Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Posted on 08 Jan 02:46 pm

Salty Fish & New Challenges…

I was just finishing my 3rd cup of coffee and a delicious breakfast consisting of several different kinds of salty fish (I LOVE many things about Norway, breakfast has come to be one of them), when the race organizer walks over to me with a long & unhappy look on his face.

Mr Love, I know you are going to be unhappy to hear this, but there is going to be a problem certifying your 1000m race yesterday as a Masters record. The electronic timing, as you know, malfunctioned, and we just had one hand timer clocking your race, IMSSC protocols need at least 2 sources to agree on a time for it to officially a record. I am very sorry, you will simply have to skate fast today.

He tried to be as nice as he could about it, it wasn’t his fault, rules are rules, and I was as nice as I could be in asking a few questions & clarifications, but internally I was suddenly REALLY fired up. Damm! a waste of an excellent race!!

As blah as I was yesterday, this set a fire going in me, and I had those primal predator feelings going as I stepped onto the ice to go to the start line.

I was the 11th pair in the 500m, with an outer lane start and that always tricky final inner turn. As I stepped to the start line I thought of the fantastic movie “This is Spinal Tap” and literally said out loud to no one: “the 11th pair, hmmmm, HA! BUT THIS ONE GOES TO 11!!”

I gave my wedding ring a kiss, (I did that for some reason at trials, it’s a new habit that seems to have stuck) and got into my starting position.

The gun went off, it took me a few steps to get organized, as I was frothing at the mouth a bit too much, but I drove as hard as I could for the first 100m (10.6!! what has happened to my normal 10.3 start!!!), However I absolutely nailed the first turn, and hit the backstretch already at top speed. I got really “long & low” on the backstretch straight, set up the final turn well, was somewhat unsteady & wavering through the turn, exited a little tight, and then drove that last 100m with everything I had, I only felt a little bit of slowing down over the last 50 meters.

Final time, 37.93!!! That felt damm good! A good dollop of REVENGE at no-one and nothing in particular.

I had a ton of time till my 1000m, and forced myself to calm down, as I have to get my start under control. It’s a hard balancing act to do, to keep the emotional level revving along in the right place on a long race day. My right knee hurt in a strange place, and some part of me wanted to just get this over with.

After over an hour of 1500m races, it’s my turn at the start line again. For some reason, I got an inner lane start again. Very odd, but I am faster that way, so I did not complain.

Kiss the ring (and my faraway wife, actually she is in Milan right now visiting family, so not really that far), and sink down into ready position.

BANG!

Off the line well! The first 1000m turn is only 60 meters from the start, so its tricky, but I hit it and then the first straightaway with EVERYTHING. Second turn went great too, I thought I heard the announcer say “Andrew Love, 200m 17.09” Wow! That is fastest ever if I heard that right! Third turn also was great, Drive the straightaway and I hear the bell for the final lap. It’s hurting now, I accelerate the fourth turn much better than yesterday. I am on a good race. I dive into the last 200m and my skating begins to rip apart like a meteor entering the earth’s atmosphere.

In the final corner, I hear a bunch of super cool older Italian skaters I had dinner with last night yelling “DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE” (DIE means, literally, “Go!/Give” and I was doing a good job of dying!). Their strong voices moved me even through the pain, this is what skating is about! These images to the right are ones that my friend Paolo Gemme took during the race.

I cross the finish line with a loud “uunnhhhhuuhgh!!!” and see the time 1:16.11.

I am happy, today was faster than yesterday until 200 to go, then it was far slower. Yesterday was a better race, and I think that 1:15.7 was an accurate time, but at least I did officially get the IMSSC record!

Life can sometimes be very odd, and throw out challenges that one would never expect. I think the crucial thing is not to dwell upon odd & difficult things that happen, but more what should you do with the challenges you face. Oh, and friends you meet along the way, who cheer for you in other languages, that makes life really sweet!!!

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Filed under: on the road, sweat

MASTERS RECORDS!!!

I have had a very reliable alarm clock. Mark Chrysler is a USA speedskater competing here, a longtime friend of Boris’s, and we train together occasionally in Salt Lake. Mark works nights (he is an intensive care medical specialist), so Norwegian time is Mark’s normal workday. He has been my reliable knock on the door getting my sorry jet-laggin butt to breakfast, and has been great conversation as I slowly caffeinate myself towards reality (or at least as close as I ever get). He dragged me out of some really nice dreams this morning, but hey, there was racing to be done!

