Masters Worlds, Day 3
WHAM!!!
5am, I am awake with a start, a coiled spring of nervous energy thrumming in my mind & muscles. I am ready to race NOW!
Sleeping is useless. Dwelling on the upcoming race will burn me out emotionally.
So I wander the halls of the hotel, laptop in hand, and look for a place to write (and I wrote much of day 1 & 2).
Arriving at the rink, the final women’s races are in full throttle. The cheers are louder, more intense. You can tell it’s crunch time.
This is Norwegian Ingunn Sandø working as hard as she can in the 3k. This is the time when all that hard training is suddenly worth it.
I think one of the hardest age categories to be in, is the middle women’s categories. Because there are so few “peers” skating to measure yourself against. Training & racing in your local area must often feel loney & disconnected.
This makes Master’s worlds an exceptionally important event for women.
Italian Silvia Tassara represented Italy strongly throughout the whole competition. She is so full of life & joy, you hear voices from many countries cheering Sylvia as she flies around the track. She reaches all of us with her spirit.
I wonder if wind-tunnel tests could show an optimal way for an individual like Sylvia to arrange her hair for maximum aerodynamic benefit.
It’s my turn soon. I feel good. I take Pat Meek’s warmup advice and do 3 steady, long, sweaty efforts on bike & skates to make sure my body is “woken up” after 2 tiring days of racing.
It’s like a dream going to the startline, I’m on autopilot, not here,
Execute, flow, find my rythmn quickly as the laps build, confidently… I am breathing hard, but controlled, smooth, smooth, build the turns, sit low, drive with the heels. Listen to the splits, don’t get excited, execute.
My teammates are shouting times of the Finn, Vesa Isoviita, chasing me, he is catching me in the standings, making up seconds, but not enough seconds.
4 laps to go, I try to build the turns and the legs are screaming like ocean waves crashing far away.
I awake from the dream, and there is only 100m left. I sit as low as I can, drive with my knees, and hope I don’t collapse.
I cross the line knowing I’ve held onto second place in the overall standings. Body & mind crushed into a joyous pulp.
After the races, I talked with Vesa, he narrowly beat me last year in Calgary. Vesa knew from this website I had been working on my distance skating, and I have followed his times online this year as well. I had pictured myself chasing him as I was doing long slideboard workouts..
Both of us trained hard to be at our best today. I have a feeling will race together again. Train hard my friend!
In every race Jim Cornell did at master’s worlds, he was in 7th place. It gave him 5th overall in his category. In his 5k he was paired with Dutch powerhouse Danny Witkamp. Danny won this pair, but Jim’s solid racing put him ahead in the final standings.
Tom “Hard-Cole”, his 4th race, and his 4th personal best. Awesome. He lurked behind his Norwegian pair for a whole 5k, and then turned in 3 blistering final laps to pass him. Here he is at the bell lap, narrow body position & riding the flat of his blade incredibly well.
But then comes Marty Haire vs. Jan Duif. They have gotten to know each other here, wish each other sincere luck, and then step to the line. Those of us in the crowd agreed that our “Haires” were standing on end as it began.
3 times Marty used his power to surge into the lead. 3 times Jan fought back with the heart of a champion.
But with 4th acceleration was too much for Jan. Marty said afterwards this was his greatest moment as a lifelong athlete, and far and away the most unbelievably, astonishingly painful.
Both skaters did HUGE personal bests. Jan said that he came within a second of his 5k time from last year’s crazy fast Calgary ice. A massive sea-level PB for him.
Marty was 19 seconds faster than he skated in a Milwaulkee 5k a few weeks ago!
They have the utmost respect for each other.
(more pictures & commentary soon)
The closing banquet starts in a few hours-
I will apply one of my life rules tonight, and drink joyously with Italians, Russians, Norwegians, and every other nation that shared this.
I will refill my wine glass repeatedly until I clearly understand every word the Italians say with their hands.
Here is a link for the final mens results
Filed under: RACE DAY, on the road
Words cannot discribe the JOY in my heart, seeing friends skate some of the best races of their lives
Hats off to you guys!!!
Marty…..You did it man.
Yeeaah!! I love this - hard work, excellent racing, inspiring efforts, personal bests… And reading it is like watching a movie.
Congratulations Andrew! Actually I am sure a lot of us would LOVE to see your skating face as you hit 39’s. That is actually this is the reason I love to watch the long distances, the constant changing facial expressions as skaters bend the corner and fight to keep that speed as fast as possible. A true test of will. And it does not matter if you are doing a 39, or a 29, or hell a 49. As long as you do not quit, you make it in my book.
