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July 16th, 2005 - Roller 24
The OUISC fielded two fitness teams for this 24 Hrs Inline event. Dan's team finished second in the fitness category with an average speed of 27.761 Km/Hour. Ray's team (the "Night Crawlers") skated to 13th overall with a 23.582 Km/Hour average speed and logged 127 laps or about 570 Km. Both teams came away from the event having had a lot of fun, and a hunger to go back again next year!
For more details check out the team reports below, or view the photo gallery.
Monday night, 34 hours after completing the 24 Hour Inline race in Montreal, I can't sleep. I am still thinking about the race. I must log this in my journal. I get out of bed and decide to put this to pen before I forget.
How can I forget this race! This has to be the toughest event I have ever been through, tougher than New York 100Km or Athens to Atlanta's 139km race. The difference for this race is that I am not alone. We're a team of ten, all depending on one another to succeed and all committed to being competitive... whatever that means. I have volunteered to captain this team and definitely feel the pressure but I love it. Our team is made up of: Pascale Messier, JF Messier, Dominique Lalonde, Allain Legacy, Jan Riopelle, Inga Petri, Frank LaRue; Kevin Pottie, Andrew MacAllum and myself.
From the start, we decide to give it our all to try to win in our category. Each lap consists of a 4.48 km loop around the Jaques Villeneuve race track in Montreal. We decide to start with our strongest skater, Kevin Pottie. Kevin has an excellent start and he manages to hold on to the pro-elite teams for the first two laps, JF follows and the rest of the team does a lap to get a feel for the race and the course. Ten laps done.
We decide to break ourselves in 2 teams of three and 1 team of four to allow the non-skating teams to eat and sleep. Team 1 (Kevin, JF,
Daniel) takes the first shift from 14:30 - 16:30PM. The sun is out and it's really humid. I'm guessing 35C, easily 40C with the humidity. I am dripping and I have only skated my initial lap. The good news is that we are in second place, only 1 lap behind team Stamina, an all men's team from Victoriaville. Kevin and JF are both skating very well.
My lap times are not consistent, getting some ok laps in and some much slower. Each lap is basically 4.48km go-all-out time trial and we're trying to catch the Stamina team. Between each lap we drink lots and munch on carbs. I look down at my watch and my HR is at 175 bpm. My max is usually 171. How can my heart be higher than my maximum heart rate? Kevin (our resident MD) tells the team to be on the lookout for dehydration and the onset heat stroke. Any irregularity in our heart rates should be suspicious, especially if our heart rate doesn't come back down, hmmm... My problem is that it's going to high. Decide to back off and take a rest. Allain comes in for a lap to help team 1 finish our shift. We are less than 1 lap behind team Stamina - 6 minutes or so we think... We have completed 13 more laps.
16:26 - Team 2 (Alain, Andrew, Pascale) start their shift. It's still extremely hot, but they work hard to catch team Stamina. Like team 1, they start feeling the heat and their lap times are slowing down. Still 20 hours left in the race. Frank and Jan each take a lap to help out team 2 finish their shift. I try to take a nap but can't sleep. It's too hot. They complete another 13 laps for a total of 39 or 174.72 km in less than 5.5 hours for an average speed of 31.76km per hour. We're cooking but still behind the Stamina team.
18:30 - Team 3 (Frank, Jan, Dominique, Inga) start their shift. It's cooling down slightly. I go for a shower to try to cool down and eat some carbs to fuel me up (I hope). Kevin takes a nap. I still can't sleep. We take turns spinning on Frank's stationary bike to get rid of the lactic acid. Team 3 completes their shift for 14 more laps.
20:30 - Team 1 again... We've decided to take 3 hour shifts during the night to allow the other teams to sleep and eat properly. I have my doubts know that we can maintain this pace for 3 hours between 3 guys.
We start to hammer and make more headway on team Stamina. They are sweating as they see their lead eroding. The sun sets over Montreal and I just realize how beautiful the setting for this race is. At around 9:30 PM, we quickly realize that we really need our headlamps to skate the back side of the course. What makes matters worst is the transition area. There is no way to see when our teammates are approaching. I make 3 false starts as I think I see JF approaching the transition.