First of all, here is a picture of the outside of the Vikingskipet. Click on it if you want the big version (I have it on my desktop right now!) It’s truly huge, there are tiny cars parked up to the left of it. I debated photoshopping this a little to bring out details, but I left it true to the real Norway grey!

To my eye, this is not an upside down Viking ship, this looks more like a prehistoric sea creature, or maybe a shot from a Godzilla movie, as Godzilla’s new thickly plated rival scuttles across the Norwegian snows to do battle!

Anyway, warmup went well this morning, I had power, technique, but not much pop to my skating, and I am still somewhat numb after the emotional rollercoaster of Olympic Trials. It was hard to get myself “ready” to race again. But there are over 100 masters athletes from Norway, Germany, Italy, Holland, Romania and Russia here (As well as Mark and I, the lone North Americans). It’s quite a different scene from Olympic trials, and it took a while for me to get into it.

The speedskating records I am trying to break in the men’s 35-40 Masters International records are 38.63 for the 500m, set by Norwegian Ivar Njos, and a 1:18.31 in the 1000m by Dutch Skater Ledo Beeksma. I have skated much faster than both, but on the scary fast ice of salt lake, not on Euro sea level ice.

The IMSSC has put on many races over the last 9 years, and there have been some quality skaters who have thrown down good times. Not world cup times, true, but hey, we are folks with JOBS!!!

I had no pair for the 500m, but that’s fine. I was doing the “easier/less dangerous” 500m with the inner lane start/outer lane finish. The gun went off and I got off the line with a small slip, but I hit my stride quickly, and went 10.5 for the first 100m (should be faster…..), first turn was ok, but I nailed the backstretch with the afterburners raging and felt that sweet sensation and windroar of top speed. I had a shot! I entered the final outer turn, and made a mistake, in Salt Lake, since the speeds are so high on the world’s fastest ice, one gets in the habit of leaning very deeply.

Hamar is at least a second slower per 400m than Salt Lake due to the thicker & damper sea level air. So I entered the final turn a little close to the blocks, leaned over at my normal salt lake lean angle, and suddenly was millimeters from stepping on the inside lane markers and flying into the wall. I didn’t miss a step, but I cut off some of my power through the apex of the turn, barely avoided crashing, made it to the final 100m straightaway and tried to groove & drive. You can’t gain speed on the final 100, all you can do is not slow down, and today, I didn’t!!…. I crossed the line and saw 38.17!!!!!!!!!!

I felt happy in a calm, solid, full-meal kind of way. All sorts of European skaters came over to congratulate me on my age group WORLD RECORD! Here is a picture of the final results sheet.

Officially this is not a World Record, the ISU does not officially recognize masters “World Records” even though they are in negotiation with the International Masters Speed Skating Comittee to do just that, but they recognize the IMSSC as the people who should put on races designed to bring the best older skaters in the world together.

So I usually try to be cautious and always call this by the proper title, a “Masters International” record. But ALL the European skaters who congratulated me called this a “World Record”. So maybe, in my heart, I can let it be that, even if my mouth says something else.

After a round of conversation & back slapping, I got back to the business of warming up properly for my 1000m. It’s really easy to just sit around and chat, and after good races, that is what you want to do. But rinks are COLD, and the body needs to shake out the effort you have just made. So I like getting on the stationary bike, and doing 2-3 maximum RPM sprints & break a brand new sweat. Also it gives you a chance to do the mental visualization of seeing yourself execute perfect technique in the perfect race, over and over.

So now its time for the 1000m, They call myself and German good fella Jens Kroll (I know him from my first trip to Europe) to the line. There is a lot of oxygen in this lowland atmosphere. It’s time for another try at the “skate-to-die” maximum effort!

The 1000m is simply a sprint that is just a little too long, like the 400m running race in track and field, you have to start super hard, and then maintain maximum speed as your legs explode into a thousand flaming bits, it usually hits me about 200 meters to the finish .

When the gun goes off, I get off the line well, hit the tricky first corner and snap through it perfectly. Two arms till 250 meters, then one arm and drive, second corner goes well. I am at maximum speed in the backstretch, in the third corner it starts to hurt. The picture here is from my fastest 1000m at Olympic trials, but at basically the same moment.

