Skating in the summertime

There’s no feeling quite like it. With the wind in your hair and the occasional bug in the face, there’s nothing like going for a skate along Ottawa’s gorgeous pathways on a sunny weekend morning.

In the nation’s capital, runners and cyclists dominate the city’s pathways.

But this weekend, I’ll be joining members of a small but mighty group of inline skaters as they reclaim the roads in the annual Ottawa Inline Skating Festival.

More than 200 people are expected to strap on their skates to glide 5, 10, 21 or 42 kilometres — or a combination of them in the Triple Crown event — on Sunday.

Ottawa Inline Skating Club president Michael Garvin is the first to admit that inline skating’s not as popular as some of the other sports.

With an estimated 5,000 skaters in the city, the sport is “much, much smaller than running and cycling,” said Garvin, 37.

But if ‘blading’s your thing, Ottawa’s the place to do it.

“Ottawa is a really green, scenic city with so many bike paths,” said Garvin. “There’s paths downtown, on the Ottawa River Parkway, by Carleton University, by Hog’s Back, on the Aylmer side of the river, towards Woodroffe and Baseline and there’s a path through the Experimental Farm,” said Garvin. “You can skate a 60K loop around Ottawa.”

Even with the staggering distances many competitive skaters cover, the sport doesn’t get as much respect as it should.

“A lot of people think that by inline skating, you’re not getting as good of a workout, but it’s much more kind to your body,” said race organizer Daniel Dutrisac, who got into competitive inline skating seven years ago after getting burnt from the rigors of the other sports.

Recently, I joined some of the city’s best skaters who meet several times a week to practice in the National Research Council’s parking lot.

Strapped into recreational skates that weigh more than my microwave oven, I feel ill-prepared for the half marathon I’d brazenly committed to doing. It suddenly occurs to me that, I too, may have underestimated the skill involved in the sport.

When preparing for a race, the rule of thumb is to work yourself up to skating 75 to 80 per cent of the distance, said Garvin. “The rest of it, you can do with no problem.”

He teaches me a few things that will make my moves more efficient — skating with knees slightly bent and arms behind the back.

“Over 20K, all these efficiencies start adding up,” he said. “You can skate with so much more comfort and ease.”

While the learning curve is steep — it takes years of hard work to move from beginner to elite skater status — this weekend’s event caters to all levels.

Fast or slow, streamlined or spazzy, five kilometers or 63 in the Triple Crown, the organizers just want to share the sport they love with others. And as club member Nathan Johnston said, “do your best and forget the rest.”