Finally I miss him entirely and he is stuck to do 2 consecutive laps.
We quickly figure out a way to identify ourselves as we approach the transition area to facilitate the exchange. I can't figure out how some of the other teams don't have headlamps. The course is great asphalt but there are quite a few manholes on the course and the odd groundhog that scooters across, not to mention the skunk that I'm very happy I never saw but smelt. Both JF and I are getting tired. Allain comes in to do an extra lap to give us a bit of rest. We finish our shift at 23:05, 15 more laps I think?? First place and team Stamina are still within reach...
23:05 -Team 2 is back... We decide to revert back to 2 hour shifts.
Frank is sleeping and so are Inga and Jan. Dominique is trying to sleep in Pascale's van. We eat, drink, shower and try to sleep. Team 2 is doing great. Andrew takes a spill in the dark, loses the baton in the dark, finds it, and still manages to catch up to the pack he lost.
Team 2 gets some excellent lap times. Drafting with other fast skaters, including the enemy, team Stamina. We figure if we are skating with them they can't gain more time on us. We are also concerned now that we might run out of juice and get caught by team Vermont, an all men's team as well... I need some sleep, still 14 hours of racing. I try to sleep in the back of my truck, it's still hot, my legs are sore and the adrenalin keeps pumping. Everybody else seems to be on the roof of the paddocks sleeping. I can't sleep. Team 2 keeps hammering and quickly realizes that a 2 hour shift is too long. They will need a break before then. Frank comes in to do a lap. We need to find Inga and Jan to wake them up. They need to start their shift earlier. 14 laps later and we're still a lap behind Stamina.
1:10 AM - Team 3 is back for more 4.48km interval/ time trials. Inga and Jan are sleepy but they kick in and do great laps. Frank and Dominique are like machines and keep doing their laps. I can't sleep.
I get up anyway, might as well be useful and support the team. I have breakfast before my shift. Team 3 gets in another 11 laps but team Stamina has found new strength and we are now 2 laps behind.
3:05 AM - Team 1 is back at it. It's cooled down a bit but I don't like the sky... no stars in sight. We push on, determined to try to take on team Stamina. By 4:30 AM it starts to rain. Everybody on the roof gets woken up and shows up in the pit. Frank is in his tent sleeping. JF is out in the rain. I'm next. Into the pit I go to find my rain wheels and bearings. My pit crew (Dominique and Mathieu) quickly changes my wheels, causing the envy of all other pit crews. I'm back in time to take the relay from JF. My wheels are ok but the pavement is really slick, especially on the big wide red line down the transition area.
Everyone starts to switch to their old wheels and bearings. We keep at it but our lap times have really dropped by more than 2 minutes. The hills are very tricky. On every turn we slide sideways. We skate through puddles of 3-4 inches of water... How about water skiing? I just realize that I am now nice and cool for the first time. We can't skate classic, we need to do some double push to get any kind of speed. We hope the other team has slowed down even more. We need to bridge that gap. Impossible to get any substantial speed and team Stamina is still ahead. We are still a lap behind Stamina. Team Vermont is in 3rd, 3 laps behind.
6:00 AM The rain has stopped I think. I ask Jan, Inga and Pascale to take over. I want to sleep but know I won't be able to. JF and I go for a massage. Hopefully the masseuse can invigorate or resuscitate some strength for my legs. I fall asleep solid during my 30 minute massage. Wake up. JF is gone to sleep in Pascale's van. I return to the transition area. Pascale has just wiped out on the bloody red line. She already had a bum knee. Decide to get Frank, Inga and myself to skate in the rain and rest everybody else for our big break when it stops to rain. Frank is awesome in the rain, hardly slowing down. We call him Rainman!
