skater.log

skater wrote this just before lunchtime:

I had a tremendous time skating the MS150 this weekend. The cycling group here at National Instruments (”NIcycling”) was quite an asset, as they covered a great deal of the logistical elements. Patricia, a fellow Austin skater, and I skated together most of the time–about 80% of the distance we skated. We skated 135 miles of the roughly 180 mile trip, hopping into the sag vans when the pavement got too rough. In the end, it was an incredibly rewarding experience.

(more…)

Filed under: skater.logs
Comments Off

skater wrote this mid-afternoon:

The Athens to Atlanta event, which hosts 87, 38, and 52 mile events, is not technically a race, as the roads are not closed to drivers. But people certainly do turn it into one. Eddy Matzger, who has won the 87-mile race many times, did it in about 4 hours and 45 minutes. It is a hilly course, going from Athens to Atlanta, GA. You can learn more about it at http://www.a2a.net . I skated the 87 miles in 6 hours and 22 minutes.

(more…)

Filed under: skater.logs
Comments Off

skater wrote this just before lunchtime:

The inaugural Texas Road Rash Inline Marathon was held in Round Rock, TX on March 28. It was five laps of 5.1 miles each, totaling 25.5 miles. The entrants in the marathon were mostly from Houston, Dallas, and Austin, though there were skaters from Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and California. Many skate professionally. I finished first in the advanced category with a time of 1:28.50.

(more…)

Filed under: skater.logs
Comments Off

skater wrote this just before lunchtime: Well, what can I say? It was a beautiful year to skate, and a wonderful way to finish the year! Once again, the time spent in Athens the day before was idyllic, and I was in great company. Floyd, Nancy, Carla, Teresa, and Brian were great people to hang out with and enjoy the college town. The air was definitely filled with excitement as we prepared for the next day’s race!

(more…)

Filed under: skater.logs
Comments Off

skater wrote this mid-morning:

I raced in the 2005 Texas Road Rash, which is a local race here in Austin, on Sunday, March 20. We had some 145 skaters race in the marathon (26 mile) and 16k events, from various places in the country. I did very well despite a lack of training, finishing 26 miles in just under 1 hour 20 minutes.

(more…)

Filed under: skater.logs
Comments Off

skater wrote this in the early afternoon:

God has really pulled through as our Real Life Group (Bible Study) has multiplied into two groups. I wasn’t sure what to expect, though I knew that the group was bursting in its seams. Last week both groups had seven people in them. This week, our group had at least 14! I pray that God will keep the group unified and active. It’s so essential to bond as a group.

As I look forward to moving into my new house (just three weeks away), I’m excited to see what it will be like in my own place. I can’t shake the nervous feelings of uncertainty in my future:

• Will I stay with my job for at least five years?
• Is there anything wrong hidden in the house that the inspectors haven’t seen?
• Will all of the work get in the way of speedskating?
• Will I stay in Austin?

That last one is new, but not yet a big concern. I love Austin. But I now have one more reason why I might want to go back to Ohio: my brother Jeff is planning to move back.

This is my first real posting on skater.log. We’ll see where things go from here…

Filed under: musings
No Comments

skater wrote this in the early morning:

Yesterday I learned the meaning of ‘low-key’. You see, I had asked a lady out for a second date last Sunday night, and I left a message Wednesday night to finalize the plans. She left a message the next day saying that she still wanted to go, as long as it was low-key. Strange choice of words. I called her back and we made plans to go kayaking and then dinner. But of course I was left wondering what she meant by ‘low-key’. Not too late? Not too long? Not too dressed up? Not high expectations? Not really a date? I had hoped that it was one of the first three options, but I really had no idea. And I wasn’t going to ask her directly, hoping that it was just a passing comment.

So, as usual, I prayed before I picked her up. Not so much about this, but about wanting God to give me wisdom to know if she’s the right person to date, to give me courage to make the right decisions, and to keep my heart guarded through the evening. Then I showed up at her place, and not a minute passed before she said, “We need to talk. It’s not a bad thing.” (Come on, isn’t it always a bad thing when a conversation starts this way?) Short version: she’s seeing someone else and would like to just be friends. Ouch. Apparently the other guy and I initiated at the same time… how about that for timing?

We still had a good evening, and of course I was left wondering what could be so good about this other guy. But I know that God is in control and has my best future in mind. Perhaps she is not part of it; I just don’t know. But it’s hard to take this when someone has been on and off your mind for a few months. And for those who are counting: that’s 0 for 4 in getting past the first date in the last 12 months. I still have a friend in her; she didn’t pull the “don’t call me” thing, and I know she still wants to hang out.

I will never figure out women. They are a different breed altogether.

Filed under: musings
Comments Off

skater wrote this at around evening time:

Why does God hold back from us the knowledge of the future? There are so many questions I have for Him, but I know that there are so many answers that He wants to give us in his own time. Some examples:

• Who will I marry?
• Where will I end up?
• Will I find out that the ideals that I’ve held up don’t matter?
• Do I love to skate, or do I just do it for attention? (a little of both)
• Why is there pain in this world?
• Do people think I’m crazy, but they don’t have the heart to tell me?
• Why do you park in the driveway, but drive on a parkway?

