JOSH WOOD-STUNT SKATER???????

Josh Wood recently returned to his home in Sacramento, California for a little R&R after training on the ice for the last 7 months. With the ice season over and everyone else taking a step back and relaxing, Josh found another way to "chill". Let's just call it "his way".

If you know Josh, he doesn't like to "rest". He likes to have fun doing physical things. Today would be no different as Steve Harriman, our photographer from the City of Rancho Cordova, captured at least a few hundred photos of Josh skating at the recent marathon site in Rancho Cordova.

This is the same race site that Josh was unable to attend due to prior ice commitments. So with camera in hand and a couple of extra lenses and even a "stick thing" (yes that is MY professional name for the thing that holds the camera still - I think), Steve and Josh took off around the business park to take photos in different areas and at different angles. Steve had enjoyed shooting his very first inline speed skating marathon on March 9th, 2008, and had requested a little time with Josh. He had some ideas that he wanted to try out and Josh was game.

Of course I followed for awhile and then I headed back to the car where I found Ananda Jolliff (who has been living with our family for the last 10 weeks), fast asleep after getting only 5 hours sleep the night before. She had worked at the rink and did not realize that Josh wanted to train so early or she would have been at home and in bed asleep long before the 1am time that she finally plopped her head down on the pillow! In the meantime I told her to catch a few ZZZZZ's while the guys made their way around a portion of the marathon course taking photos.

After about an hour and a half, it was finally winding down and Steve asked Josh if he could jump??


Knowing that I didn't want an injured skater... I jumped in with, " Well typically Inline Speed Skaters usually work to keep their feet on the ground......." as if I weren't even there...... Josh piped in with, " Sure I can jump....... over what and how high?"



My stomach dropped as they both laughed. By now.... do you have ANY idea what was going through my head?? Well you all know how much I LOVE crashes...... I figured if Josh was going to go down.... I was going to capture it on my camera (sadistic? No, I just like crashes! And he obviously was going to jump with or without me watching). So here is part one of the video "outtakes" ..... and a few photos that I took. I still have not seen the ones that Steve shot. If this is any indication, they are gonna be cool!!

Of course we will have those available through Steve's website as soon as they are ready. Enjoy.....lol.... oh yeah.... you didn't think I would show you EVERYTHING today did you????

Yep, ya gotta come back if you want to see more.... video AND photos......LOL Linda
p.s. although the resolution is very low on these still shots taken from my video camera, don't be afraid to click in the middle of the photo to enlarge it and see how crazy this REALLY was!

ROSS CREVELING introduces "Early Morning Warm-Up"

Ross Creveling, INLINE MARCH MADNESS'S incredible announcer, decided to try something for the first time at our meet. It's something that will become the standard across the USA, mark my words!

Ross is well aware of Dynamic Flexibility and how important it is for the skaters to be warmed-up anytime, but especially in the morning when their bodies are tired and it is cold. He should know, he has 3 skaters/children who do it on a regular basis. Oldest son Patrick Creveling, who made the US Marathon Team the first year it was introduced, competed in the 2002 World Championships in Belgium. Daughter Chelsea Creveling has skated numerous National Championships, and represented Team USA at the 2005 World Championships in the marathon as well. And finally the baby of the family (sorry Chris... someone has to be the baby), the quiet and reserved Christopher Creveling who has qualified for at least the last 4 World Championships and holds at least one silver medal in the relay event and is "one to watch" in the new WhIP program, "inline to ice". Chris has chosen to compete on short track. And all three of these skaters are known to use this warm-up program.

Ross asked me after the first day, "Linda do you mind if we have the kids warm-up BEFORE the warm-up? You know.... the Dynamic Flexibility warm-up?" I said of course, that's a great idea.. and it was the next morning that he started the "Warm-up" before the warm-up drill. Many skaters participated and many skaters stood on the side wall watching. Possibly for the first time and others because they just weren't awake enough to realize what was happening. By the next morning we had triple the amount of skaters participating as we did the first day.

Thanks Ross for such a great idea! We tell our kids to do it before they skate and usually ask them to warm-up in the back of the rink or down the side isle, but now such a simple suggestion will turn what some skaters view as still an unnecessary thing into "what, you don't warm-up??" The video above was just a few seconds of one of the drills they did the first morning. Linda

BE CAREFUL WHAT FACE YOU MAKE!

