RoadSkater.Net - Comments for "charity"

Doing me proud!

In reply to Ten-Year-Old Dorset Girl is a Skate Triathlon Hero for Big Hearted Desire to Help Haiti Through Inline Skating:

I'm so proud of this little girl from my home county! Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I agree with your POV on what's important here, Roadskater. Do a little, or do a lot, but do it when you are inspired.

Windy

In reply to Roadskater.net Carolina Century 21- to 102-mile Bike Ride & Roadskate for MS October 24 2009 Gospel Baptist Church Greensboro NC:

On the next gusty skate I will try to get that Bob Seger song to shove Everyone knows it's Windy out of my head, especially the tripping down the streets of the city part :-)

Glad to be a part

In reply to Roadskater.net Carolina Century 21- to 102-mile Bike Ride & Roadskate for MS October 24 2009 Gospel Baptist Church Greensboro NC:

Why thank you lassie. I was glad to be a part of it and look forward to CC #3.

I wouldn't mind hitting up all the Raleigh/Cary/Durham bike shops to promote CC3. It would be fun.

You were singing Llama Llama Ding Dong, and I kept humming the Bob Seger refrain:
"against the wind,
still skatin' against the wind,
I'm tired now but still skatin' against the wind."

So glad you made it !

In reply to Roadskater.net Carolina Century 21- to 102-mile Bike Ride & Roadskate for MS October 24 2009 Gospel Baptist Church Greensboro NC:

MikeB! I'm so glad you came out and skated this event! I'm sorry about the rain and after skating through it myself I don't blame you for not wanting to continue. I'm happy also that Alan got to skate with someone too. It's good that you posted here about it because the volunteer I asked back at the church at 5.30pm said she didn't see any other skaters.

So now I get to be all swanky...put me down for 121 miles last week ;-)

I'll write more details later, hopefully tonight!

3 @ 102? In those conditions? WOW!

In reply to Roadskater.net Carolina Century 21- to 102-mile Bike Ride & Roadskate for MS October 24 2009 Gospel Baptist Church Greensboro NC:

Dude, sitting hear contemplating 102.....I just can't. How in the world did you do that? People always tap out LOL on emails and such but sitting here I'm getting a side ache from laughing, in amazement and awe.

Plus you & Eebee went down a couple a few times. Yikes.
It was quite slick, especially on the inclines and the pavement stripes were wicked.

Alan and I started at the sleep-in start of 9am. By 9:10 he was outta site, chasing cyclists like they stole his last twinkie. Good for him though, putting forth a great effort to participate and put in a solid 31+.

Lake Brandt road was wonderful with wind aided downhills. Quite sweet. And for a brief moment a sunbeam hit me just before the rest stop at M12. That was the turning point - M12. Just as it was time to roll, the drizzle started. My wonderful Bike Response Team gave a look like: "ya know, 21 isn't a bad effort." At least I thought that's what the look was. Who am I to second guess the support crew? 21 it was, right from that moment.

Scalesville Road was the easterly cut back and it was a good roll, even in the rain. Mostly because it was semi-wind aided. Although there were curious short patches of chip-seal to keep me alert.

Once on Church St. heading back south to the finish, boy it was brutal. The point being, my Church St. stretch was only 4 or 5 miles long after putting in 16 or 17. How you made it in on an 8 mile stretch after putting in 94....I will never know.

Kudos to you for a million different things in getting the 2nd Annual Carolina Century to be such a wonderful success!

3 Skaters did 102 miles; 1 did 42; sounds like a 31 and 21 too!

In reply to Roadskater.net Carolina Century 21- to 102-mile Bike Ride & Roadskate for MS October 24 2009 Gospel Baptist Church Greensboro NC:

Hey. More later but yes Tom Blooming won the day for the 102 distance, facing winds alone for the last 35 or so miles. Eebee and myself made it in at over 10mph, which on this day was epic.

At 33 we had a really windy downpour. Two cyclists joined us, John and Ben, and Ben did the rest of the 102, waiting as needed to finish with us. John had time constraints and completed the 72, which is for what it is designed...a quicker way home when recalculations are in order.

Northinsouth had boot/foot interface problems made much worse by the rain, but toughed out a huge 42.5 miles.