Ok, so maybe that last one is not really nagging my mind. But how about this one?

• Why does God find it worthwhile to invest His energies into my eternity?

(more…)

Filed under: musings
No Comments

skater wrote this around lunchtime:

After the website was down, this blog is back up! The site went down, but I didn’t have time to fix it for a while because I moved into my house. Then training for racing got in the way. But now it’s back up!

Expect content soon…

Filed under: Uncategorized
Comments Off

skater wrote this mid-afternoon:

What an incredible weekend! Being from Austin, the weather in Duluth in mid-September was just divine. I left temperatures in the nineties for temperatures in the seventies, where Fall is starting to come out and the aroma of the trees is delightful. I had a great race and great company, so it made for a fantastic weekend!

(more…)

Filed under: skater.logs
Comments Off

skater wrote this in the early afternoon:

On Saturday I was skating in a draft line, enjoying my new skates and GPS watch. It was a beautiful sunny day. We were skating at the Veloway, around mile 27, when I said to Cooper, “I think I could still go for another 3 or 4 laps.” Right then, his left skate clicked on my left skate, which immediately went from 18 miles an hour to zero. And I fell.

Hard.

I think that the first thing that hit the ground was my left thumb, because, when I got back up again, it hurt really bad! I also landed on my left knee, hip, and shoulder, which meant that Tegaderm was in my future. Of course, because I was around five or so of my skating friends, I had to get back up again and go. But it wasn’t meant to be. I was in a lot of pain!

Two days later, the doctor said that my thumb was broken. Why did I wait through two days of throbbing pain and black-and-blue swelling? Did I think that I was beyond doctors? I really thought that it was just a bad bruising. After all, it was like I thwacked my thumb on a fast-moving car. Or banged it hard with a sledgehammer. But I got so many reactions at Church that I just had to take their advice.

So here I am, typing with every finger but my left thumb. I’ve got a funny looking brace and a bruised ego. The best part is that, while trying to see how much I could move my joint below the break, I felt a small clicking feeling while pushing the thumb with my right hand. Oops! To anybody who questions my sanity for keeping on skating with risks like this, I have no good response except the love of the sport and the thrill of skating (not falling) down a steep hill. I love to race; I love to skate; I love to eat. Please don’t take away my skates.

Filed under: Uncategorized
No Comments

skater wrote this in the early evening:

What is my first love? Jesus, of course! But my second love? Look at the name of this blog. My last post was about falling on my skates and breaking my thumb. I was somewhat bummed this week about doing that, and it really killed my motivation to skate. Sure, I said that it wasn’t going to stop me, but when Wednesday came around, I chose to work late, watch Lost, and play Settlers of Catan. Don’t get me wrong, those are both very good uses of my time. But I should have been training for my upcoming races. So when Brian Shicoff put out an email on the email list about skating on Thursday afternoon, I felt the urge to duck out of work to get in on that action. What a great time! I got to push myself, push others, and just plain have fun. Sure, it was hard to tie my laces without someone’s help. (Thanks, Brian!) But I had a blast.

Then I got back to work (to finish out the day). When I finished, I checked my email and followed a link to Andrew Love’s blog at www.andrewlove.org/blog. He’s an ice speedskater who is in Europe right now after the U.S. Olympic trials. If it’s who I’m thinking of, then I think that I’ve skated with him. His brother lives in Austin. His latest post has a picture that has riveted me. Check it out here. Wow! Can you imagine spending your time there? Sure, it’s cold. But what a beautiful place. Like golfing in the mountains… just without the silly golf shirts. I liked what he said about it:

It’s beautiful here in the Dolomites. Cold, forbidding, stern, Tyrolian, but beautiful.

So in my dreams last night I dreamed of skating in a city that I didn’t know, going places I’d never been to, and striving for a goal that I’ll never understand outside of my dreams. So today I realized that some of the greatest highlights of my life are where I’m exploring something new, doing it the way that I love best. It reminds me of last year when I made a trip to Silicon Valley for work. I brought my skates in hopes of fighting the boredom that I knew I’d have. By the end of the week, I had skated up some serious hills East of Milpitas (twice), exploration-skated to the next city North of Milpitas, joined in a speed practice at Cal Skate Milpitas, and finally participated in the Friday Night Skate in San Francisco. Talk about exploring! That week would have been so boring!

So, to my manager, who finds it strange that I keep skating in the midst of pain and injury, I humbly submit that I’m just not myself when I don’t have eight or ten wheels under me once in a while.

-Brent

Filed under: musings
No Comments

skater wrote this in the late afternoon:

We had a “Do-It Yourself Marathon” on Saturday, which is to say that about 20 of us showed up at the Veloway to skate about 26 miles. In order to prepare myself for the upcoming races in February and March, I wanted to prepare for this like it would be a race. I even did a sprint workout on Thursday, followed by a carbo-load lunch on Friday.