Remember how your mother used to say, "be careful.... if you keep making that face, it might get stuck that way"?? As I take pictures and the kids make funny faces, I tell them "don't make a face unless you're o.k. with it being seen by thousands of people"!!

Some of these kids listened and others.... well I'm not so sure! Hope you Enjoy.

Corina Blas doesn't like mornings!! Normally a smile would adorn her face, but not today!! I told you to smile Rina...



Andrew Simmons from Washington was full of smiles during the clinic and had no problem showing it! Do you have a photo from this past weekend that you would like to share? Send it to woodsk8@yahoo.com and I will post it with your story! Linda



Chelsi Legualt from Idaho decided to hide her face, but that left something "else" for me to capture!! Chelsi, next time just smile!!

Where would YOU spend your 28th wedding anniversarry?

Pete and I in the middle of the floor
on our 28th wedding anniversary, March 8th, 2008
NOTICE the stop watch in Pete's right hand??

Many things are special to my husband, Pete and myself. Our children, our families, our friends and speed skating! Somehow all of those things intertwine anyway. You see our wedding date wasn't some "special" date that we had to get married on. It was a date that was "left over". What do I mean by left over???? LOL

Back in the 80's I was heavily involved in artistic skating. I taught 6 days a week and traveled often (surprise... nothing has changed except the spandex.... wait, that hasn't even changed!).

Well March 1, 1980 was a league meet so we couldn't get married on that date and March 15th, 1980 was the weekend of a local Invitational so that weekend was out. So we choose Saturday, March 8th, 1980 to get married. Since that time many important things in my life have centered around competitions. Some of them are easily explained here... and well others... most people might not understand unless you knew just how "quirky" my family is!! If you dare... ask me sometime about my mom and her love of skating!!!! :)

Since we spent our 25th silver wedding anniversary at practice and we had dinner at KFC (Pete I will NEVER let you forget that!!!!), it would only be appropriate to put on our own invitational on our wedding anniversary where we could be with all of our family and friends (except Josh-and he forgot to call me-I won't let HIM forget about it either!!). So that's where this little story comes from. That and I wanted to introduce you to my "other" children. Most of you already know Josh Wood, but his older sister Antoinette (Toni) who works undercover.. notice the t-shirt!! And Brian Wood, Josh's little brother who could kick his butt in a heart beat but loves his brother dearly, except when yu remind him how his brother and sister tied him to a chair when he was just 4-yrs old and stuck a sock in his mouth while I was at work! LOL Then the fire lights up in Brian's eyes and we all stand back....

Toni has a very ODD sense of humor like her father!
She works UNDERCOVER - don't you think that's weird?
LOL....

Skating has been very good to our family. Not financially by any means (LOL), but friends, families, memories and so much more. I guess I will get over not being together on birthdays, or anniversary's or some holidays as long as we have our "other" family members to spend them with!! How 'bout you?

Brothers till the end! Josh Wood - 25 years old used
to beat up little brother Brian Wood - 21 -years old.
But not any more!!! And YES... they do have the
same mother and the same father! LOL

DO I HAVE STORIES ??!!

Things were crazy throughout the competition - just like the swirls on Sidney Titus's head. Sidney from WASHINGTON, finished 1st place in the Standard Sophomore
Men's Division. Gotta be the hair-do!

How can so many things happen over such a short period of time?? I knew it would be a roller-coaster ride ..... and I wasn't disappointed! I know you all want to read the stories and see the pictures. Unfortunately I was not able to take as many photos as I usually do. Some of it was due to time (or really I should say, lack there of), and other reasons I can't believe... like the 3 different sets of batteries that I have for one of my cameras were ALL run down or the fact that I own two cameras and only brought one... or how about this.... I forgot my video camera??!! I think this has been the worst weekend for me capturing what happened. But I am counting on a few people to help me out. Mark Virtue from WASHINGTON who took so many photos his finger is probably hanging by a thread. And to Laura Burns from CALIFORNIA who video taped almost every race promised me that she would get us a copy as soon as she could.

We did have two injuries somewhat serious that I will tell you about (one indoor and one outdoor - one I observed the other I did not), the playing or singing of two National Anthems each morning for two of the four countries that were represented at this meet. And even the photos taken by one of the top dog officials at City Hall, who did a spectacular job. His photos are here: http://www.pbase.com/steve1h/rc_ils_3_9_08

Let's not forget the High Point Award that went to SOUTHGATE/AUBURN, WA team for their superb Indoor Racing... and even two skaters who flew in, rented a car, spent the night and were UNABLE to participate in the Marathon. These and more stories will be flowing this direction. So come back often to check in and see what's new. If the information is not about this year's Inline March Madness Invitational, it most certainly will be about the IMMI in 2009! We are so excited.

