LifeInLine - Prievidza 2010

We traveled to Bojnice, near Prievidza, Slovakia early on Saturday so we didn't have to drive a long way at dawn, Sunday. It proved a good idea as we couldn't follow our planned route due to the floods hitting the area, but drove bit more westwards and headed North from there. We could see the devastating effects of the flood gone by near the roads in Slovakia, sand bags, flooded fields, suction-pumps working everywhere.

Bojnice, Pálfy Castle

Bojnice is a cosy small village with a fantastic, Disney-like castle in the middle. There is also a zoo and a spa there so it isn't an average place at all... We stayed at the edge of the village in a resort area in tangible silence. But of course before sleep TT assembled his old skate in ephemeral 3 hours while we were busy laughing and whinnying. Recycled WD-40, clap frame, loose or completely locked bearings with outrageous sounds - you know that for sure :)

Next morning we went to Prievidza after having a lazy breakfast. The race route was a 2x2 lane avenue, closed from traffic, with nice green reservation in the middle with grass and trees. A U-turn on each end (quite bad, melting blacktop patches), so one lap was about 1.4km. Organizers marked every surface error carefully, the asphalt itself was that grippy type and as the Sun was shining on it, it became more and more grippy. (This is an excuse here why I wasn't any faster...)

First on the line was Peter, there were about 25 opponents. The route was shortened a bit in the kids' races, there was a U-turn about 40m from the start. Peter started from the second row but exited the U-turn in 3rd place (I did not see how he's done that but maybe it's better this way), and then he skated fine after a local guy, but soon they disappeared in the distance. He exited the 2nd U-turn in 2nd place (a Czech lass was 1st, she looked so professional), but he kept looking back bit too much at they guy following him. As a result that guy passed from behind and although Peter tried to squeeze him to the side in a Schumacher-like move, the guy beat him with 1 wheel's length in the finish. No problem, a silver medal is quite fine!

Peter sprinting

There were 2 more kids racing from our club, TR finished 7h in her age category on 3 km (this was her first race in such a long distance), while CD came in 4th on the 5 km. By the time their races finished weather turned hot, so we walked around a bit, then pitched our 'camp' in the reservation green in the middle of the avenue, in a shady place. Lunch, kid's ceremonies, and then we watched the 10km race where the top riders pulled brutal times.

OB, me, TT and CD

It was time to warm-up (and it was then I started yawning, as the mid-day nap was due by then - Red Bull consumed), and then we lined up for the start. OB and Raimo was there from Hungary, too.

14:30, starting gun fired! TT and CD got ahead fast, and I started to skate (slowly), too. It was quite clear from the beginning I would not win this race either, so I tried to skate in a relaxed, constant pace. There was a light breeze, only wee bit troublesome, but I did not like the U-turns, it was no fun re-accelerating 30 times all in all. After 3 laps an 'old' man, UMR came past me (he was born in 1949... let's say I've waited for him, OK?) and I hid in his draft immediately and I think it was my best decision throughout the whole weekend :D Even this way lap #5 and lap #10 felt critical. But after 12 laps I even started to feel like the end could be something good :) Sometimes I've managed to skate feeling fine, with nice long pushes to the side, I almost started to enjoy it - but stayed in UMR's draft just to be sure :) I tried to drink a bit once, but they handed water in plastic cups and after 2 gulps my side started to twinge a bit so I decided to skip that.

UMR in white, me ahead...

I felt like the distance was decreasing quite fast. In the end I ran home in 54:28 (personal best!) OK I was quite worn by then. We talked a bit with UMR and another Slovak guy, analysed Raimo that he surely arrived here from another planet... and then we said goodbye to eachother. It was time then for Aniko to take care of me, she poured a gallon of isotonic drinks into me (I may have looked bit bad based on that). And of course to admire the chamomile collection of Moira who was busy picking them throughout the whole length of the race :D

CD drafting

We changed clothes and it turned out CD earned first place in the M1 age category (41:38), he deserved it as he was racing in a clever and good way, spent most of the distance hiding in big men's draft (see above). Anikó was even complaining she found it quite hard to take photos of him... TT was literally dead after not having raced such a long distance for at least 8 years (44:54), his lower back was stiff and aching, so we took an extra-slow lower-back-rehabilitate jog with him. Raimo ran some stellar time again (41:02), OB finished somewhere in the 46-minute region.

Packed up, had pizza near the castle in Bojnice, checked the Ferraris parked there, then got into the car at 18:30 and headed home. The kids fell asleep soon, but we were in Szeged by midnight.

It was good and fine, results are here.

Thin ice & the lazy days

The last training session in the year was a free-for-all ice time for the kids, brother/sisters/parents (and pets). So we took our chance and tried ice.

Ice is wicked. Period.