9:05 AM It has stopped raining and we are still behind Stamina by a lap and half. We need to make our big move now if we ever want to catch up to Stamina. We get JF up. He looks totally refreshed. My brain is on neutral and my legs in reverse. The rain team (Frank, Inga and Daniel) is put to rest. Our four fastest skaters are called upon to bridge the gap, keeping Jan, Dominique and Pascale with her bum knee to help out.
The guys start hammering yet again; we are gaining 15 -30 seconds per lap on Stamina. We are pumped but our lap times start slowing down.
Stamina lap times stay consistent. Jan and Dominique come in and skate some great laps. I don't want Pascale to skate with her bum knee.
11:30 Less than an hour and half left in the race. We are gaining on Stamina and they are getting very concerned. We are running out of leg power. We set the line-up for the last hour and half with our freshest legs We need to keep our fastest skater for the last 30 minutes of the race. No exchanges are allowed in the last 20 minutes. JF is still strong and gets nominated. Everybody else puts in their maximum effort for their very last lap. We pass team Stamina. We are less than a lap away from them but not sure we have enough time to bridge that last gap. Kevin and Andrew drop the baton on one exchange. They both fall trying to pick it up. Andrew picks it up and keeps going. Pascale really wants to skate another lap. Everybody is against it... She insists and skates a great lap. Kevin skates one last awesome lap and hands it to JF for the finish. JF is glowing. Stamina makes their transition 20
seconds from the 20 minute cut-off. JF is in a pack of two with
Martine from Montreal. They hammer for four more laps together, averaging 30km/hour to finish the race in furious sprint.
We finish second in our category, 6.5 minutes behind team Stamina after an awesome effort by one and all. We completed 150 laps (672 km) in 23:58 hours, with an average speed of 28.3 km/ hour in spite of the rain and sleep deprivation.
Wow what a team effort! What an emotional high. What an experience!
And guess what we'll be BACK!
Thank you team.
Daniel
Roller24 with the "Night Crawlers"
by Mike Garvin & Ray Vermette
The OUISC fielded two fitness teams for Roller24 (http://24inline.ca/) this year. Reported here are some of the highlights from this great relay race. This report focuses on the “Night Crawlers” team.
For this event our team (including our captain Ray Vermette) was split into three groups:
A Emma, Catherine, Robin and Mat
B Steve, Rachelle, Mike
C Ray, John, Jim
We split the 24 hour relay into 3 hour shifts. On each shift you can only have one person on the track at once (it’s a relay race!) so we just rotated through the team or sub-team as appropriate. The layout was:
First three hours: A, B and C
Second shift: A
Third shift: B
...
Last three hours: A, B, and C
Basically each person got to skate twice at the beginning and twice at the end then 4-6 times for each of the two shifts for their specific sub-team. Sounds easy right? Well, when you add it up, each person ends up skating about 14 laps or just over 62Km. Don't forget, each time out, the skater has to push hard to get a quick lap, so that more total laps can be accumulated by the overall team. On the fitness team we were not gunning for the podium, our goal was just to have fun and get some personal bests in. Mission accomplished!
Overall our team logged 127 laps in 24 hours. When the math is all done, it comes out to an average speed of 23-24 Km/Hour over a total of about 570Km.
Roller24 was a great success for the fitness team. We had a great time. Everyone skated hard (lots of 28Km/Hour and above laps) and there were no major accidents.
John “I Fell” Haining shredded a wheel on one of the drainage grates and got some road rash, but Gavin stepped up and quickly found him a new bearing and axel. The impact was so hard that it actually warped the aluminum hub on his wheel, and turned his wheel into a mutant donut! John then kept on rolling for another 4Km and put in a great lap time to boot!
Mat cranked out an awesome lap on his new 90mm wheels. He had our best time with 8.40 (unofficial). For the 4.48Km track his average speed on that lap was 32Km/Hour. Outstanding!
Our sub-team make up seemed to work out really well. We didn't have any major mishaps with the actual baton pass, even at night, in the rain! When team B came on for their shift at 4AM it started to rain...hard, and just didn't stop for the rest of the event. As the rain started it was light but then it really started to pour. Rachelle simple said “Who turned up the fun?” Now that’s positive vibe!
