The moment

There is a moment in the rink, when the ice resurface ends. The zamboni leaves the ice, the doors are closed, the mats are put back to their place.
Then, just before the referees enter the rink again and blow their whistles to get the racers on ice, to wake up the monster called 'racing crowd' for an un-wanted awakening, just before the rink is starting to get surrounded again by all the excited coaches, racers, parents, helpers and supporters - there is a moment.

The moment when the rink is clean in its virginity. The ice is perfect and smooth and shiny. Plain as plain as it can be, only few patches of water left behind to start to turn into that so much loved and so much hated material we call ice.

That moment is filled with silence.

Those up in the seats look at the boards to see which heat is a'coming, the coaches look at their papers and check their stopwatch; and the racers look at the ice. They look at the ice and see the upcoming moments.
The moments before the start, filled with enourmous anxiety, the seconds after the gun was shot before they reach the first corner.
They see the battle for position, the first straight where they realize the possibilities and threats, the fights they have to fight to gain a position, the 'wars' they are to wage soon.
They hear the clip-clap of the post-start rush, the carving sound of the steel urging to get a grip, the blade cutting the ice firmly in the turns, the smooth sssssssshhhhhh when they negotiate the calmer straights.
And they hear the sound of the blade losing grip, the human falling down, the lycra gliding on the ice and the inevitable whop when one crashes into the mats.
They hear the one beat that parents' heart miss when they see their children crash, the beset moment the distressed moms and dads have to live through until they see if their beloved can stand up.
And they see and hear the moment at the finish line, when everything is over. The seconds when they can stand up again and look down at the ice, glide in free lines not caring about boyes or opponents again. The seconds when they replay what they have done in the seconds they have just left behind and rethink if it was worth it.

All these things are there, in that given moment, filled with silence.

That moment is what I love most on shorttrack competitions. You should try to get a chance to catch that moment someday.

Indexed

I love thisisindexed.com. Jessica is truly one of the bests of Internet.
Here's a recent one from her, titled Fate = Decisions:

Simply great, isn't it?

Dark gray January

January. Sportwise it was not the best month.
Peter had a small local race mid-month, where he skated like he learnt skating a month before. After the race he summed it up "I was tired and I did not want to race".
Then he got hit by flu.
Then at the end of the month we entered Pannonia Open ST race in Budapest. 230+ racers from 17 nations, a really big crowd. But for Peter it was one of his worst races.
He started with 500m on Friday, where he almost fell in the 3rd turn and so finished 4th (3 advancing), 3 seconds slower than his best. And overall, you could see he was 'not there'. He lacked concentration, but I told myself it was due to the fact he has just got better after the flu. Anyway, it was quite hard to get him in normal mood again.
Then Saturday, in the 222m he started well, he fought like he usually does - and then fell :( He was crying when he quit the rink but I persuaded him he was doing everything OK, it was just bad luck. And indeed it was.
Sunday, 333m - a good start again but loosing ground in first turn, then he climbed back and reached up to the 3rd position guy, but then when he was looking for the occasion to overtake him, he fell again in the turn.
What can you say after a weekend like this? The next one will be better :)

In school he was flying high though. He brought home his half-year sum-up and it was all excellent. So there is a silver lining...

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

Santa Claus Cup, 2008

So it has arrived, Peter's first real shorttrack race. Santa Claus Cup 2008, Budapest.

And in fact a very proud dad reporting, you may expect a very much biased report here :)
It was a 2-day race, with a warm-up session in the evening prior to the first day, so we had to drive to Budapest early afternoon on Friday, 12th December. Peter enjoyed the evening session quite a bit, he especially liked the quality of ice in the rink.
Saturday morning the race started with the smallest ones, so he had to get on ice quite early, in Heat 3 of 500m. He finished 2nd in his heat so he made it directly into the final, though I was not too much satisfied with his time, he clearly eased up in the last 2 laps, giving away 2 seconds per lap. It is quite uncommon from him but I told myself it must have been the stage fright.
In the finals he finished 6th but no problem, as he was smallest & youngest so grabbing a 6th place from 14 competitors is a very nice achievement.

Then came the heats of 222m and he made it to the semis in a nice way, it was a big fight to claim 2nd but he missed it by 0.2 seconds. In the semis he finished 3rd so went to the B-final and finished 3rd there (7th from 14).
After all these heats and finals he had to do the 333m quarter-final in the evening but again, showing a superb form, got it under his belt coming 2nd.

The next day he was simply - tired. He was lacking concentration and was yawning while I laced up his boots - not the best state of mind to get on ice at all :s But I think I must not blame him for that, he had to fight in 6 stages the previous day and this kind of pressure was quite unknown for him so far - but remember, he is only 7 years old...
He fell in the 333m semi-final so went into the final B, where he met the mats again so finished 3rd there (7th from 14 again).
Then there was only 1 commitment left for him, to cover the starting 1.5 laps in the relays for cat C-D-E boys, so we could start a relay team, otherwise there would have been only 2 boys from the team, missing the criteria of 3 starting... He started (looked bit comic compared to 14-yr-old boys...) and made a nice relay, so he did what he had to do for the team :)
Overall he gained 7th place and everyone finishing ahead of him was significantly older - just click and check out the age of the others on the overall classification list. He ran super times, personal bests in all distances and very promising ones - now I am very very curious about his season-ending times due in March or so.
Generally speaking about the race itself it was very well organized, with a good speaker and nice people all around.

Complete results are here, or you can see them filtered for Cat F boys, too.
I'll try my best uploading videos to YouTube and link them here ASAP.

Transition...

