Apr201108

bobarazzi

0

Annual Team Meeting Recap

I wanted to thank all of you who attended the meeting and let you know how much I look forward to starting off a new year knowing that our group is continuing to skate, play, and enjoy each others company.  It is a great thing!  I thought that since there were many significant announcements at the 2011 Team Rainbo meeting and party, I would put out a recap for those who were not there and to remind everyone of the most important changes.

First of all we want to thank Kevin Shenko for bringing us a new team sponsor….Spraying Systems Co.  They are a world wide company that is a leader in the field of all kinds of spraying equipment.  Their sponsorship will be one of the reasons that there will be some new benefits to being on the team.  Along with Luigino, Team Rainbo will be enjoying great support for the 2011 season.

I encourage every skater who is going to participate in any races to join the NROC series.  You will accumulate points during the year at the races and can see how you are doing against other skaters in your division.  The fee is $50, but it is actually a good deal as you will get a free set of Luigino bearings or a set of Bont High Roller wheels.  Either is worth more than the entry fee, and all of our NROC skaters points will be added to our team total for the team championships.   It does not matter how many races you go to in order to help the team total.   Join now at www.inlineplanet.com

Adams inline skate ship has a running vote going on your favorite race of the year.  Our event is currently in third place.  Please go to www.adamsinline.com and place your vote for the Chicagoland inline marathon so that we can move up to at least #2 behind Northshore Inline Marathon.

We have arranged for Tony Muse to put on an outdoor skating clinic for all level skaters on Sunday May 22 at the AT&T site.  It will be an excellent opportunity to get some close up instruction from one of greatest speed skaters at all time.  The clinic will be 4 hours and cost $50-$60.  More info to follow, but if you want to be a better skater, this will be the best way possible.

In an effort to encourage skaters to attend more skate races and events, we are offering the following incentives for going to more races:

  1. Every team member who participates in four different events (multiple races at the same event only count as 1) will receive their choice of 1 set of Bont 100mm High Roller Wheels, 1 set of 110mm Star Grip Wheels, or 1 set of BSB Swiss bearings at no charge.
  2. Anyone who is in the Rainbo Van to go to an event will not have to pay any charge for gas.  Team Rainbo will pay the gas bill!
  3. If you are going to any event and have a total of at least 3 skaters in your vehicle will have your gas paid for by the team.   Contact me after the event for reimbursement.
  4. There will be $100 cash available at every event for one person to use to offset the cost of the event.  If you would like this $100, email me personally before the event and put in a request.  First request gets the $100.  Once you have received the $100, you are not eligible again.

Hopefully these new benefits will help get more of you to participate.  In order for these events to continue, we need to have plenty of skaters.  We are losing events all the time for lack of enough racers, and we want to do everything that we can to stop that trend.

We will be beginning to have some organized drills at outdoor practices on either Saturday or Sunday.  More details to follow, but by an overwhelming majority, the survey has requested this.

Next year around mid March, we are planning on having a Team Rainbo trip to Florida to skate, play, party, and enjoy the good weather.  Start thinking about it now.  We hope to have a good group so that we can have a great team skating adventure.  Hopefully we will be able to get some special rates on motels, etc.

We are hoping to put together a 10 man team for the 24 hour race in Montreal on Labor Day weekend.  This is a phenomenal event that you will never forget.  Once you do it, you will want to keep coming back for more.  Level of skater is not important, as it is not as much a race as it is an event.   You will be able to sleep, and basically you just have to skate 2 1/2 miles every 1 hr and 15 minutes on a beautiful car speedway….smooth and fast.   Please let me know if you are interested.  We already have 6 members and need 4 more.  It is a great event for Charity……..

We will be getting new Hi Tech t-shirts this year……..they are in the design stages right now.

Well….those are the main points of this years meeting.  It was a great night……thank you all…….Cale

Apr201108

bobarazzi

0

Metrodome Report — Rainbo Does Great!!

