instead of just "scrubbing the floor" to clean it.

Pete has been doing the Sunrise floor now for over 10 years and has it down to a science. Along with the floor sanding that must be done at least on two different occasions, the rink staff must vacuum constantly throughout the week prior to coating the floor.

It's amazing the amount of dust particles that float through the air that we can't even see with the naked eye and yet if you are not 100% prepared to take care of them and get rid of as much as you can, your newly coated floor will show every imperfection and lack of preparation you did or didn't do!

Once the pre-vacuuming has started and all of the walls are done and the carpet down the side isle and in the snack bar has been done every night for the 7 nights preceding the beginning of the coating process, it is time for the wet towels and drag board to come out. When using the scrubber it is also using water to help keep the sanding even as well as the dust down. But you must get the freshly sanded material off of the floor as soon as possible. With clean hot water and several new towels that have been pre-washed, you get them completely wet, ring them out in a bucket used only for the skating floor (not the snack bar... can you imagine the cotton candy or soda that might still be in that bucket!!) and lay them out. next putting a very large, heavy board across them with a rope that is used by two very strong people to carefully pull the floor. Making sure that it is done evenly. Once they have completed a full time around the floor, the board is taken off and then towels are completely rinsed, rung out and they are relayed about 4-5 feet over the previous lap and they go again. Round and round they go.... until their finished (wasn't that better?) This process is done TWICE that night. Then it's back the next night (after Saturday afternoon sessions and the Saturday evening sessions) to do it all over again. This process usually takes about 3-4 hours if you want to do it right. If you have a "hot" date for Saturday night, you could probably bang this out in about an hour. But come time to skate on it... you would be wishing you wold have spent the time to do it right!!

Mind you while Pete is working until 2 or 3am I am comfortably sleeping. Ahhhh....

Next comes Sunday. It is the BIG day. We must purchase new black markers for the start/finish lines and for all 7 (yes SEVEN) tracks that we have on our floor. I am somewhat anal about making sure that all of the black marks that we use for speed are BLACK and not light black or missing some of the color all together. Once the morning and afternoon sessions are over the club who has given up their practice time, comes in and starts scrapping all of the gum off of the floor. This is a HUGE job. Although no gum chewing is allowed.... you wouldn't know it by what we find all over the floor. We also try to take up and scuff marks made by boots, toe stops (something we don't use) and by skaters doing hockey stops. This process also takes about 2 hours. While this is going on, Pete is repeating the wet dragging of the floor. The sanding is over, but the dragging will continue until the towels come up clean. Then we get to sit down and eat rink pizza and soda while the floor get s good and dry!!

This year we had a mom who had nothing better to do than make us some fantastic BBQ's chicken that you could scoop up and onto large rolls!!! I was in heaven!! I don't cook unless it comes in a can or a bag!! So I was really excited.

Now they set the buckets out on the floor to help mark the floor off so that you use only the 5 gallons alloted for that area. Because of the size and width of our floor we need to have at least 6 rollers and about 4 "spotters". Spotters are the ones constantly telling the "rollers" where they made mistakes..... LOL If someone cannot take comments like "Hey Jane... you missed a spot over here... a little further, no more to the right, up further, now to your left...." for 4 hours, they better put their roller down and go home!!!!

Pretty much that sums it up.... but when you end up with a floor that runs as tight and as fast as ours is..... it is worth every single second that is spent on it. For us... our floor runs best at week 3 to 4. Many of you know that the national floor is coated usually 24-48 hours before competition starts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It states that the product is dry and can be skated on within 12-18 hours, and usually it is. Most rinks coat their floor one week before a meet. But with our weather, our altitude (sea level), we have found that if we coat our floor 3 to 4 weeks before the meet, it will be one of the fastest floors you will run on by the time the meet starts.

I kind of went on longer than I had planned, but many people do not realize the amount of labor and time that goes into producing a great floor. Some operators just roll their stuff out and don't worry about cleaning the floor or the carpets prior to laying the plastic. Although our speed club does all of the manuel labor, we prefer it that way. There is no one more concerned at how the floor will turn out than us!!! This is the ultimate reward .... right here!

Rich from Fresno, CA RATES our Marathon Course!

