Gold!

Friday Péter took part in the national student's championship and earned two golden medals!!!

We started to Tatabánya at 8:20, the drive (220 kms) was easy and un-eventful. We were only 2 to go so I've organized Tomi and Balázs to travel along with us, sharing the car and the costs. But how slow we went we couldn't arrive late enough - the amateur's events have just started off so we had plenty of time to do... erm... nothing. So we did exactly that. Of course the skates had to be on all the time :)

The track is just outside Tatabánya, on some industrial roads, a quadrangle of 700m length. It has some elevation changes, too, and the quality of the asphalt is quite good. The organisers had some illustrious buffet set up, with yummy muffins even...

There were many amateurs. So it meant a lot of time to waste. Then at last, around 14:00 the professionals' turn has come. Péter had to race on 200m and 300m distances. There was a 'dark horse' between the opponents we knew nothing about - the other ones he had beaten already previously, in the regionals and in Groß-Gerau. And in fact, on the shorter distance, that guy (Hazafi Ádám from KDSE) was the first at 100m, then - as the track has some climb until the finish line - Péter was able to overtake him, using his strength and nice technique.

The longer distance was much more obvious, Péter won by at least 20m. Double gold!!!

The team earned quite some podium finishes, more on that when I receive the protocols.

We set up for home around 18:30 and had a nice & smooth & fast drive again. And one can imagine what Anikó was like when Péter was in her hands at last :)

Half-marathon sum-up

In short:
I've done it, finished my first half-marathon - but missed my target time.
Péter has also finished - and earned a podium again.

In detail:
The 5th Wink Marathon in Siófok, Hungary was a total mess, lacking much in organisation.
We had to cover 3 x 7 km, but the road conditions were very very bad on at least 3 kms each round. The route was planned taking the competitors down to the shores of Lake Balaton, however while the 30*30 cm concrete tiles may fit runners, they are totally a pain to skate on. Several racers lost a wheel or two, my left 1st wheel got completely loose by the end of the race. There was another part of the track with gravel scattered all around, it didn't help skating conditions either. While the organisors cannot be blamed for strong winds, that thing didn't help either. OK, must admit there was some nice 2 km smooth asphalt road with a tailwind, but that was only enough to rest a bit.
With these conditions in mind, I am not dissatisfied with the time of 1:29 at all. It could have been better by a minute or so if I did not fell the last round, of course on the 'resting' part of the track... Luckily it is only a sore butt, no bruises at all.
Physically, I felt OK throughout the race and wasn't too tired after the event either. I tried it and now I'd like to have some more... :)

Péter finished 3rd in the junior rankings, 3 minutes ahead of me. For 2 rounds he followed an 'older' girl (2 years...) but he missed out her draft starting the 3rd round, so he had to fight 7 km all alone. He did great but was extra tired after finish, that could be cured with some chocolate of course. In 2 hours he regenerated completely and returned to doing what 7-year-old ones should do in open-air events - running around chasing eachother.

Tomi - as promised - tried to win the race and, hmm, well he did. Too bad he missed the turning point in the first round so he went for a 14km, then a 7km - and then those **** organisers sent him away to cover yet one more round. Even this way, racing 28kms, he finished overall 2nd by 3 minutes, and if we subtracted his last round's time, it would give 0:52 for the 21km, a clear win by 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the field. But he was declared 2nd... no glory, no prize money, just bitter taste in the mouth :(


Oh btw those *** ****** ***** organisers registered me as a junior so they hindered my podium finish (ranked 3rd) :(((

Now let's find another event, a decently organised one!

