(Scott Jones, October 4, 1998)
This year's event was a blow-out with 812 skaters registered, including 125 from the Leukemia Society's Team In Training program. The event started in Athens with grey skies and fog. Rain showers developed as the lead skaters passed checkpoint 2, with the roads drying out by the time they had reached checkpoint 4. Late morning and afternoon was a bright, hot, sunny day, topping out at 83 degrees F and tying the record for warmest event day.
The overall winner was Christopher Keiser of team Wild Oats, with a time of 4:35:46, beating second place Lauri Paalasmaa, skating for K2 Finland, by nearly 2 minutes. Barrie Hartman (Team Unity/Transpack) repeated her win of 1996, breaking the 5-hour barrier (first broken by Tara Peterson last year) with a time of 4:57:52, and rolling across the finish line with what can only be described as an amazing look of disbelief.
New for this year, the half distance finish point was relocated to downtown Dacula, instead of the elementary school we previously used. Top finishers were Norman Walker with a time of 2:08:24 and Casey Beasley (of the Birminham Inline Group) with a time of 2:26:12. The event was marred by morning rain showers and some coordination problems with Gwinnett County police. We were gratified, however, by the many positive comments and glowing compliments.
This year featured a few changes, including a new seeded start for the most competitive skaters, and more importantly, breakfast at the starting line. We also added a rolling tour of Athens on Saturday afternoon. Henry Zuver's famous speech on Saturday evening "packed the house" at the Classic Center as the lower section was nearly filled.
Athens-to-Atlanta is deeply grateful for the help and assistance provided by this year's sponsors and our volunteers. Also gratifying is the support of the Leukemia Society and their Team In Training program. This program has introduced 125 people to the world of distance road skating while raising money for a worthy cause.
Next year's event is scheduled for Sunday, October 10, 1999. Rain or shine, as always.
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