Long Beach International Marathon 2002

Long Beach International Marathon, October 12, 2002
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Bolt on your grind plates and get ready for a raw street skate! If you remain undaunted by oil and sand and curbs and bike paths and the twists and turns of fate, then the Long Beach (25 mile) Marathon on October 13, 2002 in Long Beach, CA, is all for you!

Marines in uniform linked arms at the start to hold back a sea of skaters. At 7:15, the gun went off and skaters who had paid up to $80 for a slot machine skate through the streets of Long Beach bolted pell-mell.

Seek thrills on a skate through the port city! The course held nearly every kind of challenge: big wide open boulevards for straight-ahead jamming, oily and damp surfaces on which to spin-out like a cartoon character, skinny bike paths along the Pacific Ocean, coned-off lanes with bicycles to thread through. Downed skaters to jump over. Narrow funnels, blind corners and unexpected 180 degree turns any thrill seeker would crave.

At mile 16, a TWINCAM/Salomon and a HYPER skater were opening up a hard-fought lead on the main pack when both they and the pace motorcycle plowed into U-turn at full speed and spun to a stop off course. Mass carnage ensued as the chase pack arrived and stacked up in confusion. Some skidded on skin or shins while others in the peleton skated down what seemed to be the correct course.

There are no caution flags in inline racing. As the official motorcycle recovered and pursued the main group to tell them to stop and turn around, a parked motorcycle policeman had a chance to fire up his machine and take off down the route, allowing a group of crashed, straggling, and savvy skaters to react in time and head off in the right direction.

It took a few miles for the front of the race to consolidate again. The main pack didn't know they were not at the head of the course until they saw a four-man breakaway coming at them from the other direction.

TWINCAM/Salomon's Eddy Matzger caught the main pack at mile 18 and began launching like a madman, egged on by oncoming skaters in the Advanced and Recreational divisions. As the opposition wearied of closing on a constantly attacking Matzger, Chad Hedrick (Hyper) himself began doing the dirty work. Just as Eddy and K2 skaters began filtering back for another surge, along came the finish, catching them and many others unawares.

Said Jordan Nelson, "Everybody was expecting a long straightaway where we'd be able to see the finish line coming. But then we came around a corner and there it was, so the field sprint was less than 100 meters." Skaters pretty much finished wherever they were in the pace line.

In the end it was the three-man breakaway -- Diego Rivera, Josh Wood and Dirk Breder -- who carried the day.

The women approached the Long Beach course with a modicum of caution, t-stopping before dangerous sections and keeping it clean down the home stretch. Columbia's Cecelia Baena Guzman celebrated her victory in the field sprint with a dramatic one-legged "Ta-da!" over the finish, with Julie Glass and Kim Derrick close behind.

Check out full results on-line.

Girls group	Master starters	Empire beach
Troy moves up	Leaning in	Flying camel
Wooargh!	Cruisin'	Conquistadora
Masters finish	Happy finishers	Tight turning
Crossing the line	Caped crusader	Faces in the crowd

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