Man roller skis from Hopkinton to Marathon finish line

FYI, took the early train out from Back Bay to Southborough a la the Midnight Marathon types. Blended in with the 7:30-to-Worcester-on-a-Saturday bleary-eyed crowd. And, yes, this was an excuse for ski training (hard to do in evenings in the dark). I may or may not know about ski marathons too. A little too much. As far as I know I'm the first crazy person to rollerski the marathon (but I would not be surprised if someone else has). And it was immortalized on Strava (and I skied a qualifier—barely).

PS—the tights are from a year coaching the ski team at Newton North. Go Tigers!

Ha. You don't. I only skied this because I scouted the whole route by bike (#midnightmarathon this spring), and because after a decade on rollerskis I can scrub speed pretty well on downhills.

For some reason I didn't answer all these questions last fall (other than stopping). I was on skis for 3:51, of which 3:41 was "moving time" according to Strava. That's for Cordaville to Cambridge. The actual marathon route took me 3:03:40, which means I would have qualified for Boston and made the cutoff by about 15 seconds. Of course, I had to stop for things like traffic, stop lights, railroad tracks, water, changing gloves on blistery hands and the like.

I'm planning to run it faster this spring.

As for terrain, any rollerskier worth his or her salt knows how imperative it is to scout a route before skiing it. This can be done by car or bike, but better by bike since you notice poor pavement and sketchy downhills. If I can't break 40 mph on a bike on a downhill I'll ski it, but only if it has good pavement, no large cracks (and if it has cracks, they are avoidable and mostly across the roadway), and no obstructions, like a curve near the bottom or a dead-end stop or a railroad track (or a combination, extra fun). If you don't scout, you run the risk of going ass-over-teakettle in to someone's lawn (a time-tested stopping method) or scraping your bottom on pavement (not suggested).

Some skis have a rudimentary braking system (usually called "speed reducers") which can help you go slower down hills. Mine don't. If you have coaches they can physically help you down steeper hills (see Annie Hart's blog here for some examples). I don't. I've gone about 30 mph on rollerskis down hills which on okay pavement if I know there's a good runout. You don't have the gyroscopic effect of a bike wheel so you try to get your center of gravity low. Or you stand up with your arms out to use the wind to slow you down. This actually works.

Other things to avoid: ice (obviously), wet leaves (killer, since you're pushing out and back on the pavement, and the rubber on the wheels is not designed for leaves) and the like. Wet roads are okay, but usually a good time to go for easy skis, since you do lose some traction. Ask two-time gold medal biathlete Martin Fourcade about that. (Also, Martin should be wearing a helmet.)

Route isn't that bad. Problem spots were:

Southborough T hill has construction
Mile 0: recent utility trench pavement is sketchy on a downhill (and it's narrow, but not much traffic)
Mile 16: Hill down to the Charles, need to keep speed controlled
Mile 16.5: Exit ramps to 128; not a non-car-friendly design.
Mile 16.5-17.5: Washington Street has no shoulder (but two lanes). "Double poling" necessary to stay right when there's traffic.
Mile 22: Hill and streetcar tracks in Cleveland Circle
Mile 23: Hill to Washington Square
Mile 24: Hill to Saint Paul Street after Coolidge Corner

Note: it's mostly the downhills, but none are that steep.

Good times!