Here's how wet it was. My current camera has always been out, during Tour to Tanglewood this year notably, which was considered two days of mostly rain. Today, my camera shut down and would not turn back on from 33 to 79. When it did come back on the lens had a blob of condensation inside the lens for most of the rest of the way home. Once it stopped raining I had taken out the battery and let air flow through the battery compartment by holding it as we skated.

Here's another example of how challenging it was: we haven't fallen in a year or two that I recall in any significant way. I fell 2 times, making Eebee fall 1 of the 3 times she fell. Both of my falls were rather dramatic if not causing any real pain...a hipslide in the road and a tumble in the grass at a soaked rest stop. What a day! Two of our falls were at rest stops, just simple mistakes, but odd.

The worst damage for us was Eebee's favorite sunglasses. More later as we recall it, know it, can report it.

There was a fatal cycling hit and run crash at the next intersection closer into town just as we finished. Our SAG guy went there to help but it was too late. The police still had the intersection completely blocked about two hours later. This was not related to our event or a participant in the Carolina Century, but we all felt it deeply just the same.

I can't believe how great the Carolina Century volunteers were all day. They didn't seem to mind we had fewer folk out there, and did what they did just as if we had doubled our previous numbers. We will finish with a profit to give to the MS Society, and the volunteers seemed to really enjoy the special things we were trying to do as best we could. I know we were treated like the fastest, when we were in fact the slowest!

Carolina Century stats from MikeB

In reply to Roadskater.net Carolina Century 21- to 102-mile Bike Ride & Roadskate for MS October 24 2009 Gospel Baptist Church Greensboro NC:

Roadskater, you thought some stats would be neat, so here goes: Age: 45; Distance: 21m; Rolling Time: 1:47:37; Avg Speed: 11.7mph; Top Speed: 34.4mph; Avg HR: 180bpm; Max HR: 198bpm; weight at start: 153; weight at finish: 151: weight leaving the venue: 157 -- thanks to your Mom's awesome chili and Margaret's grill cheese sammiches. YUM!

Hope the marathon was out of state

In reply to Roadskater.net Carolina Century 21- to 102-mile Bike Ride & Roadskate for MS October 24 2009 Gospel Baptist Church Greensboro NC:

She should do well with those fancy shoes. I hope she did. And hopefully it was in good weather. The "CC" weather was a tad moist and blustery. I quit at 21, Alan from OH went 31, and I believe Roadskater and Eebee went for the full 102; not sure about that.

But Roadskater put on a tremendous event. I mean it was amazing. Everything was SO well planned and executed. Really, it was awe inspiring. Can't wait for the 3rd annual Carolina Century!

Good luck everyone!!!

In reply to Roadskater.net Carolina Century 21- to 102-mile Bike Ride & Roadskate for MS October 24 2009 Gospel Baptist Church Greensboro NC:

I wish I could be there with you all, but I'll be cheering on my girlfriend as she runs her first marathon.

Be safe and have fun, everyone!

- SM -

Come on down if you can

In reply to Paul's Cycling & Fitness, Winston Salem NC Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: August 22, 2009:

I think I'll be there but weather could have an effect and if I were to skate too hard the day before that might zap me too, ha. But it's great stuff and free too, so I'll try to be there to see the team at the start and the tour folk afterward.

hmmm - let me think about it - may want to try it

In reply to Paul's Cycling & Fitness, Winston Salem NC Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: August 22, 2009:

Sounds like it could be a skatey-good time. I sure would like to partake, but always the driving time and possible weather issues play in the back of my mind.

Can I leave it as a "we'll see?"

But man, 6+ skaters would be really cool, and I owe JonathanS a ton of pulling for bringing me in at Tour de Lions. He pulled the last 7 since I was gassed.

I plan to be there

In reply to Paul's Cycling & Fitness, Winston Salem NC Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: August 22, 2009:

I think at least 2 of us should be there, but it's possible the 4 who were there at Clemmons may show up too. That'd be 8 skaters at least. This one's a good one once you get away from the shop a bit. In the old days there were some tricky road surfaces, but last year we went out with a police escort and that was cool (for those who started on time at least). Coming back in it was a busy road yes but better to be on that road than coming down a hill into it. Everything went fine. I remember there was a really sweet roll going out of town too...a nice long smooth fast safe one. Of course we got to climb later, but OK.

any one going

In reply to Paul's Cycling & Fitness, Winston Salem NC Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: August 22, 2009:

Any guess on the distance for this one? Or maybe last years distance? Also, who all is planning on going? I should be there. Hope to see any and all there.

