My Goodwood - Aug 2009

Peter Maisey

photos by Phil Barton

For me, Goodwood 2009 started as Goodwood 2008 was drawing to a close. I realised that with my 60th birthday rapidly approaching, I needed to do something physically demanding to persuade myself that sixty was a just a number and not the gateway to a life of doing nothing. Having skated a few marathons and half marathons, I knew they would not be challenge enough. Anything involving pounding my worn out knees wasn’t an option either, so London or any other 26 mile running marathon was out. Camberley Skaters, the organisers of the Goodwood Roller marathon, came to my rescue. Dropping the near-impossible 100 kilometers in 2008 for a double marathon in 2009, I had found my challenge.

My first task was to work out how to skate outdoors through the winter, if only to keep reminding my feet of what skating felt like. Asking more experienced skaters, I purchased a set of Hyper Pro 250 wheels. These wheels stuck like glue to wet tarmac. They didn’t glide too well, but apart from being able to skate through the winter I was also building up some muscle strength at the same time. There was a downside though, as I found that these wheels never really allowed me to develop a long slow steady stride. As a result, when Goodwood 2009 came around I was still using a rather short rapid push.

Training didn’t go quite as intended. Sessions tended to involve skating the mile up and down a nearby cycle path, with very few longer outings. Surprisingly it didn’t get at all boring. Bordering a local nature reserve, the changing seasons presented a constantly changing scene of wildlife and wild flowers.

As the spring progressed into summer, and paths became drier, I switched to harder wheels, Hyper Concretes. I began to attempt the rudiments of the double push, something explained on a course I had attended with Tim Wheals of Eastbourne Skaters. But with two operations in the preceding five years, my knees couldn’t take the strain.

The London Inline Marathon, at which I did the half marathon, was meant to measure my progress. It told me I wasn’t doing too well. A few weeks later, I managed to talk my way onto the Goodwood track. In windy conditions I completed the marathon distance in a reasonable time, for me at least.

I had planned to use a new set Hyper Hyperformance wheels and Reds Bones bearings that had been sitting in my son’s unused inlines for a year. So two days before Goodwood I set off to wear the shine off the new Hypers. It was like skating through glue. I panicked. I bought new bearings from the local skateboard shop, and went through a process of elimination less than 24 hours before Goodwood. New wheels and Bones bearings, old wheel and new bearings, new wheels and….you get the idea. The best combination turned out to be new bearings and old Hyperformance wheels.

Come the day and what a relief. For the first time ever, the wind was blowing up the notorious first hill, turning what had been an ordeal in 2008 into a pleasant skate. Pairing up with my son Tom, who was skating on his beloved roller hockey quads, we set of at what I though was a steady pace. The hydration pack (Camelbak) I was carrying, complete with bananas and energy bars, meant no stopping to pick up food and drinks.

We went through the half marathon seven minute faster than my previous best, and through the marathon distance a whopping twenty five minutes faster. At marathon distance we stopped to plaster up a few hot spots on our feet before blisters started forming.

Only another marathon left to do. Laps 12, 13, 14, 15…all pretty straightforward. Lap16 and things started to get a bit more difficult. The lines we’d so easily formed during the first eleven laps suddenly vanished. Most skaters had finished after three hours and about a dozen skaters were left to circle the 2.4 mile track for the remaining two hours.

We took a brief rest at the end of lap 17. What a mistake. It took a Herculean effort to get up and skating again. Lap 18 was real struggle. I was now skating on automatic pilot. As we approached the end of lap 19, my legs began to cramp up. At this point I decided enough was enough. If I had cramped and lost control, at speed on one of the down slopes, I could have injured myself quite badly. We might have had time to complete two more laps, but I wasn’t going to achieve the full distance.

In truth, I think my son Tom could have completed 22 laps on his quad skates, but with nobody to skate with he pulled out at the same time. We were, after all, skating as a team.

So, with better training or a more astute race strategy, could I have completed 22 laps, or is 60 really my age and not just a number? I can’t answer that question. We might have gone a bit slower for the first 26 miles, but not much if we had wanted to complete all 22 laps. Tom is gently nudging me to give it another try next year, and I am slowly coming round to the idea that 22 laps are possible if we do everything right.

Oh yes, and next year I will make sure my axles are done up tight! Did I not mention I lost a wheel on lap 8, with a mere 32 miles still left to go?

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