Thanks again to ALL of you who traveled, whether it was a few miles from the rink in Sacramento to those of you from the East Coast or another country (Canada, Hungary and Belgium), we are so glad that you could attend. We look forward to having you back again next year! TRIAD RACING and Linda Wood :)

California Girls get together during the clinic with Justin
Stelly and Emily Scott for a brief moment while I capture
those smiles!!

IMMI Indoor Competition goes LIVE!!

Yep.. that's right. All of the Primary Girls and Primary Boys made their television debut with Channel 31's GOOD DAY SACRAMENTO and reporter CODY STARK!! check it out here... http://cbs13.com/gooddaysacramento Once on this website, scroll across the videos until you come to the one that says "Cody goes skating". Of course it is not the complete hour of reporting, but it is cute!!

More pictures and results will be coming soon... after we finish tomorrow's marathon. Wish us luck... our few volunteers meet out at the road course at 5:00am (really 4am) and start unloading barricades and setting up the course which must be complete by 7pm. In the meantime American Red Cross is due to show up as well as our food, Porta-Potties (we know how important these are for a race) our 30 yard dumpster (smallest one that they would DONATE to us!! Thank you Allied Waste and the "Beirn Family") . Stay tuned and check out the photos we do have!

WEATHER CHANGE AGAIN!!

Most recent update (not that it matters and not that I can control it) says it will be in the mid 70's on Sunday in Rancho Cordova!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about excited. Do you know why the weather turned around??? Because I asked our staff to purchase 100 ponchos to hand out to the skaters if it should rain. That would help keep some dry... and for others it would make for silly photos!

Speaking of photos, Mark Virtue from Washington is here with camera in hand and is ready for all of those action shots!!! Mark will sell you a CD of all of the photos he takes at this meet for a donation to SEND THE BEST. He donates every dime back to skating and his photos are incredible. I will have all of the necessary information for you in the next day or two as well as a link to the INLINE MARCH MADNESS INVITATIONAL photo page. So stay tuned.

By the way, practice was two and a half hours long tonight and the skaters did a super job. We had some more late entries and now Standard Senior Men and World Class Men will join other divisions by having heats instead of just going straight to the finals. We are looking forward to it guys and gals... bring it on! Linda

INTRODUCING OUR "LOGO"

Somewhere in the midst of things I forgot to post our logo! He's kind of cool with that pot of gold and all that green! At least I think so!

He is on everything from the t-shirts (he is on the front and all of our sponsors are on the back IN COLOR), water bottles, programs, souvenir pins, awards and most anything else that he can be printed on! One of the kids noticed he was "skating to the right". I had to laugh because that was one of the first things that I noticed when he was sketched out for us. But as I reminded the young skater, "you know we do skate to the right when we are outdoor and we do skate to the right when we are skating session, so I think this time it will be o.k., how about you?" Of course he thought that was just fine. Good thing..... it was too late to do anything about it now anyway!

For those traveling in today... the roads were clear and there is a slight breeze blowing with the beautiful blue sky as far as the eye can see. Keep your eyes open when driving on the freeways or even local streets, as traffic can be doing 70mph one moment and literally dead stopped the next. I have had the opportunity to drive in many states and several countries and I think California as a whole ranks up there with some of the worst! We are always in a hurry to get somewhere and when we get where we were going, we want to hurry up and leave. Born and raised in California I can honestly say we need to slow down a little and look around, California is a beautiful state! Take it easy and we will see you at practice shortly.... Linda

12 HOURS TO GO

In just 12 hours we will be at the rink preparing for our open practice. Then 12 hours after that, I will be getting up preparing for our FIRST ANNUAL INLINE MARCH MADNESS INVITATIONAL/MARATHON.

I know I have passed a lot of information over these pages and most of the things have changed more often that some kids change their under ware (Oooo mental picture!). I will have the opportunity to write an article about what it is like to put on a larger event for the first time. USA Roller Sports is saving me a spot in their next issue. There are some days that I think, "Jessica will never publish this..." and other days I want to write about all of our great sponsors and how they were so instrumental in our success. What it has been like trying to get the schools to just hand out flyers that were already preprinted about our 2K FUN ROLL. Or how some businesses promised to donate something for our raffle and then declined once we stopped by to pick it up.

