Long Beaches and a Whole Lotta Fun!

800 skaters at the Long Beach Marathon

PDX Speedskaters 26 miles? NO sweat!

Long Beach 2002 had an attendance this year of approximately 800 skaters. Long Beach's ever- changing course turned out to be a challenge even for the pros like Eddy Matzger and Chad Hedrick. There was the Pro Division, the Master Pro Division, the Advanced Division, and the Rec/Fitness Division. The course was definitely made to test ALL of a skater's abilities. Coarse freeway pavement, U-turns on slick pavement, sandy trails, bumps, UP hills, cool down hills, and of course the great volunteer smiles! HILLS; yes lots of hills ladies and gentlemen.

The Portland speedskaters all fared well at the Long Beach Marathon. There were NO falls! We were all used to the wet pavement, which gave many other people trouble during the marathon. As a team we all agreed that we need more hill work, due to the marathon course being so hilly.

JF Fullum---Won his age division and placed 3rd overall in the Advanced Men Group with the time of 1:20:22. He was our Star Speedster. ---"Hmmm, Knut is weird!"

Laura Kernan ---Placed 5th in her age group 30-35, Fitness /Rec Division 1:56:00. --"Yeah! No falls, no scars!!! Oh but I think that I might have quarterback blocked Jennifer Aniston off the beach trial, now she might have some scars…now she is not perfect! :)"

Marcel Hermans---Did a great job! His time was 1:30:15! I think Marcel drives as fast as he skates! (Fast VERY fast). He was in the top ten of his age group in the 35-40 YO Advanced Div. "It was a long Long..Beach. Get out of my way; I drive very fast! And NO you can not put a G- string on my antenna."

Bonita Seubert---Placed in 4th in the 30-35 YO Advanced Women Div., 1:46:13. "!@#$!@#ing, Verducci boots!, !@~!@#ing Blisters! Help I need skin grafts to my ankles!!! Anyone want to donate? Red Bike? What red bike?"

Angela Officer---Placed 4th in the 25-29 YO Advanced Women Div., 1:45:30. ---"Tighten your axles before a 26 mile marathon!, Clancy's pub rules and so does the glasses! Marcel, can I get frequent flyer miles when I'm with you in the car?"

Teddie Matteson--- Placed 5th in 45-50, Advanced Women Div., 1:58:39. --" Mt. Tabor hill practice here I come! I will even do my Cal-girl tush skate if you come and practice with me."

Kirk Matteson---Placed 4th in the 45-50, Fitness/Rec Div. 1:56:39. --"Next year I will beat that California skater girl in the blue top! Oh yeah, maybe I should sew my socks to my uniform maayybe that would help? JF?"

Sherrel Steinhauer---Placed 5th in the 60-65, Advanced Men Div. 1:33:08. ---"Yey yeh ey right (smiling)"

Luc Beauvillier ---Trained all summer for this and got sick at the last minute. ---" Barf, barf. Okay, I will be there next year everyone."

After the Marathon we all raced for the Hyatt's hot tub! WE won! We beat all the Canadians and Arizonians for the jets! I think that we maxed out the tub capacity with 12-15 people at one time. :) The pool boy made an appearance, and Teddie benefited from that. Next year Angie and I have decided that Marcel will get extra sleep time if he is our own pool boy!

Next we headed over to the awards ceremony! JF brought home a trophy, yeah! During the ceremony we really got to see the top of the top skaters. Chad Hedrick hunkalicious (Angie's friend) and many others. I was left thinking that there are lots of top skaters with BIG feet (women in particular). Does that help with power/stroke? Hmmmm. I will be talking to my feet during my nightly prayers (grow feet, grow darn it). No promises though; it has not worked for my vertical ability since 8th grade!

After the awards we headed north to watch the pros in a sprint challenge. MAN, it is one thing to see them on TV/video and another in real life. They are sooo fast! Incredible!

All in all our entire trip was one to go down in history for some of the PDX speedskaters. For years to come we will ALL remember the bike, the beers and of course, the beach!

-Bonita Seubert