Rollerblading after dark

Last night a couple of us decided to try out the Dresden skating at night. A couple of weeks ago I had been walking through the city at night and had seen a police escort of like 8 cars closing streets for hundreds and hundreds of rollerbladers. It looked like a blast and I had to try it.

It happens every Friday night (weather permitting) and so last night we went for it. We showed up and rented skates and pads for 5 euro. Hundreds and hundreds of German's on rollerblades eventually showed up and bam, 9 oclock on the dot (German's don't do the whole late thing), we were rolling behind a truck with speakers blaring music.

I guess I should mention that we had no idea 1) where we were going 2) how far we were going or 3) how long it would take.

I found myself basically skating as hard as possible, completely seperated from the group that I came with. We whoosed through residential streets, past the zoo (which I could tell because I could smell it), and through many parks. Hundred's of children with glowsticks in one hand and moms hand in the other watched from the side as a seemingly endless stream of roller bladers sped by.

I thought this would be a nice relaxing, fun cruise through the city. What we didn't know was that instead it was more of an athletic event. At about 10 the entire group paused, at which point we realized that no, it was not almost over, and yes this was about half way.

My feet and ankels were burning, but honestly there is no way to stop because I had no idea where I was and could not navigate home. So I stood back up, rolled to the front and bam we were moving again. This time I decided to stay in the front, because the music took away some of the intense pain I felt in my feet and in my ankles. We cruised through quiet german streets, on rollerblades and bumping to a strange mix of music that included German techno, american techno, and american pop music. I decided to take the lead for a little, the sight of completely open pavement was a welcome relief from constantly avoiding hundreds of legs and arms all methodically pushing forward. This lasted for 2 minutes until one of the organizors started yelling in German and I realized, probably not good to lead if you can't understand directions.

The event must almost be over. I assured myself over and over. And yet the pavement kept coming.

Finally, a sign I recognized, one that ment we had to be close!

Finally at around 11 oclock we made it back to the park where the whole event started, exausted I had made it back in the top 5 or 6 skaters (not that it was a race, but I still took pride in this). I basically collapsed, throwing my skates off of my throbbing feet, and the blood slowly began to return to my painful extremities.

At this point I found out how long the skate had been and decided maybe no rollerblading for awhile.

25 kilometers.

15.5 miles.

2 ridiculusly sore feet, but an interesting experiance that I will never forget.