Groß-Gerau 2008 - Part 2

The event / Day 0
The kids were enthusiastic to test the track and spent an hour or so skating around.
Later we watched some of the sprint cup event, individual start 300m rush for grownups ;)

The event / Day 1
In the morning our team was involved in the longer distances.
Schuler B Herren 1000m - Bence started like he was racing on 200m sprint. He was caught at 400m, dropped back continuosly and finished 10th (out of 24).
Schuler A Damen 2000m - Barbi had a bad start (as usual), dropped back a lot but then she came up steadily, she seemed fit and strong. She should have been more aggressive though, she slowed down instead of overtaking at least two times, anyway she finished 7th (out of 48).
Jugen Damen 3000m - Szonja was in the middle of the field most of the time, but she also lacked aggression and missed the opportunities to switch to the outer train that moves forward, finished 28th (out of 60). Both girls are strong and skate a very nice way so they shouldn't be afraid to move a bit more forward in the pack.
Jugend Herren 3000m - Roland started rollerskates only 1.5 months ago so it was a good result for him to overtake at least one (55th from 56). Tomi raced exactly like Szonja, with the same mistakes and finished 23th.

In the afternoon we watched and enjoyed the 500m and the relay events for the adults.
As we recorded all our races we had the opportunity to watch them again in the evening and analyze each run, so Endre (the coach) asked for more active, more aggressive racing the next day.

The event / Day 2
Again, our team had to race almost all the morning, first with the middle distances, then the relay qualifiers and then the short runs.
Schuler C Herren 300m - Peter started well (after the first start, which ended in a crash) and finished 2nd (from 7 boys+4 girls). The guy who won was a real sprinter type so no chance to catch him on distances as short as this.
Schuler B Herren 500m - Bence couldn't repeat last day's 2-lap sprint but finished 7th after all.
Schuler A Damen 1500m - Barbi was fighting hard, she managed to stay in the top group all the time, even moved to 2nd position once and finished 8th.
Jugend Damen 2000m - Szonja was more active than on Saturday and managed to place herself in position 23 on the finish line.
Jugend Herren 2000m - Roland overtook 2 times as many racers as previously (ie 2 :) ) however that meant he did not qualify for the last race for the top 40. Tomi was active but lacked the power to move really forward and wasted a lot of energy in position fights in the middle of the group, he finished 20th.

In the relays we could launch only 2-member teams so we were handicapped compared to the 3-racer teams. However it was a good training opportunity.

Soon afterwards the shortest distances followed:
Schuler C Herren 100m - Peter had a very nice start, he was undisputed 2nd after 5 meters and finished 2nd with a nice gap behind him.
Schuler B Herren 300m - Bence made a bad start and fought himself back to place 10.
Schuler A Damen 1000m - Barbi couldn't make use of her long-distance skills and finished 11th after the better sprinters.
Jugend Damen 1500m - Szonja made a nice progress and came in 17th.
Jugend Herren 1500m - Tomi had a bad luck with position fighting and finished 29th.


I couldn't persuade Peter to jump out of the skates until the awards ceremony, so he climbed up the podium still on wheels. Damn I was very proud to see him standing there, shaking hands with the winner and receiving a nice silver award.
Barbi and Bence, being top 10, also were called to stand on the podium of theri category.

The afternoon we watched some great action, the 10000m elimination races of the adults/juniors and the relays. It was around 19:00 or so when we left the track, after all the ceremonies were finished. Back to the B&B, pack up, shower and bed.

It was a long day but an eventful one.

Groß-Gerau 2008 - Part 1

In short: Peter gained 2nd place in Groß-Gerau, in the category Schuler C. Wohooooo!!!

I will compose a more complete description, cut in several posts so they won't be too long.

The Team
Our team consisted of 6 kids, aged 7-13, two girls and 4 boys.

Travel
It was a long ride, 12 hours, but went smooth. We feared traffic near Frankfurt on Friday afternoon but luckily we did not meet any. Google Maps' route plan worked great and helped us get to our destination easily, almost exactly to the house we were looking for.

B&B
We stayed in Worfelden, just about 4-5 miles from Groß-Gerau, in a nice B&B (Frühstückspension Riegel, Worfelden, Wilhelm Hammann Str. 45). It was so typically German, 'alles in Ordnung' style. Comfortable rooms, nice and helpful landlady, super breakfasts. Frau Riegel did everything she could to make our stay comfortable and showed great patience and tolerance towards our (sometimes noisy) team.

The track
The track itself consists of a 200m banked oval with a concrete center place, and a 304m long, 4-corner, unbanked flat track. Most of the races were held on the 304m track, only the adult/junior sprinters competing for the 300m sprints used the banked track.
The surrounding area is very nice green, just behind the local hospital. The event was organized professionally, with 20+ international judges, 2 ex-racer speakers performing really well throughout the 3 days, olympic-style opening ceremony, all kinds of facilities and a lot of merchants.
The kids spent a lot of time in the boots, checking out every detail of any equipment - but if you do a technical sport, you know exactly what I mean, what great pleasure it is to take even the 100th wheel in your hands... :)

Size matters

Anikó is feeling better and stronger with each day, 6 days now since her cholecystectomy, so we took a nice light walk in the morning, the kids on bike (of course).

The afternoon I've joined the other Gábor to skate some, in preparation for the half-marathon in May. I don't really remember whose idea it was to enter but with each day I feel like we are insane to try that :) The kids will have no problem finishing but as it looks now, we grown-ups will spend some time at each refreshing station to collect each and every bit of energy to continue.
We've covered about 1.6 miles on street and 30 laps on the track, then 1 more mile home - a half marathon is 117 laps. And I suffered all the way. I think it must be the boot, I falter in it. I don't feel safe, I must change it ASAP. In fact it is a Roces one, not a bad one at all, but it may be a little, very little bit too big. Some millimetres only, but too big.
Pfff, time to start trying new ones.