Eagle Creek Race – May 16, 2010

Race Report – May 16, 2010 – Eagle Creek Indiana

This past weekend my wife Trish and I raced the Eagle Creek circuit marathon outside of Indianapolis. This race is part of a series organized by Planet Adventure (planetadventurerace.com). If Rainbo Members recall, a representative spoke about the series at the Team’s kick-off party in March.

Planet Adventure is trying to get more involved with inline race organization and did a relatively decent job organizing the race, barring a couple of minor issues that I’m sure the race organizer will iron out in the future.

We did not depart until late Saturday evening and spent the night at a “beautiful” Motel 6 in Lebanon, IN. Because of Indiana being 1-hour ahead and the scheduled race start of 0800 it made more sense for us to get an inexpensive room instead of waking up at 0300 to drive in on race day.

That morning Trish and I ate a light pre-race snack and headed out to Eagle Creek where the race was to be held. Although the weather forecast earlier that week called for sun and warm, the “new” forecast called for drizzles and sixty degree temps. Ahhh…outdoor activities….Indoor skating is so nice and predictable… always warm and dry.

It was supposed to be about a fifteen minute drive from Lebananon to the Eagle Creek race location, I set my GPS to the location given by Planet Adventure. Unfortunately that location was not exactly the start/finish/registration; it was actually the Ranger Station for Eagle Creek Park. I back-tracked to the main entrance expecting to see signs directing us to registration….nothing. The next 20 minutes were spent driving around the park, along with other participants, looking for registration. As it turns out, racers were supposed to go around a “NO THRU TRAFFIC” barrier and park about ½ mile down on the road. Obviously this was frustrating, we had left the hotel early and by the time we figured out where to go it was getting uncomfortably close to the race stat time. I shared this experience with the race organizers and hopefully they’ll have signs directing “out-of-towners” where to go at the next races.

The course itself was to be a 1.456 mile circuit, relatively flat (there were some slight up-hills) with 4 technical turns (2 lefts and 2 rights). The tarmac was relatively good, just a couple of sections were rough in the sense that it slowed roll a bit. There were very few sections that presented a fall hazard on the course, aside from the turns and the light dampness thanks to precipitation.

Approximately 35 skaters lined up for the start, we were told 18 laps of the circuit was to be 26-miles, they then rolled us off. I felt the course itself was fun. Being a circuit, allowed for time to think about tactics as you raced. Although I lost contact with the 1st group after the first lap, I felt I skated strong with the second group ending up 7th overall. Trish also skated well and actually won the half.

At about half way to go, my wrist GPS was showing 15 miles covered. One of the other skaters in my group actually noticed this. With about 3 or 4 laps to go, my group got lapped by the first two skaters (and eventual winner).

Since we got lapped, the lap board showed one less lap than we actually had. When we came across with 4 laps to go (the lap board showed 3) another skater in my group attacked, I was able to follow and we ended up skating alone. With 1 actual lap to go, we came to the line and I tried to confirm with the Official (who seemed a bit confused) that this was our “bell” lap, he told us “3” to go. We verbally protested passing by, they figured it out about 25 meters later and rang the “bell”.

On the last small uphill I was able to attack and finished the last circuit alone. When I came across the line, my GPS indicated 30.48 miles @1’45 minutes.

Race results came about 2 days later confirming the longer distance and my time.

Fun!! Next race in this series is July 11, again in Indy. In my opinion a great training race for the Chicago Series.

Race notes and thoughts…

• Always remember that Indiana is 1 hour ahead, I’ve missed more than my share of events forgetting this.
• Another small criticism for the organizers was that to check-in, we had to walk over mud/grass, not something I wanted to do with race wheels on.
• The race chips were these stickers that affixed to your helmet. They were about 1”x3” and not very flexible. I was sure it would fall…it didn’t.