Ok, so it’s been a pretty long time since I’ve posted any news. Apologies. First there was the business of some maintenance on the servers that host the Skatefurther main site as well as the blogs but that has now thankfully been fixed. Woohoo! There were also some travels…
So I left off last time with Goodwood roller marathon, which seems like it was ages ago.
Good times - and soon after came some very exciting news about the organisation of the Adrendalina Skateboard Marathon. The event is happening in Miami, Florida in November and is the first skateboard only marathon with a whopping $10,000 up for grabs for the winner. For up to date news hit up the discussion thread in the forum. Alex, with whom I went to Goodwood has registered for the race - I’m sure that all of us will support him and wish him best in the race!
It being Summer and all, as I mentioned earlier I’ve been on my travels. Although, these haven’t been specifically longboarding related, being involved in the sport means that you develop a certain approach when it comes to ’sights’ or checking out veiws - I often catch myself thinking, that looks like an awesome hill, where would I go if I lived here, etc. Here are some of the highlights which you’d do well to checkout for yourself if you have the chance:
Lyon
During 2004/2005 I lived in Grenoble and despite living so close, I only visited this city for what became a rather blury 24 hours. A couple of years on I decided to go back and re-visit this beautiful city. It is perfect for longboarding and has a flourishing scene not to mention an awesome longboard brand: Politic!
Lyon is the sometimes known to be the culinary capital of France, but It’s also home to one of the biggest longboarding shops in France - the CDK or Cri du Kangourou.
They have a brilliant range of gear and I spent an enjoyable time swapping stories with the guy who manages the longboard area of the shop.
Annecy
I was luckily enough to spend last weekend in Annecy which is small but beautiful town a little South of Geneva. It is in the heart of the Alps and is situated just next to a stunning lake.
At the moment, I’m trying to scout out a place which could be suitable for an Ultraskate and I’d heard that there is a cyclepath with circles the entire lake. We had no trouble finding the cyclepath and it was an amazing 33km route next to the lake, surrounded by mountains.
Unfortunately, the route is not circular but still if you’re in the area it is well worth checking out what has been described as ‘one of the most scenic greenways in France’. So the hunt for a spot continues…if your in the area and need gear, be sure to drop in and see Bob at Alphalongboards.
Paris
Okay, this one is cheating as I live here, but still during the Summer months Paris-Plage (Paris Beach) comes to town. This basically means clearing the banks of the Seine of traffic and installing waterpoints, artificial beaches and picnic areas. A couple of weeks ago, I went for a relaxing summery ride…
The beaches have since been dismantled and the cars are back (apart from on Sundays!). Paris is also slowly filling up again as the people come back from their holiday homes and start work once again. September is now almost upon us and with it the coming of Autumn and Winter, bringing with it shorter nights and more rain. Depressing stuff, eh?
Not really, tonight at the Trocadero we’re having an impromptu ‘back to school’ session which promises to draw quite a crowd. All the old faces as well and some new ones will be there too…there’ll be talk of events and sessions to ensure that the last of the Summer is celebrated in style but most of all it’ll be a time to just get out and skate.
Tagged: Adrenalina, cvallender August 31, 2010
Last week-end a mini French invasion took place as Alex, Philidar and myself made the trip over to the UK for the 2010 edition of the Goodwood Roller Marathon. Alex and I knew roughly what to expect as we had already taken part in the same marathon in 2009. For Phildar however, it was a new venture into the world of distance longboarding. This year exceeded everybody’s expectations.
On the Sunday morning, Tim joined our little contingent for a meat feast of an English breakfast before heading to the track to set up camp ‘further’ and to catchup and meet with the other racers and longboarders.
Last year there were 320 participants, this year according to the organisers there were over 350 on the starting line. Having started in the middle of the pack lastyear, I managed to start pretty near to the front, next to the legendary Matt Elver whom I parted with once the race had started. You can just pick out my black helmet on the very right in the picture below.
As you’ve no doubt read in my previous posts, I was determined that I would give this marathon my best shot. In the end I managed to maintain the pace I had set for myself - something which I didn’t know I could do.
Once the race started Alex and Matt Elver were ahead of me which I wasn’t surprised by. For the first few laps I had a good battle for third place with Issac Allen but I managed to get away from him. I was chuffed to be in third place and for a while I thought that the results of the race had been decided…then I realised that slowly but surely I was catching up with Alex. His motto for the race went along the lines of ‘take no prisoners’ so I wasn’t about to do him any favours. We were both pretty tired as it was around lap 9 at this time but somehow I managed to shake him loose and take second place. We both really went for it and I still don’t really know what happened. What I do know though is I was mega, probably scarily, sweaty!
Positions aside, it was all about the sub 2 hour time this year. Through my various previous experiments with times and speeds I worked out that to achieve this goal I would need an average speed of 21.4km/h. During my little battle with Alex we were both a little annoyed to still be racing after the 2 hour mark…little did we know that we had done not 11 but 12 laps…it appears that simple things like counting during a race are beyond me.
Here are the readings from my GPS:
As you can see, my average speed was 22.1km - very probably helped by the fact that both the weather and wind (or lack of) were with us…nevertheless an achievement I’m very pleased with!
Here is a breakdown of the lap time for the 5 top longboarders:
In the end, the results for the longboarders were as follows:
Mens:
1 - Elver (01:43:18): the magical man in white does it again and extends his record - LEGEND!
2 - Vallender (01:53:33): didn’t know I had it in me but should learn to count!
3 - Bangnoi (01:53:37): great race buddy and thanks for driving all those miles!
Womens:
1 - Hatwell (02:21:24): The one and only distance skate queen!
2 - Liles (02:55:55): Woo - more girls next year!
3 - O’Leary x 2 (first skateboard trailer transported ladies EVER)
Other notable results:
- Tim Pritchard got an astounding time of 01:58:09 - the first recorded sub two hour marathon using an LDP setup.
- Phildar, who was not even sure about even being able to complete the marathon finished with a very respectable 02:34:04 - a really good effort, well done! It was great to have you along.
Full results are available here and international longboard distance rankings, including the marathon are here.
This marathon is the only one of it’s kind and it would be great if others like it existed…all who took part had a blast. It should be possible to organise the same thing in Europe, be it in France or elsewhere. Does anyone have any ideas where? Once a year is not enough!
One thing is for sure - we’ll be at Goodwood next year!
Tagged: cvallender, Goodwood August 12, 2010
