Texas Road Rash Inline Marathon 2006

Event Review by Jeff Handeland

This year, I decided to try the Texas Road Rash Inline Marathon in Round Rock north of Austin.  I was worried the temperature would be too hot.  I prefer to need to shiver a little at the starting line.  I don’t handle heat and dehydration well.  The weather was favorable the morning of the race.  The air was cool and there was no threat of rain.  A breeze gradually turned into significant wind throughout the course of the race.

Speaking of the course, it was closed to traffic.  The race used park roads completely closed to traffic and a couple of county roads with the right lane coned-off for skaters, but auto traffic on the rest of the road.  The “marathon” course consisted of 6 laps on these roads for a total of 28.2 miles.  After skating myself clueless at the first Metrodome Inline Marathon last year, I was a little concerned I might also forget which lap I was on at Road Rash.  However, I did just fine.

The route traversed some nice topography and included several turns and even a couple curves where skaters could employ a little cross-over skill.  The pavement was smooth, although there was a joint between the concrete gutter and bituminous pavement at a couple of turns which I took some care to avoid.

The water stations had something I had never seen before – food.  Unfortunately, they ran out of water on my last lap!  They still had plenty of fruit?!

I think there were about 150 skaters, which afforded relatively good odds at an age class award.  A couple of teenage friends who tried a skating event for the first time earned awards in their age class for recreation.

The finish line was the same as the starting line, which worked nicely for spectators, etc.  At the finish line, I enjoyed the live music and free food and refreshments for skaters which included free chili and two kegs of Fat Tire Beer!  Now that was a nice first for me.  Free microbrew at the finish served with southern hospitality!