The BIG Hill
It’s famous among inline skaters, or at least among Wednesday Night Skaters: it’s what we refer to as The BIG Hill. No, it’s not the hill in Central Park — that’s tame by comparison. The hill on the Central Park loop is a long and arduous, but of relatively shallow incline. What we’re talking about here is the steep incline of the hill on 106th street and Lexington avenue.
The night started out with a roll up Park Avenue, all the way up to 116th street. It was a nice ride with just a few stops — the speed demons of the group burned pavement, while the rest of the skaters glided along the smooth Park Avenue asphalt.
After reaching 116th street, we turned East and skated across to reach Lexington avenue. We suddenly found ourselves the victim of streets that were in the process of being repaved. They were ripped open and unskateable. We had to hop onto the sidewalk — all 50 or so of us, and skate through Harlem on the sidewalks, stared at and occassionally cheered on by residents who rarely have seen a large pack of inline skaters rolling through their neighborhood.
In the distance, skaters could see The BIG Hill looming, preparing themselves for the nearly 35- to 40-degree incline that awaited.
Through sweat, heavy breathing, and burning thigh muscles, The BIG Hill was conquered by all. After a break, we sought out the smooth pavement of 5th avenue, then took a quick tour through Times Square to satisfy the curiousity of a few skaters visiting from Europe. After all the Times Square photographs had been snapped, we returned to 5th avenue to skate home to Union Square, and many skaters packed the bar afterwards, ordering carbohydrate-based replenishment (i.e. beer) and easily-digestable protein (i.e. burgers).
Megacool Blog indeed!… if anyone else has anything it would be much appreciated.