Skart wins Northshore inline marathon (open division)!

Thank you very much, Mark! Yes, it is definitely a very exciting achievement and the best end to a great season. I was coming off of two first places that I took at Skate of the Union a week earlier and did not think it could get any better, but after placing first overall at NSIM, it actually did :-) Anyway... The race was good. I started in the end of the pack (remembering that this is a chip-timed event) with a goal of catching with the lead group in the first mile or so. I had to squeeze by a few smaller groups that were going to skate at their own pace but, once I was free, I caught up with the leaders in no time (before the first incline, as a matter of fact). From there I was staying in the top 3-5 taking a few pulls and closing gaps that were opening up in the front. Overall, the race was slow, as only a handful of skaters were willing to work, so the main group never split up. We often had 3-4 pace lines going side by side all the way to the finish. Around mile 14 we caught up to Pro women that were taking it easy that day. Unfortunately, they stayed around our pace for the rest of the race and, since we could not mix with them and they could not mix with us, it created a nuisance for both races. Once we got on the highway, the pace picked up a bit all the way to the off ramp but was still manageable. Interestingly, I do not recall multiple packs going down the highway at this point but this is probably because I stayed in the front of the pack. As always, once we got to the off ramp, people went nuts! It is always funny to me how everybody starts sprinting all out up that thing, forgetting that there is still about 1/3 of a mile to go. I got to the top of the ramp around top 10 or so while making sure that I had something left in the tank. We climbed the ramp together with Pro women, which made for a very crowded finish. In fact, when I got down the ramp and made the first (out of two) finishing turn (while hearing the sound of somebody washing out and crashing in the turn), there was literally nowhere to go as we still had about 50 people in the pack plus 10 or so women. I was able to find a fairly clean line on the outside and started my sprint which was mostly a joke since I could not find any space to really stretch my legs. However, I was successfully passing a lot of people as they were running out of steam at this point. I am not sure if I was physically first when I crossed the finish line, as it was hard to tell with all the people in the finishing straight away, but I did not see any men in the finishing chute so, I am pretty sure, I was in the top few that crossed the finish line first. As I said, the sprint did not feel very fast. However, when I was checking my GPS data, I found that I got to around 26mph in that final push. Not too bad given the circumstances. Overall, again, it was a great race for me and the best achievement in my skating to date... Next year I will have to see how it feels to be in the Elite pack :-) Wish me luck...

Congrats on a fine cap to a stellar 2009 season. Onward to Elite! Nice....very nice. You definitely deserve it. I'm glad you and Skatey-Mark explained the chip start set up. At first glance I envisioned a monster group in the last 50yds with you making a nice draft move to break away. Ahhhh, it would have happened that way if it were a gun start. Way to go.