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Brainerd Online
Inline Marathon
2005
By: Jay Jackson
Brainerd,
MN June 11, 2005
Team
Aloe Up earns podium place in Brainerd Half Marathon.
Team Aloe Up earned a podium
placement for the second weekend in row as
Chad Johnson
timed his final sprint to pass almost a dozen skaters in the
final meters of the Brainerd Half Marathon.
The weather was nearly
perfect with temperatures in the 60s and little wind as the
Brainerd Half Marathon course record was crushed on Saturday
morning.
Nearly 200 skaters participated in
the 4th annual event. Local teams included
Adams Inline,
Flanders,
SK8HARD.net
from Duluth, Randy Plett of
Bont
North America
and a large
contingent from
Team Aloe Up.
The race began with a couple of
hard right turns. Early on in the race Jay Jackson of Team
Aloe Up attempted to splinter the pack coming out of the right
turns only to be swallowed up by the hungry pack. The
first long straight away consisted of flyers by Team Aloe Up’s
Jeff Terwilliger, Todd King (Flanders), Tone Coughlin (SK8HARD)
and Randy Plett to name a few.
With multiple turns on
the course but relative flat terrain, each flyer was reeled in
quickly by the front pack that consisted of approximately 33
skaters. Coming out of each corner a break away was attempted
but it became clear that no one team or person was strong enough
to pull away from the pack. With each passing mile, the
intensity of the attacks picked up. Approximately a mile before
the half way turnaround, skaters jockeyed for position as no one
wanted to be at the tail end of the pack in fear it might
splinter. Three separate draft lines formed and many skaters
almost went down as the pack swarmed with out consistency.
Shortly after the turnaround the same top skaters took pull
after pull with speeds approaching 30 mph in hopes of breaking
up the large pack.
Down to a mile from the
finish the top sprinters started jockeying for position.
Randy Plett
gladly accepted a lead out from Tone Coughlin
with less than 200 meters to the finish and was placed in
perfect position on the inside lane of the final left turn.
With only 100 meters to go
Jeff Terwilliger attempted to get into better position with
Jackson in his draft. As they rounded the final turn both
Thong Nguyen and Tone Coughlin ran out of steam and the two
front Aloe Up teammates had to swing wide right to get around
the fading skaters. By going wide they were able to gain 4-5
spots, but it became apparent they could not catch the leader
with a tighter line.
With only 20 meters to
go Chad Johnson was able to come from the 13th
position and weave his wave through the crowd and grabbed 3rd
place right at the line.
“I just started my
sprint a bit too late”, said Johnson. “I had to fight my way
through the crowd and just ran out of room at the end”.
Jeff Terwilliger and Jay
Jackson finished in the top 6 and Dan Lind finished strong in
the 16th spot only 3 seconds of the winning time.
A sincere thank you to
race organizer Terry Holm for another great event!
Results
Photo's
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