League Meet #1 Part One

When the alarm went off at 3am Sunday morning,
(can you call that hour "morning"?), it wasn't
as difficult to get out of bed as I thought it
would be.
I'd changed from practice wheels to race wheels
the night before,and everything was packed up
waiting by the front door.
Coffee?
Check.
Bathroom?
Check.
Dogs out?
Check.
Oatmeal ready to eat?
Check?
Uniform on?
Check.
Heading out the door my cell phone rang.
Who'd be calling me at four in the morning??
He would.

:)

So, I drove 40 minutes south in the dark,
passing numerous deer in and on the side of
the road, talked to "him", and ate my oatmeal
at the same time.
Multitasking the miles away.
Aren't I just something or what?
LOL

Second in line at Frenchtown's door at 4:45, we
talked till the warm folks inside, let all the
frozen people outside, in too.
(still think we are all nuts to race this early...)

Anyway, I wasn't nervous like I have been in the
past.
Well, not until it was time for me to check in for
my first race, a 700m.
Instead of this huge battle between, "don't race",
"do race", now I recognize that uncomfortable
feeling as the adrenaline rush that goes hand in
hand with stepping up to the line.
After competing for 3 seasons, there are enough
races under my wheels that, after the start is
out of the way, I'm pretty confident on the floor
itself.
Might not be the fastest 51 year old, but I am
one of the few 51 year olds, of the female variety,
that race on inlines. So I no longer beat myself
up like I used to for not being very fast.
Perhaps because the truth is, I get faster every
year.
Not in leaps and bounds but inch by inch.

Now it's a common feeling among racers at the first
League Meet, to be less than enthusiastic.
I think it's because there is never any down time
when your an inline speed skater.
If your not training or racing indoor, your training
and racing outdoors.
And that endless season, year in, year out, wears on
ya.
Despite this fact, your wondering how your going to
stack up to the other skaters in your division, that
you haven't raced against indoors since Nationals.
And you won't have that answer until you get out on
the floor and the gun goes off.
Once that first race is a done deal, I think we all
breath a sigh of relief, because it's never as bad as
we imagine it "might" be.

To be continued..