Saturday, May 21, 2011

Lawton Loop Marathon

Herb Gayle's Mini race report:

Date: May 14, 2011 10:00:00 AM

Track: Lawton Loop (1.6898 km)


I skated my first race of the season on Saturday, May 14, 2011 in Indianapolis, Indiana; plus I got to see my sweet Holly before she went to work. Holly was kind enough to take a few photos and she e-mailed the pictures to me on Sunday, May 15, 2011.

A big thank you to race organizer Tom Stergar II and his wife, announcer Matt, Timing by James and other duties etc, plus all the volunteers for putting on a great race in Indiana.

Photo #1: Amrit Singh"Nikko" (Ashpalt Beach), Herb Gayle (Team Hoigaard's). and Elizabeth White (Ashphalt Beach). Elizabeth is a strong new skater and you will be hearing her name in future races this season.

Photo #2 Bob Harwell and Holly

Photo #3 Herbinator trying to touch his toes and stretch before the race.

Photo #4 front line skaters at the start line...left to right: Larry Kaufman (hands on hips), Cale Carvell, Herb G with Christian Keesler, Gary Blank (Team Rainbo) and Bob Harwell (looking down)

We had about 20 skaters, and the competition ranged from novice to pro level skaters. The strong guys today were: Gary Blank who was by far in the best shape. Amrit"Nikko" looked like the man to win the race, however a young kid from Fort Wayne Indiana by the name of Christian Keesler took the top spot over Nikko (Amrit) 2nd and Gary Blank was the work horse finished 3rd. I did not see the finish for the top three spots, so I can not comment on how the action unfolded.

The marathon was on a closed looped course and we had to skate 25 laps for a full marathon. I knew I was not in racing shape, so I told Cale Carvell (Team Rainbo) and others skaters that I was going to be a "cling-on" and only take a few (easy) pulls at the front. Team Rainbo was well represented as usual at every race.

The race started at a reasonable pace and the weather was perfect, the rain Gods held off until the event was over, warm with a slight breeze and perfect conditions for me....I don't like to skate in the rain, or in cold and snowy conditions.

On the second or third lap, Nikko decided to stir things up and took off, then Gary and Christian chased after Nikko while the rest of the pack waved goodbye...I was exhausted from the long 10 hour drive after work on Friday from Toronto, Canada to Indiana, so I was happy to just stay with the pack and keep a steady pace.

The lap counter displayed in red numbers: 10 to go, which seemed like a long time and then Gary Blank (Team Rainbo), Nikko and young Christian caught and passed the main pack. I thought the trio would have lapped the main pack earlier, but the three leaders took their time and were probably playing the cat the mouse game behind us.

The main pack consisted of: Cale Carvell, Elizabeth White (Ashphalt Beach), Larry Kaufman (Team Rainbo), Doug Orman (Team Rainbo), Carl Stewart (Texas Flyers) John Sherwin (Team Rainbo). Bob Harwell was with us earlier in the race, however I believe when the pace picked up and we lost Bob, Margo Carvell (Team Rainbo) and Tom Gospel. The size of the main pack changed throughout the race because we picked some lapped skaters and also lost some skaters.

The Lawton Loop event had a sophisticated timing system which accurately kept track of everyone's laps and times. The lap counter was visible at the start/finish line for all to see how many laps to go. I was happy when I saw 5 laps to go, then I heard announcer Matt giving away my game plan by saying: "I see Herb cruising at the back, just waiting for the big sprint." The other skaters in my pack then realized that I was saving my energy, so they started to pick up the pace. I heard Cale say, "we know you are going to go (sprint), but we don't know when." The pavement was a little rough in some sections and my left skate was starting to hurt my big toe with all the vibrations, but I had to keep focus and block out any pain in the body.

The bell lap for the main pack and only one more lap. We had two pace lines with Elizabeth leading on the left and I was leading the pack line on the right. I could feel the adrenalin build and we made a left turn and pick up the pace on the slight incline section. This is where you have to be patient, but made sure you don't get stuck at the pack before the inevitable field sprint starts. I took off hard with 800 meters to go because I knew Elizabeth and the Rainbo guys: Larry Kaufman, Doug Orman and Cale Carvell were right behind me.

Carl Stewart was looking very strong up to mid point in the race, but he and Larry Kaufman were racing for preem points/prizes and that may have burnt Carl's legs for the sprint at the end of the race.

The top three men (Christian Keesler, Amrit Singh and Gary Blank) had already finished, so the main pack was coming in for 4th to 10th place. I flew around the last turn and hammered down the straight-away to claim 4th place. (See final photo)

The top three women were: 1st Elizabeth White (Asphalt Beach), 2rd Margo Carvell (Team Rainbo) and 3rd Deanne Wiley

I truly enjoyed racing in Indianapolis, Indiana and I encourage more skaters to come out and support all the hard work Tom Stergar and his team have been doing to bring tremendous inline races to Indiana in 2010 and 2011.


Congrats to all the skaters and this was a very safe and accident free race.

Herb Gayle



Link to Herb's photo's
Herb's Lawton Loop Marathon Photo's
 
Race Results:
Lawton Loop Results