Unusually early pain! crap! When I feel it in the 3rd corner, that is not good. I make myself sit lower and drive. I get the bell for the final lap. The 4th, and second to last corner is crucial in the 1000m, spectators can’t see it, but a radar gun would tell you this is where most skaters begin to slow down. So you have to really nail this turn like the race ends right there. I try, and it’s a ragged effort that somehow gets power into the ice.

There are so many masters racing here, they have had to run another pair of racers at the same time. It’s called a quartet start. I come out of the turn, and I am already catching the quartet who 200 meters behind me! My legs are cooked, I miss full weight shift on a few of the strokes, the final corner is completely ugly, and tunnel vision is taking over for the final 50.

I cross the line and there is no time on the scoreboard!! They are not running electronic timing for the 1000m! It is many long minutes till someone announces the time 1:15.71!! Another record, and this is 2.9 seconds faster than the previous record! I am thrilled! And happiness floods me in a much stronger way than after the 500. This truly has been the season of the 1000m for me. Here is the final results sheet. Mark Chrysler had an excellent 1000, super solid technique, and finished first in his age group, and 3rd overall. We Americans are pretty good sprinters, at all ages. I am coughing from this effort for the next several hours, it always amazes me how much you can wreck your body in a shade over a minute.

A European Master congratulates me and says “Your first 200 was very solid, but you were somewhat stiff in the last 200.” Ha! Every 1000m is like that for me!!

Oddly enough, this very respectable Hamar time would have landed me 12th of 19 in the 1000m Norwegian Single Distance Championships, very similar to the 12th of 17 that I was at the US Single Distance Championships in Milwaukee this October!

Thanks for reading, I race again tomorrow, and since this is a single distance competition, tomorrow I am simply gonna take ever risk I can in that 500m final inner turn, and try to go faster!

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Filed under: on the road, sweat

Posted on 17 Dec 09:27 pm

Veritas

Whether you love her or hate her, Eva Rodansky is never boring, today she showed up at the rink with this new graffiti on her skates, is that her heart or someone else’s heart with that sword stuck through it?? Or both???

Veritas means “truth” in Latin, and is also the motto of Harvard University.

And it is getting closer to the moment of Veritas, Olympic trials are 10 days away. Oddly enough, it’s really only a moment of “Olympic” truth for about a 10 of the 50 athletes who will be skating Olympic trials.

Several of the top skaters have already qualified for the Olympics through placing top 5 in the world cup twice (an extraordinarily hard thing to do). And after a lot of racing this season, people have a pretty good idea of who is capable of what, and there are actually very few people who are legitimately in competition for those last few Olympic team spots.

In just my own personal example, almost every 500m I have skated since early November has been between 37.08 and 37.40. Some have been great, some terrible and stumbling. But the times don’t vary too much, and I am not likely to suddenly shoot rocket flames from my butt and skate the high 34-low 35 necessary to earn a spot on the 500m men’s team. And if rocket-ass action did occur, I bet some doping control people, and a few sports scientists, would like to have a long conversation with me.

I raced again today, 37.29 was my 500m time. After all this hard work, I just can’t seem to break into the 36’s!!! Damm!!! Am I reaching the limit of what my body can do? No, there are still mistakes visible here. A Kazakhstan coach got my backstretch on videotape (no sound), and I added that into the video jess shot. A rare look at a 500m from start to finish.

One scary thing about this 500m worth noting, I was paired with my training buddy Marco (him on the left, me on the right). Marco lost his footing about 100m into the race, and came extremely close to sliding into me blades first. Immediately after my 500m, someone asked me “were you scared!” and I replied “Of what?” Thinking the question was more about the normal fear factor of the final inner turn of a 500m. Then I saw the video, and understood! I heard something happen on my left, but I was really focused on what I was doing, and had no idea it was the close call the video shows.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, sweat

Callis=Art

This photo is actually from last weekend, this is longtime national team member Chris Callis flying through the final turn of a 500m. Chris missed going to the 2002 Olympic games by a whisker, and then was ON FIRE during the 2003-04 season, skating well at the World Sprint Championships.

However the seasons since have been hard for him, and he has not been able to come back to that level, and is a longshot to make it to the Torino Games.

Take a moment and appreciate his lifetime of dedication, into this one skill, captured here in a moment, this beautiful moment of one man going 35mph balanced on a blade one millimeter thick!

Chris crashed extremely hard in practice this week; I heard him saying he feels more sore and internally ripped up than when he totaled his car in an accident this summer. He messed up his body and skates, and is still a bit woozy. But he is determined, and will be there on the start line at trials.