4 Roadskaters Planning to Be at Paceline GSO Free Skride

In reply to Paceline Bicycles, Greensboro NC Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: August 8, 2009:

It looks like eebee will be here, plus two escapees from indoor will be starting their roadskating season in earnest. One of our roadskater.net t2t team members has recently won age group gold in the nationals in the five lap and ten lap races, I believe, setting an age group record for the fiver methinks. We'll have to see what we can hear about it all this weekend. Paceline uses a good route and has had good police support even to the end when coming back onto Battleground for a brief sprint stint at the end of the ride. Come on out! It's free and support is always awesome.

Paceline Winston MS Training Ride

In reply to Paceline Bicycles, Winston Salem NC Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: July 25, 2009:

It's been seven years since I took part in the Winston-Salem Paceline Tour to Tanglewood training ride. My first ever training ride back in 2002, I remember Northinsouth pushing me the last 4 miles or so back to town. I wasn't used to 35 mile roadskates at the time and wasn't sure how to pace myself, or of my own limitations and capabilities.

This time the weather wasn't humid, the pavement was mostly smooth and physically I felt great! We were able to keep above 12mph moving average but finished 35 miles in something like 3 hrs 10 mins after factoring in a couple of stops.

The mileage on the cue sheet was somewhat iffy, but I believe the mileage options ended up as 22 and 35 miles. Elaine & Valerie's rest stop was about 17 miles out, with the route splitting shortly afterwards. We took the extended loop, which passes a stunning, refurbished historic mill house on the edge of a reservoir somewhere on the outskirts of Clemmons. This property is at the bottom of a hill, right at a blind 90 degree turn in the road, which then leads straight upwards around the rest of the property. We experienced nothing but patient, friendly motorists on this ride and had a few of them on our tail on the way down this hill. We hopped off the road right after the 90 degree bend to let them pass and to go back and get some photos. Not having yet seen the picturesque setting on the way down a few minutes beforehand, I was reluctant to go back. But I'm glad we did because it is beautiful, and peaceful looking. A quick Google search shows this property up for sale for $2 mil, with monthly payments over $9,000.

The loop rollercoastered up and down into a lake resort-style residential community, where we encountered more friendly, relaxed citizens walking or cycling.

It was a pleasant, relaxing morning for me in clear weather with friendly company. This was the first training ride of 2009 for Roadskater and myself. It was nice to see familiar faces from the Tour.

Looks Like No NC Skate for Me This Weekend

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

Well after all the researching options, it looks like I won't be out there in NC this weekend. I hope those who do part or all of Mock Orange will have a great time and fill us in. Same for any other skates and rides of course! Have a great weekend y'all and skateylove.

A few more Country Park details

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

I'll keep it brief this time, but wanted to add a few details to timv's comments. We seem to find 7pm to be a peak time for people to be walking at the park. Like us, they do the 1.6 mile loop or portions of it. With extra friendliness, you can still have a great time even when it's crowded.

Start out with a slow lap that's a bit talkative to folks and I believe the rest of the laps will go better. Usually people know if they were spread 4-wide across the road, or they had let their kid get too far away from them to be safe, and being nice just seems to work best. We don't do a whole lot of braking, but instead let people know where we plan to be, while being ready to change the plan or brake as needed.

There used to be a definite bike lane marking but it was not that effective. In general, we tend toward the middle of the road when passing unless it is clearly better for some reason to take one side. The exceptions are the sharper of the turns, the "180" and the "flag pole" (where we take the long way home around the triangle of grass at the bottom of the longest hill down.

To keep the park an official city street and to keep funding for that, it has to be open to traffic during the day and currently that means until about 4:30pm or so. I don't know what time it opens. Before the bark park was there, we had very little car traffic and it stayed near the lower playground and paddleboats area. Now there's likely to be more, and to be cars parked along the road near the bark park.

Again, it's important for us to share the park well with walkers and motorists, of course, so anything you can do to help we'll appreciate. We try to let people know we're there (nicely) and we usually keep our speed about the same or just slightly slower, but we also make an effort to be informative in a very nice way every time we can. We tend to get in front of cars before downhills so they won't brake in front of us, but then communicate to them with a wave and by moving over when it is a good time for them to pass.