It is slippery and fast. And using hockey skates I spent most of the time preventing falling ahead. I just missed some blade length as I was used to the frame length of my inline.
However Moira enjoyed it and skated quite a lot, Anikó also entered the rink and had fun, mainly laughing at herself trying to get around (she did quite well though but she won't admit that) and Peter was scorching around as usual, this time they played games on ice on hockey blades, too.
In the end we opened some champagne just to realize yet again many many people don't like it at all :)

Aniko holding firm. As if I could stand firm...

The kids, Peter in center in dark blue/black, Moira bit to the right in pink.

Peter and Aniko asleep :D

Ah and the next day coach Endre decided to go to hospital with 6 hours remaining in the year, and used an appendicitis to make it happen. Nice way to spend New Year's Eve, isn't it... :D

It has been unusually cold outside for at least 2 weeks now, in the -10 & -5 range. Though this may sound like a warm spring to some Canadians but we are freezing here. It made me change my training schedule to skip running and use a stationery bike instead in the gym. I just hate the seat :s

Turul Cup 2008

The closing stage of the Hungarian Cup was held at Tatabánya early October.

There was uncertainity until the last week exactly where it would take place - they've built a new, 200m banked track in Tatabánya recently but we heard news the asphalt cover was terrible, bumpy and uneven, so the club leader wanted it to be redone completely. That would put us back on the industrial roads near the city that were used in the previous races - see my spring opening review...

Well the last week it was confirmed the new track is a no-go :( Sad but at least understandable.

We decided to go a day early, do some shopping in Budapest (looking for some furniture elements and sportswear - for Peter of course...) and spend the night in Tatabánya, do a comfy wakeup and miss out the early-morning rush. Everything went fine but - the morning we woke up to see a day of slow, steady, un-forgiving rain under a grey grey sky. Bammmm. Now if there is an idea I don't like that is surely the idea of skating in rain in 8 C or so, with 25-30 km/h winds. Definitely not loving that.
Anyway we drove to the meeting point while contacting everyone else in the team so we met 4 other cars there and one local. He lead us to a school as we were told the amateurs will compete indoors. Wohoo, not a bad idea at all, I thought. Until I saw the gym :D

It was tiny! One round was about 70 metres all in all, and it had plastic cover. Skating on it it felt like skating on melted chewing gum until a point where it totally lost grip and you were off in the air, heading for the walls sooo close. I was like... erm... scared :)
We had 4 and 10 laps to cover. Completely missing warmup we started with the shorter one. Feri took the lead but suffered in the turns on his 100mm wheels, so in lap 3 I overtook him from the inner side. He made a nice recovery and it was a draw I think on the finish line - a photo finish would there be such a device around :) However a few good photos were shot where both of us are smiling, almost laughing while skating around.
For the 10-lap race we were joined by the ladies (so we were 4 on the track...) and this time he seemed to find a good trajectory and gained a small advantage lap by lap, I finished half a lap behind him.

It was early afternoon when the podium ceremony has finished and we all went out to the edge of the town - leaving everything behind you could associate with comfort.
It has dried until then (result of the heavy winds, not the heat) and Peter had his first distance, 200m, quite early. He missed warmup totally and suffered all the 200m, finishing with a face usually known only from the end of training sessions. Right after that we put him back in the car and (oh well forgive me all enviroment-friendly ones around) turned the heat full up with the engine running.

200m finish with same cat girls, sprinting along with teammate Reka

His 400m was a suffering one again - but he made it, won all 5 races in this year and became a champion with 100%!!!
He had a relay with Bence (2 years older), 3 * 700m. Bence started and was in pos. 2 when they changed:

On the headwind part of the course Peter was caught and overtaken but he managed to not fall back significantly and came in about 15 metres behind that guy:

It was Bence's turn again and he quickly reclaimed position #2 and held onto it until the finish. So it was a good race claiming a silver medal and remember, Peter was the youngest of all participating. But not the youngest one present :)

Moira fighting the winds

We had 2 series of podium ceremonies, first for this particular event (individual/relays), and the latter for the overall championships. In fact the team had quite a few times reason to cheers, seems like all the hard work is beginning to show in results.

Winner of XVII. Turul Cup

Cat E-F relays - silverHungarian Champion 2008, Cat. F

Gosh it was so good to get in the car... no wind and no chilling cold in there :) We had our usual post-race McDonalds visit, packed and headed home - it was a silent drive since both our small elves fell asleep quickly :)

Jász Cup - Jászberény

Second time this year it was racing time in Jászberény, this time to compete for the 'Jász' Cup. The surroundings there are inhabited by the jász people since the 13th century and they celebrate their identity this time of the year with a festival. Anyway, a nice setup for holding several sport events. And drink a lot in the evenings :)

We were still on hols, in nearby Parád so it was an hour's drive or so to get to Jászberény. Weather was hot hot hot throughout the week but right before the racing day a cold weather front hit the region so it was cloudy and windy in the morning. Not too windy and in fact it looked better than another day in 35+ C...

The race began with yet again some organisational problems, turned out the racing numbers of few of the team members had to be changed - don't ask me why. It is completely unclear to me. I thought they've put it in some database when they handed them out first. Obviously they did not, and now every coach had to fill in the race numbers of his team on a piece of paper. What can be soooo difficult handling about 100 people's name/bday/racing number???