The Olympics can be wonderful, fate can be cruel, and may Chris find his path in life, no matter the result from trials.

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Filed under: sweat, from home

Posted on 12 Dec 11:57 am

A great weekend after all

After all my Friday-post workout irrational fear, this weekend I had some of the most solid technical and physical races I have ever skated. I feel things are coming together at the right time, my fear is being replaced by cautious optimism (just wait, next weekend I will probably yo-yo back to fear again!!).

I raced my finest 500m ever on Saturday: off the line like a relaxed rocket, great first corner, fantastic draft chasing my pair John Loquai down, I slammed through the final corner as cleanly as I am capable of, terror and lean like I was skating short track, and crossed the finish line in 37.1 seconds

I still can’t bust into the 36’s! and this great feeling race was not even a personal best! It was within .02 of my PB on that crazy fast ice just before the world cup, but still…. I was happy simply because it felt great, and that is enough. After the 500’s were over, I looked at the scoreboard, and was 5th of the 42 skaters who raced that day, I finished in front of some really fast guys who I respect tremendously, and who have beaten me all year. Although this shot of the scoreboard only shows the top 8, there were 12 of us who finished all within 37.1 and 38.1. One misstep in this tough group… I have never finished in front of Donald Stewart before, ever, he says according to his most recent x-rays his foot is “still quite broken, and only hurts in the starts and turns, but it hurts a lot!”

On Sunday, I iced the cake with a 1000m personal best, 1:15.08. Ya’know the feeling when you have a hammer or a tool with a handle that just fits so perfectly into your palm, heft is pleasure? I felt that “sweet spot” on my blades this whole weekend, especially in the straightaway, and I have built that feeling, that handle on my blades, simply through hard work, it’s a nice feeling. Here is a sweet spot moment 250 meters into my 1k PB. It’s really difficult technically to drive that support leg forward aggressively and also keep the pushing leg’s blade pointed straight down the ice, but I am slowly and surely getting it.

I don’t hope for a miracle during Olympic trials, just to be the best Andrew I can be, that will feel miraculous enough…

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Filed under: sweat, from home

Limits, Elevators, & The Can-Am

I am very tired, body & soul, my brother has been blogging about this race weekend like a crazy man, and provides some interesting perspectives. I am so thankful for him, even if he picks on me (it’s payback for our youth, and I deserve it).

Here are some statistics & thoughts on how the Can-Am races went for me, as compared to the previous 3 times I have competed in Calgary.

The pic below is me blasting off the line in my second 500, you can even see the upper hip flexors in my right leg bulging through my skinsuit, as I drive that right leg forward, thanks Powercranks!!!

Top Blade Training Camp, Summer 2002
500: 41.26

Can-Am 2003
500: - 38.84 - 39.19 - 38.69
1000: - 1:19.1 - 1:18.17

Can-Am 2004
500: - 37.79 - 37.5 - 37.41
1000: - 1:18.2 - 1:17.02

Can-Am 2005 (the last 2 days)
500: - 37.40 - 37.33
1000: - 1:16.08 - 1:15.36

There is a definite curve of improvement here, yet I am sad with these results, unsure of so many things. I had desperately hoped to break into the 36’s in the 500m, I almost expected it, continuing my traditional Can-Am 1+ second 500m improvement. But the ice was slower than at previous Can-Am’s, and more importantly, my corner technique was more Herman Munster than Ninja Puma. Olympic trials are 33 days from today, and I need to chop almost a second off the 500 (and that is a lot) if I want to reach my goals.

I am certainly happy with the 1000m improvements, and I think that yesterday’s 1:15.36 is the best 1000 I have ever skated. My personal best is only .1 faster, and that was on a scary fast ice day in Salt Lake.

In the pic here, a few moments after my 1000, as I am leg-locked, heaving and retching to myself through a haze of lactic acidosis, I let my brother behind the video camera know how truly satisfied I am.

But my 1000m will never be truly OUTSTANDING vs the big dogs who gallop 1000’s between 1:07 and 1:12. Whereas I think hidden within my unrealized technique, genetics, & individual psychology, there is a scary good 500 lurking, I just need to keep focused, & let the speed come to me.

The odd sport that is the subject of this blog completes me in fundamental ways (I am sure many of the skating gypsies who read this know what I mean). Even the challenges, uncertainties, ups and downs, I would rather strive & lose than couch surf. I would rather be wise from a soul filling failure than happy and unvaryingly empty.

