THE OLD GUYS ARE STILL AT IT AND THEY STILL HAVE IT!

As the 2010 Montreal 24 hour marathon began to appear on the horizon, the Flying Fossils emails began to fly. How many did we have? Who was injured? Who would we get for “newbies”, did we really want to do this again?, who would be the captain?………Even though one of our favorite races, St. Paul 1/2 marathon, was on the same weekend, we had no problem deciding that the Flying Fossils would fly again! John Garrett had an important family event that he had to go to (obviously he had his priorities mixed up ) and Robert Stroud was not real confident in his conditioning when the decision had to be made (by race day I think he regretted his decision). This left us two men short. We were pleased to be able to recruit Roger Olsen, one of skating’s all time great ambassadors, and a hell of a skater, and an unknown skater from New York, Brian Holtan, who was recruited by Fossil Peter Moynihan. We had the roster full and we were committed, and ready for another 24 hours of effort, craziness, fatigue, humor, socializing, and oh yea!……skating. The roster was:
Al Marcosson……..Captain
Cale Carvell
Larry Griffin
Ed Duncan
Roger Olson
Ken Huss
Brian Holtan
Peter Moynihan
Stephen Fisher
John Altwater
If you add all our ages up and divide by 10, the average age is 60 years young!

Okay……here we go. We all arrive on Friday at various times. Unfortunately, over half the team was arriving after dinner, so we did not have our usual Flying Fossil pre-race dinner, cocktail, and strategy session. (the strategy was to have another cocktail). We all decided to arrive at the race course around 11 am to set up our space in the paddock, skate the course, and get psyched up. This year the course took a detour through a wooded area onto a bike path for about 1/2 mile and then back on the track. This was so that the Montreal beach goers could have easy access to the beach. We were not thrilled, as the pavement and visibility was less than good, and it would clearly have an affect on our lap times. Oh well, it was the same for everyone, and we were determined to Fly either way.

2pm was approaching (starting time), the announcer was exciting the crowd (he must have drank a lot of Red Bull), we were ready, everyone was ready, the weather was looking perfect, the paddock was stocked with food and various liquids for making it through this effort. (It never ceases to amaze me all the things that are brought by different teams to make it through…..refridgerators, grills, microwaves, beds, tents, the list goes on and on) We set our order of skating, and Al Marcosson went to the line to be our first skater. Al has always given us a great start, and we knew that he would again. The anticipation was now a reality, and the gun went off. Away they went. Over 100 teams and around 20 solo or duo skaters that would stretch the limits of what an individual can put himself through in any given 24 hour period.

Our goal was to skate more miles than last year, so we had an incentive to keep the pace up. The first lap was a little different this year because going through the detour in the woods took a little getting used to. We were once again put into the elite division, so we knew that we were basically skating for pride, and to beat the only women’s elite team the Poulettes.

We were desperately trying to lap the Poulettes for a very good reason. The Poulettes set a new standard for a distracting skating skin suit. If you ever saw the movie Batman where Michelle Pfeiffer was the Catwomen, you will have an idea of the outfits that they skated in. They were sort of a cross between the Catwomen costume and a dominatrix. They were made of a sort of patent leather/vinyl material that would be AT LEAST “R” rated. Heads were turning whenever, when one of them walked/skated buy. We wanted to lap them so that we could come up from behind, and maybe draft for a while…..He He He (dirty old man laugh). Talk about an incentive to skate fast!

One after another, we put in our laps……….one thing that was very different for us this year was the overall parity of our times. Our consistency in our lap times was terrific. Obviously, some of the Fossils had gotten faster! (sort of a contradiction in terms) Almost every rotation had a different person putting in the best lap time. This would really help as the time passed by….Our goal of beating last years total miles was very possible. Although the detour definitely slowed things down a little, the weather helped things. This was our fourth year skating the race, and we always had some rain. Each year has gotten a little better (the first year was a monsoon), but the rain would definitely slow thing up. This year looked like it would stay dry for the entire time. We were very happy about that, because the detour through the woods would be slippery as hell if it was wet, and it would take forever to dry up. We were not, however, thrilled with the wind. Coming around the final hairpin turn would put you directly into the blast of a 10 -20 mph wind. After giving your best effort to get to the last 3/4 mile straightway, you had to hammer home directly into the wind. There was no relief from this wind during the entire race. It got stronger as the hours wore on. (unlike us).

As darkness fell on everyone, enthusiasm dropped, and fatigue began to set in. We were not thrilled that the organizers had not seen to light the baton exchange area as well as in the past. It was very difficult to discern when your teammate was coming down the lane to pass off the baton. We would start screaming “Fossil, Fossil, Fossil” well before the handoff, to help the receiver to know his teammate was just about there. Unfortunately, numerous times the receiver of the baton would be talking with a fellow Fossil, and did not hear his hand off man skating buy until a total panic reaction of dropping your jacket and jumping out on the track to get the baton from him as he came skating back to the hand off area. We did have a walkie talkie system set up for a while, that gave us a warning, however there were a couple of times it did not work, and being old guys, our “Sr. Moments” kept getting in our way.