The rain let up a bit, but essentially we were water rats for the rest of the event. When the rain hit everyone slowed down immediately, the lap speeds immediately dropped to the 20-25Km/Hour range and even lower. However, with more laps we learned our rain technique and the speeds started to come up again. Steve finished out the last 20 minutes of the relay doing two laps in excess of 26Km/Hour...in the rain!!
Rainwater pooled on the roof of the club tent and Steve MacDonald
pulled on the tent canopy, bringing the water down on top of him in a moment reminiscent of the water dance scene from Flashdance. Oh, what a feelin'.
Because the event includes night skating, we also had to cope with avoiding cars, tractor trucks running into low bridges, cyclists and other skaters. Again though no major trouble. Everyone had good lights and when coming up to the baton pass we just yelled our team number (27) to make sure we were recognized. It really is a whole different experience though; skating at night with the city lights off to one side, music blasting, and everyone pushing to get one more lap in. At one point we even had a 40 minute fireworks display behind the casino. Nice!
Even when the rain hit, everyone wanted to slow down and be careful but there was still plenty of positive vibe to go around. Though some might argue that skating in the dark, in the rain at 20+ Km/Hour is more than a little dangerous! Apparently skaters laugh at danger, neigh, they mock it! Generally the track was pretty good in the rain. Aside from the water grates there just one section where the oil didn't seem to wash off the surface, and it was a zero friction game for that section the rest of the event. For the rest of the circuit everyone jus skated on the higher/dryer sides of the track.
Accommodations were pretty good. Each team had a garage in the pit stop area. Our team swapped with another team and were able to get both Ottawa teams side by side. Our team captain did a great job of supplying team food, everyone stayed stoked between skating shifts. The critical fuel though was the "super orange fast blend", also known as Cheezies! Pascale had a field day with our menu choices:
- Bagels: Good
- Oatmeal: Good
- Fruit: Good
- Muffins: Not Bad
- Trail Mix: Good, but for after skating
- Cheesies? Cheesies! Do you know what they put in those!? They are full of trans-fats, saturated fats, empty calories, preservatives, free radicals, carcinogens, dioxins, mercury, PCBs, DDTs, Agent Orange…
Despite Pascale’s better judgment the orange feedback was half empty by the end!
Everyone stayed well hydrated and free showers were had by jumping the rail out back. The canal flows along side the circuit right behind the pit stops. Scenic and functional!
As the day progressed, a few towels were found hanging from the canopy poles of the club tent. Someone from another team asked a club member if they could hang their own towel on the tent and they replied "Sure". Pretty soon, their entire club's landry was hanging from the inner tent poles, leaving no room for my delicate undergarments. Steve commented: "Our club tent has become one very expensive towel rack".
In the morning, the rain made the track so slippery that skating
speeds had dropped 10km/h in some cases and skaters found they were able to skate 2 or 3 laps in a row before handing off the baton. After completing a particularly slow lap, Ray waved John off and told him he would skate a second. As luck would have it, he managed to barely hang on to a very fast skater and had one of his best lap times of the entire weekend. Ray skated into the baton transfer area, gasping for breath between shouts of "John John John John!", but John didn't expect Ray for at least another minute and he was keeping dry in the race paddock. Lap #3 was a killer.
At least they weren't alone in baton transfer miscues. People get really cranky when they haven't slept all night, they are soaked to the bone, exhausted, tweaked out on Cheesies, and realize they have to go one more lap around. Much amusement was had watching other teams go through the same thing.
Big thanks go out to the cheering section! Linda, Alicia, and John came up on Saturday afternoon to check out the race circuit, skate some laps, help out Gavin at the ZT Sports booth, and cheer on the Ottawa skaters. They, along with Pascale and a few other off-duty Ottawa skaters formed a little cheering section at the final turn before the baton transfer section. Their support was a real morale booster.
Overall a great experience, cheering crowds, the thrill of the race, and many personal bests all around. No major injuries and everyone had a great time despite the rain. Next year should be even better!
