Turul Cup 2009 - seniors

Between the professional races of the Turul Cup we amateurs had the chance to run our races, too. Our age category was entitled 'born 1995 or before' so that meant ZsD (1992) was racing with us, too. All in all we were 6, 3 women plus 3 men - besides ZsD it was IR sr whom we've met in Trebisov lately.

The first distance was 500 m - and I was completely out of form. I moved like Pinocchio without any working joints I think, it's so good there is no video shootings from that run :s The clock showed 1:15 when we finished and I know I can do much much better. Well, let's say it was the unknown track that made me this slow :)

Then after the pros showed us how to skate we had 3.000 m on the program. Well it was shortened to 2.000 m and in this case I was not against it at all. The wind on the backstraight was very strong and gusty. We started, IR and ZsD left us in no time and I was skating between two women, GyD and BA. In the 1st turn of the 3rd lap however I wandered off the track with my left skate, tried to run a bit on the grass but I didn't succeed. So I was fell (my first crash on a race \o/) on my left elbow and left side. I managed to get up quite quickly and came back on the track to finish only a few seconds behind BA. Were it a 3.000 m I would have caught her. I finished at 5:40, 3 laps behind IR and 2 behind ZsD...

While skating I only saw my left thumb bleeding and the left racing number flapping in the wind, and I also felt my elbow was sore. Then the paramedics team (ie Aniko) took care of me and it turned out there was quite a deep and big bruise on my elbow, and a long scratch on my side, besides some road rash on my left hip and the bleeding thumb. I first thought the scratch on the side was caused by the concrete tiles on the side of the asphalt track but no, we realized it was caused by the racing number's safety pin that opened when I fell on it and tattooed my side with some tribal drafts. Yes, now I laugh at it but then I felt sore and yes they were a'burning. The evening shower didn't feel good either :s See the pics on Cor's nice website (he is so much fond of road rash...).
I don't want to play a hero here, I know the pros & kids fall and have bigger and nastier bruises & injuries but I'm not a young fellow any more... The next morning we went to the track with all my fresh bandages - it was damn hard to get in/out the car and driving, too. But of course we had a good laugh with everyone about my fall :)

On Sunday we had 1.000 m to cover and surprisingly I skated much much better than the previous day (so I'll show you photos). Maybe I 'knew' the track by then - bit too close even? :) I started at 5th place and quite slow, as BA managed to gap me about 60-70m.

Then I told myself to get my butt lower and do longer pushes to the sides and soon I started to close the gap.

I got behind her right at the start of the last turn, took a step outside and tried a hard crossover push (did not succeed) but sprinted and won on the finish line.

We came in separated by 0.1 seconds only, at 2:31. While it was not important at all to finish before her, it was a good feeling.

Anyway, I earned pos 3. (from 3...) and a nice hand-made medal. Big smiles, good atmosphere on the podium and before / after it, too - real fun!