At seventy years old, I still inline skate during the summer with my sister Pat. We skate at the Roseville Oval.  It is very smooth.   No, you are not invited to skate with us.  We need to be careful, age is a real thing.  Pat and I have skated together for several decades. We feel safer if it is just the two of us.  Thank you for understanding. 

Five feet ten inches is how tall I used to be; however, as I gained age, I lost an inch.  Which means, I’m now exactly average in height for men in the USA, thank you very much.  Interestingly, or if you prefer, oddly, my legs are far shorter than average. My inseam is twenty-seven inches, three to five inches shorter than the inseam for the vast majority of men my height.

Another of my physical oddities is I can not hold my hand flat with my palm up.  My wrists just won’t let me.  I can get my palms about two thirds of the way but not really even close to flat.   

To make a long story short.  I was always a slow runner (short legs). I was always pretty bad at doing anything which required flexible wrists.  Sucked at throwing a ball, sucked at hitting a ball, sucked at shooting a hockey puck, sucked at golf, sucked at stickhandling, sucked at building model cars, sucked at playing a musical instrument and you get the idea.

Short legs and inflexible wrists didn’t make me a good ice skater. Lots of practice skating is what made me a good skater. It’s just that short legs and inflexible wrists pushed me to do what I can do rather than spending so much time regretting what I am unable to do. 

From about age four until I graduated from college, during the winter, ice skating a couple times a week was my norm.  I really enjoyed skating.

Once I was out of college life happened.  Got married, worked full time, got a house, eventually we had kids and, like I said, life happened.  Skating took a back seat.  Still had my skates and would take the kids skating once in a while however, not very often. That was just my reality.  Time passed.  

For my 40th birthday, June 26, 1992, my beloved spouse, Linda, got me a pair of RollerBlades. It didn’t take too long to feel stable and comfortable on those RollerBlades.  Inline skating soon became one of my favorite things to do. 

To keep this real, I must confess, periodically, over the past thirty years of spending lots of time inline skating, sometimes so much time spent skating caused some tension between Linda and myself. That happened. We got through it.  I’m still skating. Thank you Linda.  

Since the day I got the rollerblades, inline skating became my thing.  At forty, I was not, nor could I realistically ever actually become, the fastest.  Young, lean and strong will actually usually beat old and overweight most of the time.  

My personal goal was never to be the fastest or to prove I could skate the furthest or do fancy trick skating.  The goal was then and continues to be to just skate well. I enjoy the feeling of freedom I get from skating. 

When I skate I concentrate on my skating. Smooth even strides, pushing mostly out and only slightly back. The idea is always to keep your center of gravity between your front wheels and your back wheels. While skating for me, the rest of the world sort of fades into the background.

If you fall, the trick is to fall down, not lurch forward or flat back. Yes I know a person who died from a swollen brain caused by a fall while inline skating.  I was the skateguard who tended to him. He was a skating friend.  I just wiped away a tear thinking about it.  Trust me, if you’re going to fall, fall straight down rather than forward or back.

Shorten the stride going up hills, lengthen the stride going flat.  Alternate stride and glide when going downhill to preserve your energy.  Take into account the smoothness of the pavement, wind and temperature. Watch out for cracks, leaves, sand, sticks, animals, kids, bikeriders, other skaters, and turtles.  At the end of a stride, lift your back foot just a half inch or so to bring it back to the front.  Repeat.

For a long hard skate, bring like 12 ounces of water, you don’t need a gallon. For an hour just chit chatting with a fellow skater you don’t need any water.   Drink lots of water when you’re not skating and you will be just fine.   

One cool fall morning skating on the Gateway trail about five miles in, going through a wooded area, two young deer ran next to us for about a block and a half as we skated.  It was way cool.  

There are literally hundreds of stories I could tell about inline skating.  I was a skate guard at the Metrodome for several years.  My sister Pat, her husband Chet (I miss him every day) and I skated in many marathons and were volunteers at many others.  We’ve skated through downtown Minneapolis on several early Sunday mornings.  We’ve skated several trails, many of them hundreds of times.  

Be courteous to others on the trail.  Skating is an individual sport most often done around other people. For the record, it is very rewarding to help an inexperienced skater learn. Always remind them to relax and have fun skating. 

I’d like to publicly thank the staff at the Roseville Oval for being so nice to Pat and me.  Thanks to Linda for being so understanding.

The closer you look the more you see.