sunday.
got up early to take the tube down to victoria train station. still felt pretty ill so i had pretty much resigned to dropping to the half marathon from the full. got on my train and there were a bunch of other skaters on board.
made friends with two polish people sitting across from me on the train. so i hung out with them for the day.
we got a taxi from the chichester train station to the race track. there were lots of people there. lots of roller derby girls. i guess more than half of the participants were roller derby folk. it was nice to be at a big event, since the london marathon in may was so small and only had the really fast people. this was more like the minnesota one with just lots of people out for the event. longboards and quad skates and even some wheelchairs.
the track has an active airfield in the middle which was interesting as planes landed and took off right above us as we skated around. for as ill as i was feeling in general, i actually felt alright skating. well until a marshall skated into me and knocked me to the ground. that was bad. i tumbled and rolled and am thankful i had a helmet on. that caused me head to pound, my arm to bleed, and my left leg to have a terrible pain.
so the half length marathon was to skate 5 laps. i skated the 5 and my gps said i had done just under 12 miles which isn't quite a true half. so for my own personal self i did a 6th lap - although at a much more relaxed pace. so i ended up skating a bit over 14 miles in an hour and ten minutes i think.
found out that i placed 7th, finishing in 56 minutes (results). quite excited to finish 7th out of 270 people. but it actually made me more angry, because the 6th place person was only a second faster and had i not fallen, i think i could have possibly placed 3rd which would have been amazing.
i didn't feel super accomplished on sunday (i didnt know about placing 7th) although i felt okay with only doing the half after the race marshall injured me. ive decided it's because the half distance length (13 miles) isn't a challenge distance wise now. not that i managed to skate the long distances while training this time around, but doing 8-10 miles doesn't make 13 that much more. a faster time is a challenge, but length wise, i want to do full marathon lengths. there is a difference (a big one) between the half and the full. this just means that i really want to do the full marathon next year. and at some point the double.
there were people who had never done a marathon sign up for the double. i don't think that's a smart move at all. but i think with training that's a possibility. i won't be placing anywhere near the top, but it'd be more of a challenge.
got a little medal which was nice. still sad the london one didn't have a medal.
the polish couple and i went to this american western themed restaurant after the race. sadly i still felt ill and therefore not really hungry or like i could eat. i had some curly fries and an mgd (because why not have an american beer). the restaurant was amusing. the waiter was dressed in boots, a hat, plaid shirt and bolo tie which all made for an atmosphere to feel like i could be in the states. until he opened his mouth and immediately it was juxtaposed with actually being in the south of england.
pretty amusing.
the polish couple was smarter with their return train time so they had to run to catch their train. i, on the other hand, had like 3 hours before my train. i walked through a bit of the town although my leg really hurt so i kind of stopped doing that. saw the cathedral and then didn't really know what to do.
wasn't hungry and felt ill so sitting at a restaurant wasn't a great option. i sat in the town for awhile and then at the train station (couldn't switch to an earlier train).
train ride back was fine and then had more time to sit and wait once i got into victoria and had to sit for my bus. didn't plan the timing well but in my defense i thought that brittany was going to be with me. met a man from ghana at the bus station. he lived in london but had studied in scotland and had lived a bunch of places. he was taking his family to disneyland paris but told me i was welcome to meet him in ghana once his family moves back there. made me want to travel even more.
the british are known for their queuing but somehow the folks bound for edinburgh missed the memo of standing and waiting in line. i've never seen a more intensely pushy bunch when trying to get onboard for the bus. crazy people. and then it was another overnight coach ride back to edinburgh
http://www.goodwoodmarathon.co.uk/racerpage.cgi?year=2011&racer=6304 (yeah, certificate)
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