Other than the first warm days of the year, some great times to be at the park are the very hot days. Also good is Friday evening, as lots of people are out at bars and restaurants.

We also tend to be out there on Tuesday nights at about 6pm, sometimes earlier, some later. Then we go eat at Elizabeth's Pizza (they have healthy stuff too) afterward. Sometimes slow bike riders join us (E-group, say 10-12 mph).

Sorry for the repetitions!

Yes to Bur-Mil Pool Start/Finish

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

I made a route and put it into an article. This is our regular route for social skates with Eddy Matzger or for the prologue to Tour to Tanglewood or Carolina Century (well, if we want to skate the night before 102 miles!).

http://roadskater.net/roadskaternet-cloverleaf-inline-skating-and-bike-r...

Two comments on Greensboro trails

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

First, I'll agree that the Country Park loop is usually the best choice for knocking out a lot of miles, especially if you're like me and don't mind the repetition. There are times when it gets somewhat crowded, but if you choose the day and time well and you can mentally go to another place then you can get some really good mileage in there without having to worry about car traffic or intersections or having to decide where to go next. It's a good natural environment and the staffers there have gone out of their way to let us know that they welcome skaters.

Another plus for that park is that it's easy to meet up at the parking lot if some folks show up early or late, or to take a lap off from the group and jump back on next time they come around.

Also, the whole Bur-Mil Park complex that you mention--from the apartment complex to the Lake Brandt trail to Owls Roost Rd and Steepleton Way and including the Strawberry Rd spur--has turned into quite a nice skating destination, even leaving out the idea of connecting it with Country Park. I've gone there, parked next to the Bur-Mil Aquatic Center, and skated for a good two hours just doing each stretch of pavement once in each direction. There's some nice scenery and a lot of good asphalt out that way.

Thanks!

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

Thanks!

Greensboro Skating Trails

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

In my opinion, the 1.6 mile loop around Country Park is the best option for skating now. We are not welcome at the Guilford Battleground loop next to Country Park. There is an exit from Country Park near the baseball field that leads up to Spencer Love tennis center, then a right turn past Lewis Recreation Center leads to a left onto part of the greenway. This has some sections with roots that haven't been repaired so be careful. When you get to the Battleground Park go left then right onto Old Battleground. When you get to Lake Brandt Rd turn right and take a quick left down onto the trail again, which goes through an apartment complex. Careful with the speed bumps, but use the road. The trail goes off to the right at the bottom. There are some exciting curves on the trail (be careful to announce yourself, but this is fun). Up and over the hill will lead down a stright section that goes through a concrete dip we call the culvert. Then you'll go across a steel bridge at the lake and back up and over Owl's Roost Rd. There's another exciting section of curves down to a pond (announce yourself and watch for the section that is often damp and a bit slick). After the pond there's a trial up that goes into Bur-Mil Park, or you can do a right left double 90-degree section that gets you across another bridge and up to Strawberry Rd. Beyond Strawberry Rd. you can continue up to the current end of this trail. I don't have distances but am wanting to do the Country Park to end of trail again soon, perhaps with the camera, to document the state of the trail. There's a new section being built from Markham (I think it is, near Golded Corral) up to Pisgah Church (I believe) and this should connect to the rest of the trail when this section is complete. Eventually it will go down by Performance Bicycle to Cycles de Oro bike shop at the cement plant. Once the cement plant gives up and moves out, this line can be used all the way into Greensboro, years from now.

The loop around Lake Brandt is not paved. There are mountain bike and hiking trails.

There's a section of greenway with access at Piedmont Parkway on the edge of Greensboro and High Point. This greenway is good enough for skating but has some technical challeges in the Gibson Park area, and is often muddy north of Piedmont Parkway, at least when I was there. It connects on the north to sidewalks (tricky ones) at Gallimore Diary Rd. if I recall correctly. At the south end it connects with Piedmont Environmental Center trails but I don't know the status of paving there. Any recon reports are very welcome here and if you have a gps and get data (or a Forerunner 305 or similar) let me know and I can make some maps and such (or you can, using gpsvisualizer.com).

Thanks for the questions. Anyone else have info?

Greensboro Trails

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

What is the best skating trail in Greensboro in your opinion? I was told that there is a paved trail near my office off of Old Oak Ridge Rd. Do you know where that goes? The Guilford County Parks website is not very informative. Is the trail around Lake Brandt paved?

