Pre Duluth Update

Pre Duluth Update: It's friday night and I am lying in bed with Travis Shaw. I am staying at the hotel right by the finish line with 7 other Toronto Inline Skating Club friends.

It's supposed to be freezing tomorrow morning for the start of the race- they are calling for 0 celsius! Eek! If you're in Duluth today, it feels pretty much that temperature already. When I drove into Duluth, I spotted the Hyper skaters out for a skate and also my TISC friends- they were all bundled up in layers of clothes and still cold!

As usual, Duluth is a who's-who of skating. You've got the big companies represented at the skating expo, the likes of Bont, Matter, K2, Rollerblade, MPC. There are skaters from all over the place; USA, Canada, Belgium, New Zealand, Colombia!

The drive to Duluth was lllloooooonnnngg! I have pictures from the drive- lots of them! I got stopped by the police for speeding but he let me off. I wasn't going very fast, just a bit over the limit. You know, the drive from Toronto to Duluth is very nice- I was treated to magnificient landscapes unveiling themselves slowly as I approached the crests of hills. The 17-hours-or-so of driving provided me with a lot of solitude and time to think about different things in my life, things like skating, my girlfriend, work, my family, music. To think that I get to do that all over again on my way home!

I got to chat a bit with the Inline Planet's Robert Burson! It's nice to finally meet him- he's a great guy! I also got to talk with Greg Major- another one of skating's good guys.

You know, the really cool thing about a race like the Northshore Inline Marathon is that you can spot some of the all-time great skaters like Tony Muse walking around. If you're a competitor and a fan and enthusiast like me, it's really exciting and motivating to see these great skaters supporting great events.

I have a few pictures already and some video, so I'll get them up eventually. For now, it's sleeping time- I need to get up at 4:30am and change my wheels, find some warm clothes, and board the bus that takes us to the start line.