STRÜB - Life On Wheels

So much for the Disney marathon! - I spent a wonderful day on Friday skating and readying myself for the race on Sunday. Saturday was Expo day and we had a team skate during which we got chased by a fat security guard in his vehicle. We were way too fast and zig-zaged through pathways that he could not catch us. The rest of the day was busy, I talked to a zillion people and hung out at the Bont booth with my team mates. The owner of Bont, Sara and Inze Bont were there. You can only imagine what an excitement that created.

That evening the weather forecast had called for thunderstorms, lightening and rain for Sunday morning. Well, it did look as if it were going to raining Saturday night, and it did during the night, but, I NEVER believed that it actually would. It seemed way too outlandish! The Disney marathon would never get rained out! As we left the hotel at 4.45am to get to the start line, lightening and thunderstorm covered the sky and the clouds opened up to pouring rain. I stood by the car in disbelieve, which turned into confusion and then massive disappointment.

As we drove into the parking lot of Disney's Wide World of Sports, car after car with hope filled skaters joined us. We ran from our vehicles in the dark morning and pouring rain to congregate in the expo hall where every 15 mins. announcements were made as to the progress of the race - yes or no - will we be racing this technical course? It soon became apparent that we were not going to be pace-lining through Disney World. Instead a fun skate was held at 7.15am, when the rain finally subsided. A great number of recreational skaters strapped on their wheels to slowly pace through the park. Except for Eddy Matzger, Peter Doucet and a handful of others, the pro skaters went back to their respective hotels to catch up on their sleep.

About thirty of us ended up going to Ihop for breakfast. We sat, eat, drank juice and coffee, talked 'Skates' and chatted about 'Skaters'. I felt very tired and drained. Norm Kirby, my team mate, said that in his 15 years of racing he never saw a race cancellation due to any kind of weather condition. I learned quickly for myself that not skating a race is much, much more unbearable and disappointing than not having a good race but having skated it. I kept looking for that fulfilling satisfaction of having completed yet another marathon. So, we all returned empty handed.














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