What a great Metrodome experience.  Team Rainbo has a lot to be proud of.   We had a great turnout, and some great success!   I think everyone was happy.   Our group consisted of:
Cale Carvell
Margo Carvell
Herb Sherwin
Tom Grosspietsch
Larry Kaufman
John Shenko
Mary Jo Shear
Brian Joyce
Steve Cimino
Nick Wilson
Gary Blank
Steve Meissinger
Cathy Bratter
Kris Festelehausen
Dirk Shelly
Doug Orman
John Peck

Obviously we had the best looking uniforms and skaters.   Steve Meissinger took third place overall in the pro division with Gary Blank coming in 5th.    Now that was impressive, as there were plenty of good skaters to compete against.   Larry Kaufman was 12th place, and yours truly was 13th…..30 seconds behind Larry.    Larry is definitely in competition for most improved skater, and is now the guy that I will be trying to keep up with.    I was in a pack with him for most of the morning marathon, and he was the guy who was pulling the hardest…….way to go Larry, but how about taking it easy on this old man!    Special shout out for Doug Orman.  He came back to skating about a year ago and has trained hard and it paid off.  He did 1hr 26mn in his first marathon in at least 10 years.  He was smiling ear to ear……it just shows you what commitment can produce.   I, personally, was very happy as this was my best Metrodome individual performance.   I have always struggled at this race, and am pleased to finally feel like I did as good as I could.
In the half marathon, John Shenko was the top male finisher.  Proof that his “most improved skater award” for 2010 was not a fluke.   He skated strong and looked good and just keeps getting better all the time.   The best looking women in the half marathon put in an excellent performance and was the third female finisher behind a couple of young ringers.   Ohhh…..did I mention I was talking about Margo? (My momma didn’t raise no fools).

In the second marathon, Kris Festelehausen (who hasn’t skated since Duluth) showed up and did a great marathon as did our own, not often seen, Mary Jo Shear (who had some kick ass pig tales), and our Minnesotta member, Cathy Bratter.   A great showing by the Team Rainbo ladies…….  The men were equally impressive starting with the always grinning, Brian Joyce.   If he smiled any more, we would have to give him a drug test.  This was the first time at the Metrodome for John Peck and Nick Wilson (first marathon ever), and they  came through with flying colors.   Steve Cimino and Dirk Shelly are regulars every year at the dome, and you can always count on them for a steady, consistent performance……thanks you  all for showing everyone what a great team is all about!

1:15 was the starting time for the Team Marathon Time Trial.  Larry and I had already done one marathon, and Margo had the 1/2 in the bank, so we were again wondering if doing another race was such a good idea.  We had Herb and Tom to help pull us around.   Most of the teams in the team competition are top competitive pro skaters.   This is very serious business for them at the dome, because it was for the Minnesota teams bragging rights.  We were there to give a showing, have a good time, skate our best,  and stick together no matter what.   Our goal was not to finish last of the 9 teams, and beat last years time.    Personally, I was really sore from the morning…..I was not sure if I was going to be able to do this, as my back was killing me.  I was expecting the rest of the team to take up some of the slack, and I was not disappointed.   We kept a really solid pace the whole time.   It was great to come around each lap and have the spectators yell “go Rainbo” …..I don’t know who they all were, but it seemed like everyone was cheering for us Tom and Herb pulled many quality laps which gave me a chance to finally loosen up and begin to skate more like I had hoped.   Neither Herb or Tom had any really long skates before the race, so their ability to keep the speed up for the entire 26 miles was most impressive.  Larry was as strong as a bull  (I don’t think he knows how to get tired), and Margo, as usual, kept us all in line and hung in there strong.   I know she was hurting, but she continued to push through the pain…..damn she is amazing! (Am I smart husband, or what!)    Once we heard that we had finished 35 laps (1/2 way) we were thrilled to be on the back side of the distance.   There was a young team of racers who we had lapped, so we knew we would not finish last, but that was all we knew.  When we had ten laps to go, we were all pretty tired, but were able to maintain our pace til the end…..We got a big chear from the crowd.  SUCCESS…..we beat two teams, and beat our time from last year by 3 minutes! and we all felt great.

Of course, then we all jumped in the van and drove 6 hours to get home.  Boy were we tired!, but it was that kind of tired that you are proud of and feel good about.   It really has us all fired up for the 2011 racing year.   Thanks to everyone who came to the Metrodome, you made everyone on the team proud, and I hope that next year we can convince even more of you to come out for this one of a kind
experience!…………………Cale

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