...to ice was going on since October. In fact, Peter says he likes skating on ice more than on inlines. He managed to adopt well, though many times he is not low enough, but... he is only 7, has quite some time to refine his position skills.
There was a small local race together with another club, a good opportunity to check out race times and gain some experience. Peter - as youngest in his category - finished 2nd (from 5) in 3 heats, and 3rd in one, where he clearly missed overtaking opportunities. But we talked it over and he showed the next heat he can fight.
You may check out the videos on YouTube, in cronological order:
400m 222m 333m 500m
(the camera ran out of memory in the last lap of the 500m but nothing happened there...)
When running alone, against the clock, he is now 6 seconds quicker on 222m than he was in March - we will see next March how he will develop during the winter season.

Santa Cup is going to happen this weekend in Budapest, so, his first real shorttrack test is near :)

... my transition to winter mode is like:

• got back to going to the gym 3 times a week
• running 4-5 kms 3 times a week
• an hour-long indoor training, once a week

I generally refer to these as 'pre-season' - I myself wonder when the base/season would start at all :D:D

Oh almost forgot - convinced Aniko to start skating, so she already had 2 lessons and she says she had fun :)

2008 inline season review

All the race events of 2008 are over, it's time to make a quick summary.

I've started the season at absolute 0 level. My goal was to learn to skate and gain some racing experience. So we can call this year a development year, starting from scratch.

I've attended:

• 4 track races
• 1 half-marathon
• 1 super-marathon relay

Initially I wanted to go to Kosice as season closing but due to other factors I did not manage to get there this year.

It started with the half-marathon of Wink Marathon in Siófok. Lacking actually everything I'd have needed even the fact I've finished can be seen as a good result. I missed my target time of 1:25 by 4 minutes, but that did not put me back at all. Instead it made me realize what I should do - train! Train systematically, work on drills and gain endurance. Sound like a lot of work and no fun, but - it seemed like fun :)

The track races were quite a bit of challenge, lacking crucial skills like proper crossovers or nice lateral push. However I never wanted to skip them, I thought of these as laying down some base to measure development later. And in fact there has been some development, I was able to takeover Feri once! He trains regularly with the club, along with the kids, so obviously he should be ahead of me - but still a good target ahead...

Well in fact I finished last every track race except one (due to a fall ahead), but the latter 2 races I finished less metres behind the others. And that is an advance.

The super-marathon relay came as a surprise event just the moment I was feeling down not being able to go to Kosice. So I did not think about it but entered. In fact it was about a half-marathon distance and I was quite pleased how it went.

All in all I am happy with the progress I made this year.
Next year I want to cover more mid-distance races and work on my technique to get competitive on track events, too.

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 :)

Supermarathon

There was a 56-km running event held nearby, called 'Homokháti Szupermarathon'. The small villages and towns wee bit west of Szeged are commonly called 'Homokhát', means 'sandy part' or something like that.

I was not insane enough to cover that distance by myself so we entered the relay. We were 3 in the team (called 'Kiribati Turbo 608'), and there were 5 etaps to go, so Feri did the first (7 km) and the third one (12 km), myself the 2nd (13 km) and the 5th (7 km), Szilvi had one distance to go (15 km). The main difficulty of the race was not the distances but the road surfaces. Etaps #1, #3 and #5 were quite rough, someone called it a hazelnut choc...
Weather was fine if you like windy overcast 10C, after a rain... there were a lot of runners and hurdes of schoolkids running a 1km distance. We've met some skaters from Budapest, from Kori2000 and had a nice chat with them. They opted for skating the whole distance, but as a pleasure run, not as a race.

Well we left Feri behind for the start and drove to the first relay point and waited quite a lot. It turned out the start procedure was repeated for some reason so everything was postponed half an hour :) Anyway Feri arrived at some time and then came my 13 km. The first 2 kms were very rough & tough: headwind, bad surface, even wet at some point. But then the asphalt turned quite smooth and after a big turn westwards headwind wasn't a factor anymore. I tried to catch up with a guy skating about 300m ahead of me but with no success, in fact the gap has remained the same by the end of my etap. My back was aching badly after 20 minutes but... I've reached the next checkpoint and it was Feri's turn again.
Quick drive up to the next meeting point and talking to Feri meanwhile, he suffered very much on the rough asphalt. He turned up at some point though and Szilvi started. We drove to the last meeting point - and then disaster came.
The race route was a loop, like a lasso - the first and last distance were the same route but opposite direction. We were waiting and waiting and then decided something has happened to Szilvi. Feri got in the car and went off searching for her. Later it turned out she missed a crucial turn and got lost. Feri found her though sometime later, she must have covered 10 extra kms by then... Anyway she got to the meeting point and I was on my way to finish. Though the asphalt was rough still I quite enjoyed this second distance, and during the last 3 kms I was quite happy, skating smooth style with big strong sidepush and nice recovery. I was really having fun then.
Crossing the finish, line Szilvi and Feri were waiting for me there and we were given a gift package each. There was no prize for the skate relays but that's no problem.
I've checked the race times and I was over 20km/h - hooraaaay!

3 kids of the club were also doing a relay, namely Petra (10), Balázs (16), Marci (10, Feri's son). They handled it professionally, but they also had trouble on the 3rd part. Balázs covered distances 1,3 and 5, while Marci ran the 2nd and Petra the 4th. When I asked them after the race, they were not tired at all!
Some photos of big numbers of crazy runners and small numbers of crazy skaters here.

After all, it was a pleasant ride (minus Szilvi getting lost) and we may do it again next year, but I think we could do it as individuals. Now do I sound insane? :D

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