MegèveSki

More Friday Night Skating

Tonight's Friday Night Skate took us from Hyde Park Corner to Angel via Soho, Covent Garden and Exmouth Market and then back to Hyde Park Corner via Old Street roundabout, Shoreditch, Liverpool Street, London Wall, Holborn, Trafalgar Square, Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus.

The roads this week were generally in better condition than the ones last week, though there were some interesting moments and textures to negotiate. The pack didn't open up quite as much on the faster section as last week but there was still scope for some nice long loping strides and a few cross over turns on the bends.

This is the route that we took tonight:

Apparently this was a typical "Marcus" route, in that it had some very interesting little cut throughs along the way; narrow alleys with bollards and uneven surfaces just to make sure we were all awake. The most amusing section was the end of a long, fast, downhill run that, at the point where you might otherwise start to apply the brakes, looked like it ended with a nice slow left hand bend that rose gently up hill. Not wanting to have to push hard up the hill nobody applied the brakes and it wasn't until you were actually at the gradient change that you realised that there was a large kerb to step up before the uphil section; so just at the point when you were going the fastest... There wasn't as much carnage as I expected at this point.

One fall tonight, a 'standing still' fall which deposited me on my backside and made me appreciate the fact that I had worn my padded shorts this evening.

The logistics of the evening were a little strange in that I walked to Angel, took a tube to Hyde Park and then skated to Angel, went right past the end of my road on the way to Old Street and then skated back to Hyde Park to take a tube home again... Still, good fun and good exercise.