I wish I could truly record what skating feels like, post that here in a format you all could replay in your kinesthetic/proprioceptive cerebrums. Although I love cycling, and the feeling of going for a long ride on a hot day is wonderful, I never forget that I am straddling a gangly, cabled, clicking machine. But skates disappear, and I am simple, free, a creature of pure flight & focus.

Find the thing you have a knack for, something you are good at, something you love, and something where “work” is a joy. Find this thing, and throw your entire soul into it; good things will happen. From my juncture of 34 years old, feet in several worlds, this seems to be the key to living a happy life.

I am not sure if it matters what the pursuit itself is. The list of possibilities is endless. I think in my own skating obsession I might be getting close to the maximum of speed that my body can do, it fills me with a feeling like riding an elevator traveling too fast, and waiting for the jarring crash or U-turn slingshot back the other way.

Thanks for reading, writing this made me feel a lot better. I was riding that elevator violently up and down all yesterday.

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Filed under: on the road, sweat

Posted on 18 Nov 10:40 pm

Salt Lake World Cup, Day 1

The skating world is buzzing about Chad Hedrick’s 1500m world record, and it was an astonishing thing to watch. He is the first man in history to go under 1:43. Incredible. He swallowed more pain during that last 400m than most can even conceive of, the picture here, 120 meters from the finish, tells some of the story.

There is even more of a sense of unreality that I had to come home and update Chad’s website, and post my video of his race! It’s an emotional thing, to see someone you know do something so almost….. otherworldly….. I wonder how it feels to be Chad!!

I have work to do, I have been on edge all day today, and my energy is crashing, so here are a few pics of the world cup vibe. Since much of this race was televised (and on the internet, you can usually get realplayer format world cup videos here) I just watched, cheered my heart out for the athletes, and took a few offbeat pictures.

Gotta love the Dutch fans. I should have asked this guy if I could pose with the hat. Also deserving honorable mention were Jannicke & her singing Norwegian friends.

Skaters Mark Chrysler, Ron Macky, and Rodney Kopish approached today as if it were a football game; they were tailgating in the parking lot beforehand, and were quite drunk by the time the races were happening.

Drinking? In Utah? Check out the folks getting blitzed at the VIP liquor bar, while my friend Eva Rodansky races her heart out in the last corner of the 1000m. I wonder who these people were? Some said that they were foreign journalists, but whatever, it felt oddly rude to me. Only one face is even turned to see Eva go by. Check out the waiter in black tie on the left of the pic. Yep, VIP liquor, not skating fans.

A local security guard, preferred to turn his back on the real action, and watch the Dutch TV feed, he is even eating as he was watching.

Japanese skater at the start line, notice the lump of her hair, in a very, uuuh, left centered spot under her hood. There was much conjecture from our group wondering if this balance helped her turn left.

Maybe this is a bit of a depressing entry, but there was Olympic Class talent putting on incredible displays of effort, on the fastest ice on earth, and most US high schools play football to bigger crowds than were here.

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Brussel Sprouts

Dryland is the Brussel sprouts of your training diet
-Paul Marchese

Truer words were never spoken about training for speedskating, and unless you have perfect technique (and who does?) you need regular platefuls. I had some today in fact, I don’t like it any more now than I did at the first mouthful, but I like what it does for me a whole lot.

If you are a person who understands things visually, here is a quick visual example of what Paul means-

If you want to do this:

Do a whole lot of this first:

Thanks to my training buddy & friend Marco Bucci, for being the example in both pictures here. We have eaten more than a few servings of Boris’ secret “St. Petersburg Brussel sprouts” together, at least the scenery from the dinnner table is pretty nice.

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Filed under: sweat

Posted on 13 Nov 10:58 pm

One Ugly PB

It’s been an exciting weekend here in Salt Lake, and a busy one.

Races this weekend were… interesting, with the World Cup in town next weekend, some of the top sprinters in the world used this weekends race as a warm-up. It was kind of “world cup light”. It was fun sharing the ice with these astonishing athletes. Here are the results.