At 10pm it was time for 5 of the Fossils to take a 4 hour break while the other kept going. This meant skating twice as often as when we were in the 10 man rotation. 2 am came around, and it was time for the other Fossils to rest. Once again this year, I just couldn’t imagine sleeping. I just get to wired at this thing. I probably should have just taken the time off and rested, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I kept skating through the night without a break. Clearly this must be a sign of demensia setting in……We kept the pace up fairly close to the day time, but the darkness slowed lap times up a bit. I clearly was losing 20 -30 seconds on each lap, and struggled with whether or not I should stop, or continue. I did not want my lap times to hurt the team total, but from 2-6am if I stopped, I would have left my teammates with a four man rotation. That was just unacceptable. …. It seemed the entire course was not lit up as well as previous years, so having a headlamp truly helped. Skating at night, alone most of the time, is a unique experience that is very surreal. It is quite, it is dark, your legs are exhausted, your brain is a little foggy, but your commitment to the team and the effort, is on automatic pilot. It is amazing what the human body will let you put it through.

The sun came up and with it, a new energy and spirit rolled through the event. The end was now much closer than the beginning, and the entire team was back together cranking out the laps. I was really exhausted from staying up all night, but I did not want my teammates to see it. I decided to go to the men’s room and splash some water on my face, and try and wake myself up a little. I came down to the paddock to put my skates on and realized that I had left my towel up in the washroom. I had just finished eating when I realized this, and before I went up to get the towel, I took a big scoop of peanut butter on my finger to nibble on as I went to get the towel. As I came out of the bathroom, it never occurred to me what I must have looked like. As I walked out of the door, I was still nibbling on a big slab of peanut butter on my finger. You can only imagine what the people who saw me might have thought!!!!!

On a side note, my darling wife Margo was skating on the Skate Log team. Five of the 10 members of their team were Team Rainbo members, Trish and Larry Kaufman, tom Grospietsch,Brian Joyce, and Margo, so I was visiting with them regularly. Their other five teammates were very friendly, with great senses of humor. Two of the members Matt and his brother in law, really loved joking around and we were teasing each other with great joy. One time when Matt was handing off the baton to Margo, right in front of our hand off area, I heard Margo let out a loud squeal. I was really worried that she was falling, or had gotten hurt, or something. She skated on and finished her lap, and when I checked with her after he lap she told me that Matt had given her butt a good “Canadien Goose” after handing off the baton. I of course went to confront Matt with this obvious infraction of manners, and informed him that this kind of action was completely unacceptable, and that I would have to settle this with him like a man. He was worried for a few moments, but then when I gave him a “high five”, he was relieved.

The morning brought with it a few clouds, and wouldn’t you know it, we got a small shower that did drive everyone nuts with whether or not to switch to rain wheels. I finally decided to, and of course, the rain stopped. (your welcome everyone) It did soak things down a bit, but it dried just as fast. So much for a “rainless” event. As my last lap arrived, I was thrilled to be able to latch on to the back of a couple of very fast, elite skaters. I had missed the opportunity to have a drafting lap since the day before. The stories of great laps, and working with another skaters were starting to get to me……I stayed up all night, and not once got any help! Finally it was my turn, and I skated one of our fastest laps to finish my skating. It really picked up my spirits and I was one happy camper!

It must be said that our 68 year old new Fossil, Roger Olson was easily holding his own. His average lap time was 6th out of the 10 skaters…..WOW! Our new member from New York, Brian Holtain, was equally as impressive (don’t ask about the time he missed the turnoff to the hand off area), and his average lap time was 4th overall. (who the hell is this guy anyhow?) Everyone else did a terrific job…..as usual. We covered 435 miles in our 24 hour effort, which was a little less than last year, however the detour definitely had an effect as it was an area where speeds were greatly diminished. I could go on with many more stories, but I’m sure you’ve had enough.

Let it be said, that the experience of skating with my fellow Fossils at this event each year is rivaled for favorite event only with Duluth and Chicagoland Inline Marathon. I hope that I never have to choose between them because it would be impossible. There really is NOTHING, like the pleasure, of sharing this kind of challenge with truly good friends. Thanks to all the Fossils, and I can’t wait til next year!……………………Cale

P.S….I can’t finish without a story at the airport. We had to leave Sunday evening, so we had to go to the Airport right away. Needless to say, we were tired, lacking patience, and anxious to get on the plane to get some sleep. After going through customs, security, customs again….we were finally at the final security checkpoint. Margo was waved through the metal detector as normal, and then the security guard told me to wait before I could go ahead. Finally, he looked at me and said…..what is the sign! Total panic took over me, when I realized what he was asking for. I had changed into my Star Trek T-shirt that had a Star Trek emblem on it with the words “Captain Carvell” printed on the shirt. I flashed him the famous Vulcan hand signal and said Live long and prosper”, and he waved me through. This kind of humor and lack of seriousness is exactly what the world needs more of. Thank you to the anonymous security agent for giving me a nice smile as I got on the plane to leave Montreal.

I am sure there must be some details that need correcting, but let’s just let them slide.