The final times are not bad though. Actually I thought your 1500 time was a little off by looking at the times of your 500 and your 3k. I saw no comment on that race, was it a typical “LOVE” 1500?
Anyway, I am sure you are proud of your accomplishments and like you say, it is a hell of a good party. ENJOY!
About the fellow with 50 10k’s I know that there is a guy in Norway (90 somehting) that has 99 10k’s (this is the record for the most 10k’s ever). People are trying to make him race one more… For what I understand he still skates.
To finish, a political note… (Now that my brother became a US citizen and was asked by his co-workers if he felt any different, to which he answered; yup, now I feel arrogant enough to tell the world to go screw themselves!)
I sure wished they would get rid of the country labels and let people compete for personal honor, or whatever drives them to do so. I know that this is an Olympic Sport, but can’t we all grow up to compete for the human race? In the word of John Lennon “imagine”.
thanks all for the comments…
every member of our group is safely home.. it was a 23+ hour trip for me…
Eric, yeah, my last lap in the 1500m was about a second slower than I wanted it to be.
I tried as hard as I could..
Erfurt was (according to the Andrew-meter of freakish consistency) about .7 or .8 slower a lap than Salt Lake, so it was not a PB quality race, but it was within a second of PB-quality.
I did not have “great legs” on day 2, there were there for day 1 & 3 though.
As for the country labels/personal honor idea, it’s a good one, but knowing what country someone is from is a great conversation starter.
We have differences, coming from so many nations, but understanding & celebrating these differences, THAT is what international competition is all about.
I know that Berlin was slower than SLC. So your results were inline to what I had expected from you. I guess a faster 500 would be more like it but when you stated that the ice has hard (very european) I knew your start would probably not be what you wanted it to be. I am not sure if that was the case, but I can expect so.
About the country stuff. Remember that the the force can be used for evil. Anger and resentment can be hard to control towards an individual simply by categorizing him form a group. Ask any Muslim now a days and he/she will know. Besides, I think that the committe there would be overwhealmed with Dutch skaters if they just opened it to anyone that wanted to compete.
See you soon, we still need to put some laps together on hard tails. I want to kick your ass on a 3k that way!
Andrew–
congrats!! As usual, your skating was awesome, your write-up superb, and you inspired awe and envy in those of us who wimped out and didn’t make the trip! Sounds like everyone had a blast!
Hmmm, maybe Norway next year…
Hi Andrew,
Big stories on your website.Great! Now I’m in Calgary, hope to skate new PB’s. Seven days to go. First relaxing, sleeping, but first of all enjoy the time here.
Andrew, can you spell my name correct? PIET HIJLKEMA
Keep relaxed
Piet
Is next years worlds in Norway? where? and what dates
I believe it is scheduled to be at the new icehall in Bjugn…I haven’t heard that the date has been set, but I assume late Feb…
Masters Worlds, next year, will be in Bjun, Norway… It’s indoors, but the hall is not heated, so it could be rather cold….
I don’t have my notes from the IMSSC meeting with me at the moment, but I am 99% sure the date is February 28th through March 2nd….
I worked crazy hard to get more slots for Americans next year in Norway, every other country lost a few slots, we were the only ones who gained.
My argument was that a tremendous number of American speedskaters have Norwegian heritage, and Norway is a cheaper plane flight from the east coast of the USA than most other countries, in fact, it’s often cheaper to fly NYC-Oslo than NYC to Salt Lake.
so next year the USA has 9 slots for worlds….
also, news out of the meeting (and I really should post on this) is that next year there will be MASTERS SPRINT WORLDS, and the race will be in Inzell, germany. sometime in early February.
great news on the world masters sprints, will the quota be the same as the world all around ?
Please any info on this would be great…
no quota on world sprints.. its COMPLETELY OPEN!!!
(another reason it rocks to be a sprinter)
and Inzell, Germany, is a fantastic track, when it’s not blizzarding…
when the weather is nice, I go about as fast as I do in Milwaulkee
as soon as you can find out dates please forward, as a trip is already planned as I move up to the 50’s for next year and have already started to train for the world alround and now the world sprints
Really nice pictures of my friends Ragnvald, Marja and Ingunn! Sorry I missed the last day, the 3ooom, and the closing banquet… : ( See you im Bjugn!!
Hei Andrew,
Old Hunter’s March is the name of a popular march that was played very often at competitions i Norway.
I will look for others.
Regards
Geir