During my own races, I skated another 500m personal best, 37.08, .3 faster than ever before, but I was disappointed about it, as after a good start, good first corner, and great backstretch, I flounced through the last corner, almost crashing in my second crossover step and barely keeping it together…. I crossed the finish line pissed, as I knew I should have busted into the 36’s… Kip Carpenter was giving me some good natured ribbing after the race, “Where was the howl of joy? Dude! That’s a PB! You should be happy!” Press the play button and see what I mean. Jessica was taping this from one of the stands installed for the coming world cup, a cool thing about this angle is that you can get something of a feel of what 35mph on skates looks like, especially on the backstretch. You can hear her reaction to my stumbling final corner.

After that 500m, for my 1000m I was full of determination to set a PB or die trying, and I blasted off the line and reached the 600m mark .6 faster than ever before, absolutely flying… but the last 400m were almost as fast and fun as dragging 15 cinder blocks through a grease fire in the nude via a rope tied to my nuts, well, not quite that much fun, and somewhat more painful…. I slowed down terribly on the final 400m, to end up almost a half second slower than my PB (how does a 4.1 second speed drop sound from my first lap to the second! Ouch! It should be 2 or less). It was a skating induced case of complete rigor mortis lactic acid poisoning, I did metaphorically die trying! A friend emailed me that on friday night, she dreamed I had died during a 1000m race, and that I blogged about it after death, and people were wondering how I still had internet connectivity!

The top skaters were throwing themselves into their own fires as well, there were quite a few athletes with hacking coughs, glazed eyes, & funny looking walks after the races were over. Why do we do this sport again?

My good friend Jannicke, a Norwegian training in Salt Lake, took this picture of me standing on the start line of the 1000m, trying to relax before they call me to the start, this picture shows my weird lower back scoliosis quite well -look at my shoulders, this is what “standing straight” feels like to me.

There is no point I am trying to make with this photo, except maybe that chubby redheads with glasses, asthma, allergies, scoliosis, and weird reading habits can turn out well in the end. I am actually really glad the my spinal curvature bends the way it does, it forces me down and into the G-forces of the turn, if nature had curved me the opposite way, skating constant left turns would be much more difficult. Flip a coin, I was lucky.

Jannicke has a really nice website actually, You can find it here at http://www.jannickem.com, and she took some fantastic picture of the weekends racing. Her website is her own work, and follows her transition from figure skating to speed skating. She is quite happy to only have the electronic eye measuring her performance now, instead of a panel of subjective judges!

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Filed under: Audio/Video, sweat

The Dutch National team

Imagine that you are alone in a very small gym, and your long workout is coming to a satisfying end. It’s been a good day, and you are distractedly doing your last set of abs, watching CNN’s coverage of the latest international jihadic bloodletting on a TV in the corner.

Just as you are on your last couple of reps, unexpectedly, Tom Brady and the entire offensive line of the New England Patriots wanders into the weight room. The gym is just you and them, and without a word, they begin warming up for their own workout.

Slightly intimidating? You bet! And that was pretty much how I felt when 1000m world record holder/gold medalist Gerard van Velde and several orange clad members of the Dutch men’s national sprint team walked into the Utah Olympic Oval weight room as I was finishing my own workout.

In the words of one of my first coaches, Pat Kelly: “Holland is a land of 16 million people, and 15 million of them speedskate.” These guys are the best of the best of the best, in a nation that obsesses about speedskating, treats them as rock stars, and pays them exceptionally well.

The funny thing was, although I have seen the Dutch race countless times on tape, with the exception of van Velde himself, I could not immediately tell who was who, as I am used to looking at these guys when they are wearing racing skinsuits w/hoods on. I realized I had no idea what their hair looked like/how tall they actually were, and some of them were also sporting the “travel scruff” that men of all cultures seem to adopt when “on the road”. I am sure even many dedicated New England Patriots fans would have problems identifying players without their gear on.

About a dozen world-class speedskaters train daily at the Utah Oval, but with the first world cup race of the Olympic year happening two weeks from now, all of a sudden pretty much EVERY top long track speedskater in the world is going to be here within the next week, the Dutch are some of the first to arrive.

99% of the time I am a competitor, but I am just enough of a fan of this sport to really enjoy the fact that I occasionally have a “behind-the-scenes” view. Jessica tells me to appreciate every moment of this year, I try as best I can.

One of the Dutch mega-studs asked if they could borrow my turncable. Sure, of course! I tried to make small talk, and pretty much failed. So after they were done with the cable & were starting all sorts of exotic looking bounding & jumping exercises, I ceased my gawking, gathered up my stuff and wandered out towards my car, ruminating my self-conscious way through the parking lot streetlights and dimming sky Utah dusk.

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Filed under: sweat