How scary can that be?? We do everything in our power to put together a race and just one persons opinion can make or break a race .... even BEFORE it starts!!!

Lucky for us... Rich from Fresno obviously has skated outdoor before and is open and honest about what he found. I appreciate Rich's comments and opinions and know that if I ever want to skate a course, I will go looking for any that he has rated! Good, bad or otherwise.... Rich is an honest guy.

Still the most amazing thing to me is his GPS system that he received as a gift for Christmas. EVERY skater should have one!!!! I am going to give you the link to Rich's report that happens to be on INLINE PLANET and then I will walk you through everything you need to do so you can see just how fast you MIGHT be able to go. LOL

1. Go to Inline Planet: www.inlineplanet.com

2.  Go down to February 19th articles and look for "On
the Forum" MARCH MADNESS COURSE

3.  Click on Rich's post and then read.  I post after
him.

But the cool thing is you are going to want to see
what his GPS can do.  So follow the link he has
provided in his post.  Once you are there... click on
the DASHBOARD and then if you are not impressed
enough... then click on MAP PLAYER and really get
excited!!

Thanks Rich. We look forward to having you there.

By the way... I will be back to finish my last article. Linda

JUST TEN DAYS LEFT

Wow... I can't believe it. Only ten days left until we start our Inline March Madness Invitational. We started some time back in July 2007 setting the dates in the rink book so that no private parties or sessions would be scheduled over our meet. We had to schedule the dates of when the floor coating would need to be done, all the while ensuring that we missed the week vacation that the local school district decided to take in February. We couldn't have the rink close down when all of the kids were out of school so it took a little maneuvering of days and times, but we got it handled.

Flyers needed to be printed and then brought to Indoor Nationals and of course we needed to find people to hand those out. We wanted to make sure we got our date out there early so that people could and would plan to attend a great meet. By August we had our own website and blog to match the name of our event and we felt we were on our way.

But there are always things that jump into the mix that we don't expect. The roof started leaking (again... our rink operator has spent literally THOUSANDS of dollars over the last 27 years that I have worked there) and now there was no turning back. This time he was told.... something big needed to be done. Not one to put it off, management spent even bigger bucks and basically started from scratch. They did just about everything but tear the building down... but we finally had a new roof.


Then I took an unexpected but most welcomed trip to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit my son. I originally had planned just 4 or 5 days, but once I got there and saw all of the World Class skaters, I extended my ticket for an additional 7 days and took it all in, while video taping, writing and watching all that I could. It was a new sport for me and I wanted to understand exactly what my son was doing. I think by the time I left, many were happy to see me go. It seemed that all I did was constantly ask questions!! But I think once you know ANY sport well, especially at the ELITE level, you approach every other sport the same way and want to know everything!! At least I do. My husband was afraid at one point that I would want to try and coach ice. I said, "Are you kidding ME??? It's too cold in there!!!" LOL Seriously I could have seen myself trying to "think" that I could have coached ice 15 years ago, but not today. No, I just wanted to be a mom.... a spectator.

(more to be added..)

SPECTATORSHIP

The very meaning of this word makes me laugh. As much as it is about just being a "spectator" and not a part of the organization, running, or responsibility of a meet or practice, somehow I am always working some angle of something, somewhere!

If I sound confusing it's because I spend half of my time confused! Should I write about that? Will it be controversial? Will it cause undue turmoil? Does the public need to know what ever it is I have observed? Well most of the time I don't have to ask all of these questions, but there have been a few times that I have been asked to remove articles or a portion of an article because it "wasn't appropriate". Hmm ... appropriate for whom?

So I backed off my writing for a while. And to be honest, things got busy for me. We have been putting an invitational speed meet together. Talk about being on the opposite side of being a spectator!! But I do have stories to write.... about the Blue Ridge Challenge (controversy in the World Class Mens race-you might be surprised at my take on the referee's call!) .... local league meets and what it's like to have one of my son's living 1200 miles away during his training which changes from one sport to another.

So hang tough and check back or better yet, jump on our rss feed and let us tell you when there is something new to check out. In the meantime... check out my other blog on our upcoming meet. Hey if you have nothing to do on March 9th, come check out our Marathon race or 5K or if you have never skated before... our 2K. www.inlinemarchmadness.blogspot.com

Linda :)