Murphy's laws

LOL I've strained my biceps femoris on my left leg, when 'jumpin' out of the car this morning.
When else? Aaargh :)

Marathon preparations

In fact half-marathon but the title sounds better that way :)

We had a long weekend again and I had the opportunity to trains some more on all 3 days.
Saturday and Sunday a qualified trainer joined us (the mum of Tomi, a kid racing in the same team as Péter) and she taught us 'beginners' a lot. I know I must learn quite a bit but damn, it was hard ;) Anyway I won't give up easily.
This way, practicing technique we covered 12 kms only on Saturday and about the same again on Sunday.
Then on Monday I hit the oval and covered 90 laps in 1:05 all by myself, that is 16.2 km so the goal I've set initially (finish the half-marathon) is easily covered I think. Now I think I should aim at covering it in 1:30. Or should it be 1:25? Ok, let it be 1:25. I put it down here so I won't be able to deny:

Target time for half-marathon 17/05/2008: 1:25

BTW Tomi wants to win the junior's event. Being 12 that is a nice goal but if all goes well he can do it. And when I told my son about it, his eyes turned toooooo bright... :)

Regionals

Wednesday Péter had to take part in the regional qualifiers for the student's national championship, due in two weeks. His races were 180m and 270m and he had no difficulty dominating them. So on 23 May we must travel to Tatabánya and face the challenge there. I forgot to time the shorter distance, but the longer one was 39.6 secs. I don't know about his opponents this year yet - he is in good form, so let's hope for the best :)

The event itself was very poorly organized. Registration was scheduled at 14:30 and it lasted until 16:00... Then the amateurs started and their races finished at 17:30. So we could have come only at that time - 3 hours lost waiting for nothing. The whole event finished at 19:15, but at least the weather was nice (yep it means getting more than enough UV rays again). About half of the team qualified for the national event, which sounds nice but in fact at least 2 more kids should have had better luck. We saw epic fights and again, we saw lack of race experience, takeover attempts at wrong places and lack of self-confidence. And these should be cured somehow.

So I talked to Endre (the coach) and we agreed I'd look around for more races in the nearby countries (Austria, Slovakia, the Czech at first shot).

New skates

Hmm seems like this is a week of new things.

In short: bought a pair of K2 Power 7.0 skates for myself, tested them, fell and bruised my hip and now I'm recovering.


In detail: I thought (see below) and I was quite right my old Roces skates weren't the best for covering a half marathon distance. So last Wednesday I've found this K2 skate and bought them.
I must say it is a quite new world, it is fast and rolls very smooth. It is a typical long-distance recreational skate, provides more ankle support than low-cut racers' skates but makes covering long distances quite easy.
I got rid of the brakes immediately and then took it for a 10-mile ride on Thursday, with Peter and some more adults on skates and some kids on bikes. It felt great and rolled nice, however approaching the car-park, about 200m to go I crashed and 'succesfully obtained' a palm-sized bruise on my left hip. Or thigh. Ok, let's confess, on my left butt :)

At home, Anikó provided 'medical support' - oh well, it was cca 18 years ago last time I had bruises this size, so it almost felt nostalgic :) However, I've covered an hour on the oval on Friday, and some 12 miles on the road again on Sunday, just to get used to the skates - the half-marathon is getting closer and closer and I definitely need to train some more. Got to polish my technique some more while strength and endurance seems to be quite OK.

So here I am, a happy child with new toys :D

Groß-Gerau 2008 - Part 3

Travel home
Well it felt much much longer than the other way. The kids were more anxious and had too much energy sometimes. We stopped in Vienna for some looking-around & quick shopping. Arriving home, Moira jumped in my arms and sobbed for 5 minutes - Peter did the same with Aniko but a little bit shorter :)

Aftermath
Well I wonder what each of the kids will earn from the races.
For Peter it is simple - he is flying, after a nice winter season finish he carried on and earned silver medal on his first race in the spring. A really nice start, I hope he can make it go on this way.
The others I think could gain a lot in experience. We miss race experience, there is so little field action in Hungarian races it is very hard to learn tactics or best practises that way.

Columbia
It was 'devastating' to see them racing. They were skating such an easy style, one could think they were not having their heartbeat rising at all. And they raced very clever, too. They showed a nice teamwork, eg in the women 10km elimination they managed to grasp all top 5 places with 3 or 4 laps remaining. They received a standing ovation and earned it well.

Meteo
Meterology... bah. Both weather.com and met.hu forecasted sunny/cloudy weather, 30% possibility of rain and low winds. Well - Saturday we had no clouds at all so we turned red, and Sunday was only a little bit easier. Oh yes, it was raining. On Friday, in Austria...