Indoor Nationals

Indoor Nationals. It's the time of year that almost everyone has prepared for. It's the reason that most allow sweat, hot dim roller rinks, brush-burns, and spandex to control our summer. And all for the chance to be a National Champion. First off I love Lincoln. I have since I first went in 2000. For me it's like indoor speed skating heaven it's always the fastest floor. Back when records were more important then medals it was easy: Lincoln meant a chance to set a record, anywhere else was a long shot. This year records dropped like flies. I have one giant reason for this the wheels are getting so much bigger. Honestly, 110m is big. The top speeds on these things are just ridiculous not to mention the grueling long race for every age group has started to feel a little shorter with so much roll. Don't get me wrong, the athletes that broke records were top-class well trained and earned those records but it would be nice to look back at all the records from 80mm wheels and know what the current record holders could do. It's kind of a knock because when a record falls it seems that someone is always saying but they were on XXmm wheels back then. The racing was a lot more exciting for me this year then it has been in the past. I just think it could really hinder the excitement next year for a few reasons. I don't think we are going to have Sophomore Men going out from the gun to break records next year, even if they are the same ones because they may realize that the floor most likely will not be comparable in speed to Lincoln. When Andrew and Jonathon were having their Record fight (if i can call it that) it was exciting. If you don't appreciate someone who sprints off from the gun, runs a 45.0 opening 500 all out and by the end of the race is just completely blown and struggling to finish the race with a 47.0 closer then you don't appreciate the struggling. It's exciting because you sit there and watch the clock and watch the skater and you see them put their head down and just keep fighting to finish. It turns into a one man grind-it-out to the finish race even though they are going to win that win still won't be good enough.
My top performance:
Ricky Blas - Ricky was second year Junior this year at Nationals and really skated phenomenal. Last year Ricky skated great and barely missed the podium which was a ridiculous improvement from what he had accomplished in 2006 and then this year he topped that. 2nd place Junior Men, 3rd place Senior 2 man.