Could be a good one

In reply to Hammering Happy Hill Bike Ride Inline Skate June 27 2009 Greensboro Country Park:

That looks promising, but I dunno know about that 64-miler. Long steep hills tends to mean long steep downhills too.

And chances to win sunglasses and other prizes BEFORE the skride

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

Yes that was cool stuff and also they have some stuff to give away before the ride so the slower among us don't lose out. The free ride has a free raffle, which is a cool way for the bike shop to make a donation and to get some good will and participation. If we're here we might have to try this one even with the braking spots. Got some word on the charity ride in Greensboro but no route sheet yet. It'll be at Country Park to start. Maybe more tomorrow, though a minor disaster at the skate hovel may take lots of my time tomorrow (oops, today).

Donuts!

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

Uh-oh:

"...free coffee and doughnuts will be available in the morning"

This was on my "Greetings from Bike MS HQ" email message about this weekend's training ride. It's hard to turn that down but I think I'd better give them a miss!

I think it's not I-40 where you're describing

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

Hey and thanks for your comments and they're right in gist if not in detail. The venerable under I-40 route was dropped from another shop's ride. On this ride, I think it's Patterson where going out it's a moderately tricky section and coming back it's almost an expert item (or at least requiring a slow walking in grass or other tricky or timed descent). The description below (after your post) sounds like they're using some of the Ken's route for Mock Orange. I may have GPS info from previous Ken's routes (speed maps and thumbnail maps) that may help us figure it out. In any case thanks both of you for your efforts on this. If I'm here it'll be a hard choice between the Mock Orange training ride or the charity ride in Greensboro (more later on this one). Or maybe just the 20 miles these guys are doing! Hmm. Hard choices. Might not even be here!

I think that's the same intersection eebee is talking about

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

I think this is the same intersection as that on the Ken's ride. Ken's goes out to a loop and it uses Motor Road to get out there I believe. The loop uses Kiger Road or something like that, then a left on an NC highway, then a left onto Red Bank Road. If you're able to upload or copy the turn sheet into a post that'd be cool. If not OK of course. There's a charity skride in Greensboro the same day. I'm checking some details on that. I may not even be up here. Tomorrow I should know. Glad you guys are skating part of it at least. We might see you at that school but not sure yet. I called the MS tour but didn't get a reply yet, too. Thanks for the info on this.

The Hills

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

There are two hills I am referring to. The worst is the intersection of Patterson and Motor Rd. Coming back from Baux Mtn Rd down Motor Rd. is pretty steep and the stop light is at the toe of the hill. There is a bail out lot provided there is no traffic there. It just looks really spooky. There is also a 4 way stop 1/2 way down the same hill. The other hill is not as steep coming down Reynolda Rd to the busy intersection at the WFU stop light. Jack taught me how to stop rolling my ankles out into a snow plow which works well as long as I'm not going too fast when I start the slow down process. Steve bought some new Bont's which have no brake so he is pretty nervous about it.

Sounds like Ken's

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

Hmm...steep downhills into stoplights...Baux Mtn. Rd...sounds like part of that Ken's route, which we have skated probably 5 times at least. That downhill into the stoplight under I-40 is a real shin-burner (break leverage, not roadrash!), and we usually end up controlling our speed also with the aid of somebody's lawn. On the way out from Winston towards Baux Mtn. Rd. on the Ken's ride, stopping before the stoplight and busy crossroad just beyond the I-40 underpass is not a problem for us - using our heelbrakes from the top of the hill. On the way back into Winston that downhill intersection is trickier but there is a last-minute bail out sidestreet to the right if you don't time the greenlight just right.

But I'm not even sure this is the same road you were talking about since I haven't seen the map.

OK scratch that...it must be different stop signs & lights, since Mock Orange Bikes is on the same side of I-40 as Baux Mtn. Still, looks like there are lots of little city streets nearby.

Steve, Amy & I will be

In reply to Mock Orange Bikes, Winston Salem NC, Tour To Tanglewood for MS Free Bike Training Ride Inline Skate: June 27, 2009:

Steve, Amy & I will be skating that portion. End me an e-mail (address above) and I will send you the cue sheet. They don't have it posted yet. I called and they e-mailed it to me.