Big Granite Inline Marathon, Ashland, Wisconsin 2002

Picture taken by Glen Koshi (Bont) at Big Granite 

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The last two pictures are "the big hill" from top and bottom. It is not that big and scary as you may have heard! At the end of it you need to take a 90o right turn into two way traffic. :) Most of the course is uphill, probably 65-70% and most turns are sharp turns.

This year the weather sucked. We skated half the marathon in the rain. Some people fell and hurt themselves, luckily not many. Many might have thrown their bearings away after that though. I used Gold Ceramic SiNSystem bearings and although I could see some rust on the outer races they spin like new. I cleaned them 2-3 hours after the race, as soon as I got back to the campsite where I stayed. I had to take a shower with my skates after the race; the skates were that dirty and my white socks were black. So, I just threw them away. I still had lots of fun though. I just hope the next one will be a dry one.

I have to mention here along with the great SiNSystem bearings my Hyper Bank Robber 80mm/84A wheels that didn't slip an inch though it was raining heavily and the whole course was wet. A guy I came with to the marathon was using Hyper Hyperformance + Grip 80mm/85A same thing, no slippage at all.