Well I would love to ramble on but I need a few hours sleep before this all starts. To be honest... I feel like that Novice kid who is at their first big race. I can't sleep, I feel like I have forgotten something important, like my skates or my uniform (no... I do not wear a uniform so don't even think about asking!).... but excitement as we pull up to the rink. The butterflies, the anticipation, the nerves.... I can't wait!!! See you tomorrow.. actually later today! Linda

MARATHON TIME CHANGE.......

Sunrise can be one of the most magical times of day. The way the sun reflects as it is rising up onto the water or the way the natural light outlines the peaks and valleys of a mountainous range even before you ever see the actual sun itself, can be something forever etched in our minds or on a picture.

Ahh but for inline skaters sunrise can actually be the signal that a race is officially started as in the case of the INLINE MARCH MADNESS MARATHON!

Originally we wanted to fire the gun at exactly 7:00am on the morning of March 9th, 2008, but it doesn't look like that will happen. With the changing of the guards (or the dreaded quote, "springing forward"), we will not only loose an hour of sleep officially at 2:00am Sunday morning, but we will also loose an hour of daylight at the start of our day. Now if you are confused that's o.k. because with the loss of sleep you will be way too tired to even care!!!

The good news is that we will not officially start the race until 7:30am. With sunrise beginning at 7:27am, we will already have had 3 minutes of new daylight under our belt to light the way for the World Class Men and Ladies and the Pro Master Men and Ladies Marathon competitors.

If you are like me, I want to start preparing now for the dreaded loss of that precious hour of sleep! If I could, I would change my clocks today so that on that important day I would be no more tired than I am right now. But sometimes life is cruel. And for me that will be Sunday morning at 5:00am (which is really 4:00am-but not really 4:00am because it officially changed) when we are out there setting things up to ensure that the road course is safe.

For those of you attending the indoor competition, we will have maps as to where you can park and when you must be in the parking lot prior to the road closing. And if the road is closed, where you will need to go so that you can park... and to those coming in just for the marathon, our staff will be happy to deliver the same maps to your hotels if they are within a few minutes of the host hotel, the MARRIOTT. If that does not work for you, please do not hesitate to contact me directly for directions which will be available tomorrow, Tuesday. woodsk8@yahoo.com

By the way... if you are joining us early, we will have official STARBUCK'S COFFEE AND TEA available (real HALF-N-HALF) as well as juice, water, gatorade, cliff bars, cereal, muffins, donuts, fruit, food and even candy for those who dare!!!

The weather is changing CONSTANTLY. I have NO CLUE what it will be like... so bring layers of clothing an umbrella, sunglasses, poncho, snow shoes, lip balm and suntan lotion and you won't go wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned for the update on scheduling... Linda
p.s. the sunrise pictures are courtesy of YAHOO SEARCH and the ones I liked the most, hope it doesn't infringe upon some kind of legal rights thing!! :)

RIGHT NOW - 37 MPH WIND GUSTS!!!

I woke up to things clanging and banging and to the sounds of things "blowing" across our backyard at about 5am. I couldn't stand the thought of what all of that meant. The MARCH WINDS were blowing in. So I pulled the blankets up over my head and went back to sleep. In 8 hours not much has changed!

Not that we haven't had the winds off and on throughout the month of February, because we have, but we were not holding the March Madness Inline Marathon in the month of February so it didn't really matter! As crazy as that sounds, it's the mind of a "race promoter"!! Currently the wind is blowing at 27mph with gusts up to 37mph. I thought I would share with you what happened LAST month to our fence during some of the stronger winds. Take a look at our fence BEFORE and the neighbor's fence AFTER the last storm.

Our fence before the last storm....

We live on some property and the good thing is that all the homes that surround the 3 sides of us are responsible for their own fence. There is no typical "good-neighbor" fence that surrounds our property like most homeowners. Not because we aren't good neighbors (funny guys... were not even home half of the time!), but because that's the way the original land owner set it up. Good thing! As you can see, this is same section of fence from 3 different angles. Picture #1 middle picture: In the neighbor's backyard-the fence fell onto our white trailer.

Picture #2 Right Side: 4 - eight foot sections fell onto our white trailer - side view

Picture #3 Below: Standing on our property looking into 2 neighbor's backyards - because I can!

So lets hope that the winds die down and I will keep you updated on the lastest with the weather! And remember ....this happened LAST month in February... not this month in March :) I WILL stay positive!! Linda