Anyway, then came the usual chaos of 'now we will do the F category girls, then amateur men cat D, then pre-heat prof. B men'... so you sit there, all dressed up, skates on and you don't know how much time you have until the next run, or when you can go and do some warmup laps. I really don't get it what does it take to make up a race program, a schedule, and stick to it.

Well somehow it started, first it was my 500m. We went to the start and... came a 10-minute shower, raining cats and dogs. After 5 mins however all 4 of us (soaking wet) voted to run the race and get back to the tent :) So off we went, one guy from Serbia fell at start but then went on to win, Dani (14 yr) was second, and I was able to keep the pace of Feri (at last) and was 1 meter behind him at the finish line. It may be the difference in our wheels though, he suffered with his 85A 100mm wheels while I didn't even notice any slips on my 82A 84mm wheels...

Then came Peter's 400m, however they were only 2 starting :( The track was still bit wet and slippery and in fact he almost fell at start but then it was a smooth, clear win ahead of Hazafi Ádám from KDSE.

It was my turn again, 2000m (10 laps) this time. The track has dried up but the wind was quite strong. Senior women & men were starting in the same heat and I was quite happy to perform a smooth start. Then I was in position 6 (out of 8) and after 2 laps decided to move up a bit and overtook 2 ladies. Well... my energy lasted until lap 7 and from then on it was pure horror, I felt I was slowing down lacking any power and then those 2 ladies left me again. It was a bad decision to move up early it seems...

Then soon came Peter and 300m, and a super performance again, skating nice style and an easy win. It is a year like that it seems.

We saw some great elimination and points races then for the upper age category boys and girls, too bad Tomi from our team produced a huge & spectacular crash and had to be taken to the doc for serious checks. Later he returned smiling but... I wonder how he put on normal clothes or slept in a bed...

Oh and we seniors raced relays, 1800m (9 laps). It was nice, quite uneventful and we came second, the ones beating us were those youngsters from Serbia allowed to run in amateur despite being pros, so no problems begin defeated by them :)

There is a very fine pizzeria close to the track so it was obvious we had to visit that and refill our carbohydrate stores, then came the 'usual' waiting time and then the ceremonies. Peter won a nice cup, I've collected a silver in relays, and the team has performed quite well, we had quite a few podium appearances.

Then came the overall prize and... tadaaaammmm... the overall cup was won by our team, KDE Szeged!!! Wohoooooo, last year the team was 3rd, now you can see the cup in the middle of the pic, in the hands of Sonja.

Moira was having a good time in the team tent playing with the younger ones about her age. Interestingly, she was most impressed with a boy's Ferrari matchbox car - she may be influenced by his brother :)

Aftermath - Bearings dead. Though we put tons of WD-40 on them, most of them went dead by the time we got home :( The only cure is - throw them out and put in new ones. Well well well, no fun racing in the rain indeed :s

Savaria Cup - Szombathely

The 3rd round of the Hungarian Championships, called Savaria Cup, was held at Szombathely.

Szombathely is a very pretty place. We've been there 2 times already, so both Moira & Peter were delighted to get there. We like the city itself, not too small, not too big, kinda general 'small Austria' feeling we have in & around the city. The air is much more clear than at home, so Aniko likes it more, too.

Anyway, to the race now. As there is no speedskating track (yet) in Szombathely, the race itself was held on a double, asphaltous, open-air handball track, in the backyards of a newly built sports arena. Don't believe everything on the satellite map, it must be a 2-3 year old photo - so believe me, the middle of the sat map is a handball track now :)

So there are no elevated turns, and one round is 140 meters. It imposes some technical difficulties as it is easier to loose the grip in the turns, and it is much more difficult to overtake as the straight sections are very short, about 2-3 pushes for a junior age speedskater. It has a 'short-track' feeling for this reason.

It was very hot and sunny all the day and Peter was a bit nervous - he wanted to defeat the local guy Hazafi Ádám and he feared the track a bit. He had 2 distances to compete, 1.5 laps and 3.5 laps, about 200 and 500 meters, and 4 challengers.
It wasn't until noon his races have come, first the shorter distance. He started perfectly, negotiated the first turn leading the bunch and was increasing his lead from then on.


Then about 1 hour later, he was devastating - starting the last lap with comfortable lead, by the sound of the ring he started a sprint as if it was a 1-lap race. He finished half a lap ahead of the others, his coach called him the 'skater of the day' and that made him so proud.

The team was not in top form, frankly :( Due to the specialities of the track, we didn't see much takeovers and most races were like modern-era F1, where a start could decide the finishing order. Well, let's see what the team will do next week, as they will spend 6 days in training camp.

Me... well I've started, and finished 4th (of 4) on the 200m, and 3rd on the longer distance (cca 500m), due to one falling out on a turn :) I didn't even notice that fall but I was told later only, after finish :) So... still have room to develop :)