Huge Smiles and Thanks to Eddy and the Skatefarm

On February 20th, 2009 I put my first pair of inline speed skates on. I live in the eastern part of Canada where the snow banks are as high as the telephone poles.
I was so excited to try out my new skates, so I skated back and forth in my parking garage. I wasn't a stranger to skating, since I used to do short track in the 1980's, but had not put a pair of skates on for quite a few years until this day. My big concern... no brakes. Although our parking lot had two levels, I didn't dare to venture to the top floor in fear that I would end my short-lived skating career.

Fast forward to last weekend. I skated and finished the NYC 100k. Placed 1st in the Pro Master division and the fourth woman to roll across the finish line. How did this happen? Eddy Matzger.

In June I was rolling down the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, home of the Skatefarm. I decided that since I was very new to this sport that I should get a few lessons. This was an understatement. What I received was bigger than a few lessons. Eddy has this innate ability to explain the technical aspect of skating. But what really stood out is Eddy’s enthusiasm and love of this sport. This is what made me a better skater. I went home with a totally new perspective on skating. I was more confident with my abilities and I was more confident with my in-abilities. I took more risks…. or what I thought was a risk turned out to be a “that was what I was worried about?”. I learned to trust the road, the hills, myself. This snowballed into an addiction for me. When I saw good roads to skate on, I would salivate. I would drive my husband nuts when we drove anywhere because I would make him detour onto roads I had never seen. I would catch myself saying “Salsa!” as I skated up the hills (a term Eddy uses for describing how to move up the hills). I had a perpetual smile on my face, waving to everyone I would meet on my skating routes. I was having fun!!!!! Eddy made skating fun for me.

I returned back to the Skatefarm in September to train for the NYC 100k. It was a tough four weeks but that was expected. How can you train for a 100k race otherwise? But again Eddy picked my spirits up and just watching him skate was a huge motivator for me. There is this description I use when talking about Biomechanics with my students. It is called “floating bones”. This term describes the ease of movement a person should try to attain to be biomechanically sound. Eddy has floating bones. When he skates up the hills this is very obvious. I would use this visualization when I skated up the hills. It made a huge difference. Each day we trained, the same hills got smaller and smaller. I would look forward to the skate. Moving along the country roads, the fresh air, the fresh pears and apples picked from the trees, the wildlife and our brief (and sometimes not so brief) chats with the locals, made the skate less of a training session and more of a way of life that I could get very use to. Floyd, Virginia is a skating paradise.

Last weekend I completed my first 100k race. My goal was to skate my own race. My own race meant to embrace the experience, trust my gut feelings and leave everything on the course. And like always, have fun doing it and have no regrets.
Even when skating his own race, Eddy was lifting my spirits. He would shout something encouraging or funny each time he lapped me. Now that is a true, genuine person and a great ambassador for this sport!