When we started at 9:00 AM, I was ready for some speed. But it was a slow start, and I pulled slightly away before I realized it. So I slowed down to take in the pack. They caught me in no time, but after I had pulled somewhat strongly up the first hill, the pack started dropping back a little. It’s not like I was going particularly fast for a Marathon; Floyd was pulling the pack behind me, wanting to keep them together. I, on the other hand, just wanted to test myself on a modestly windy day. I’ve been beating myself up over being a wheel-sucker, so I challenged myself to pull strong in the wind. After two laps, I decided that I wanted to be more of a team player. I had proved to myself in that I could go strong alone. So I started slowing down to let them catch me, as they were only 100 yards behind.

Meanwhile, Floyd had coached the pack to teach me a lesson. They matched my speed so that they wouldn’t catch me, intending to keep me out on my own. I guess that they assumed that I would burn out and drop back. I can’t blame them for it, either. Their plan became obvious to me, so I decided to go ridiculously slowly after the third lap. When they caught up, I pulled for a half lap, after which we sunk into a rotation.

By the end of the race, it was Floyd, Lawrence, and me. Floyd’s the bull who can keep going strong for miles and miles and miles. Lawrence is the sprinter who can really hurt you when he takes over. I was the guy who worked too hard in the beginning to prove something to himself. So whenever it was my turn to pull, I was slowing them down. By the end, I was in pain, struggling to keep up with the others.

Was this Hubris? Did I have pride in the beginning to think that I was so much better than them? At the time, I didn’t think that it was the case. Sure, I was enjoying being in the front to let them chase me. But I knew that Floyd was just keeping his pack together and not going too fast at the start. But the thought of pride did enter my mind on occasion: “I was stronger than them. I had prepared for the Marathon better than them. I had pulled away and might be able to stay ahead.” Why did I think this? I knew better than to think those things. Floyd is an exceptionally good and strong skater. Lawrence has what it takes to pursue high speed. The fallacy of my pride was proven by the end of the Marathon.

Filed under: musings
Comments Off

skater wrote this in the late afternoon:

I happened upon this website: After Hurricane Katrina: Vatican Sued for ‘Acts of God’

The best line is this:

Upon hearing of the impending legal action, a spokesman for the Seventh Day Adventist church said, “This is the first time I’ve ever thanked God that we are America’s smallest protestant denomination.”

Good stuff… It’s a funny satire on the current state of legal action in this country.

Filed under: Uncategorized
No Comments

skater wrote this in the early evening:

Hill Country Bible Church has been going through the Beattitudes in Matthew 5, and Stillpoint’s topic of discussion was on Matthew 5:9:

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.

I’ve always thought of myself as a peacemaker. I am, after all, the middle child of my siblings. Whenever arguments would arise and family meetings would be brought up, I’d try to be the mediator as much as I can. That said, I’ve never found myself in the middle of a serious fight that really affected myself, except for one recent time.

Back in September I found myself in a unique situation where I needed to confront something that was just wrong. It affected me personally, though more than the other guy thought it should. I had to put my foot down about it, and a rather serious conversation ensued that mostly involved the other guy making accusations of me that simply were not true. I look back at it now as an attempt to change the subject away from a rather glaring failure on his part, but at the time I just had to defend myself. We parted ways that evening and haven’t spoken since.

Why did this affect me so much? Why did the thought of seeing him send chills down my body in the next few days? Why have I had a few dreams in the months that have followed of seeing him again and reconciling? Clearly I don’t like to have someone think negatively of me, especially when I think I’m right. Now I know that I haven’t done things perfectly. The confrontation should have happened much sooner; I probably should have talked with him more about it before putting my foot down.

So when Jeremy talked at Stillpoint last night about peacemaking, my first thought came to that situation. But even more than that, this guy came to Stillpoint for the first time since it happened. He just hung out in the back, standing behind us during the talk. My first thought upon finding this out was shock. Thoughts of, “What do I do?” “How can I approach him?” “Do I toss aside my own pain like I have done in my dreams and approach him knowing that he probably still hates me?” In the heat of moment I sat at the sound board while Jeremy talked, wondering how to approach.

I didn’t get the chance to talk to him; he left during the talk. Hopefully I will see him again; hopefully I will be able to reconnect; hopefully he will start going to Lissie and Kevin’s Real Life Group. Hopefully we will both learn how to be peacemakers. Hopefully this will go to the glory of God.

Filed under: musings
No Comments

skater wrote this mid-morning:

Dear Skate360,

This is a blog to shut Kevin up. It probably won’t stop his “dear skate360″ texts. It will probably encourage him. But he’s been sending me them so long that I guess I gotta put something in here.

Maybe there’s a hidden meaning to this posting. Maybe not. Maybe that Tylenol Cold is getting to my head instead of doing its job.

-Brent

Filed under: Uncategorized
No Comments