The 13th annual Athens-to-Atlanta road skating marathon took place yesterday, Oct.2 in, surpise surprise, rainy/wet conditions. I heard that there were a total of 308 competitors signed up for the "half distance" (38 miles) and the full distance (officially 85 miles, but I believe it ends up being 88 miles).

The weather channel predicted that we should have had dry conditions until at least the halfway point, but as we lined up to start, the skies opened. Making me realize this was going to be a VERY long day. I learned very quickly how to skate in the rain and it turned out to not be much of a problem. There was a stretch of dry pavement, but I dbelievev it was only 20 feet long...

Our pack was filmed by a crew supposedly from MTV sports for a while and was photographed by a van from LIFE magazine, so if you see shots of a guy with green shirt, black shorts, orange glasses and a white helmet with a NIN sticker, it's probably me.

The first half went off really fast (probably too fast for me), our group averaging around 15mph for the 38 miles, including the 7 miles of pebbled asphalt. The second half was more of a survival test as the remainders of skaters strung out. My left leg went numb with about 20 miles to go. I don't think I have ever been so glad to see Piedmont Park (finishing area) as I was yesterday as a group of four of us came across the line simultaneously in an intentional tie.

Congrats to all who completed their distances and many THANKS to the workers and staffers who put this event on and also to the sponsors who contributed the great prizes.

I think I'll take another Advil now. Ouch.

--
"Piano" Paul Lomangino Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia
Professional Mechanical Engineering Student
"Auto Racing, Bull Fighting, and Mountain Climbing are the only real sports...
all others are games." --Ernest Hemingway

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