Inline Speed Skating - Race Venues and Formats

Race Venues and Formats

Inline speed skating races are held in a variety of formats and on a variety of surfaces.

Indoor races are most common in the United States, which has a long tradition of racing on skates at rinks. The competitions are generally held at roller skating rinks with plastic coated wood floors and less commonly, a plastic coated cement floor. The track is about 100 m in circumference. At USARS (USA Roller Sports) events, tracks are marked by four pylons set in a rectangular shape, while at NIRA (National Inline Racing Association) events, tracks are marked by multiple pylons that create an oval shaped track. Events, or meets, are typically structured so that members of numerous age groups race in three or four distances. For the more populous divisions, there may be a number of heats in order to qualify for the final race. To some extent, indoor inline races are similar to short track speed skating.

Outdoor races may be held on regular pavement on city streets or park roads, or they may be held at specialized venues similar to velodromes, sometimes called patinodromes. A patinodrome is generally about 200 m in circumference and may be surfaced with asphalt, concrete or similar material. The curves may be banked. Such specialized skating tracks are relatively common in Europe but rare in the United States. The international governing body for World Roller Sports, Federation Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS) and it's technical committee, Committee International de Course (CIC), are making strides to commonise tracks used specifically for World Championships that have the same size, shape and surface. Plans for such tracks are available from FIRS upon request.

Race formats include:

Time trials: Held "against the clock", each skater races individually or in pairs over a distance of 100 m to 300 m, attempting to establish the best time. Time trials are occasionally held over longer distances, but they are very physically demanding and not popular.

Sprints: Skating in small groups of about a half dozen over a distance of 300 m to 1000 m, skaters advance in a series of heats to a final round.

Elimination races: In these moderate-distance races, also known as last man out, the hindmost skater is eliminated from the competition each time the pack of skaters complete a lap or when they complete certain specified lap numbers. At one or two laps to before the finish, the group has usually been pared down to four or five skaters. At this point the first across the finish line is the winner.

Points races: In these moderate-distance races, the first, second and third skaters to cross the start/finish line at certain specified laps are awarded points. Laps late in the race are worth more points, with the final lap worth the most points of all. It is possible to win a points race without actually being the first to cross the finish line at the end.

Points-elimination races: A combination of elimination races and points races.

Relays: Relay events include teams of two to four skaters each. Indoor meets may include "mixed" relay events in which teams have either one female and one male OR two females and two males, but outdoor relays (usually held on tracks) are usually if not always single-sex events. In a mix relay, it is traditional that a female goes to the starting line as the first skater to race.

Criterium races: Instead of racing a specified distance or number laps, the skaters skate for a certain amount of time, then plus a (small) number of laps. The time is typically between 15 and 45 minutes, after which a bell is rung and the skaters informed the race is over when they skate one or two more laps around the course. The portion of the race skated after the bell is rung is known as the bell lap (or laps).

Distance races: Although events such as points-elimination races and criteriums may cover a distance of 10 to 25 km, a distance race usually refers to a race over a set distance of about 5 km or longer and without specialized points or elimination rules. The event may be truly point-to-point or may held on a repeating course with a circumference of at least 1 km. Distance races are often marketed to the general populace and not just to members of inline racing clubs.

Marathons: Lately there is a new movement of skaters bringing big masses to events, this events are the skate marathons, 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi). The most popular marathons in the USA are: The The North Shore Marathon and Saint Paul Inline Marathon, however they are now taking place all over the world including the Goodwood Roller Marathon in the UK. These races gain more popularity everyday as skaters form friendships and bonds at these events.

Ultra Marathons: Ultra Marathons draw large numbers, given the time needed to complete such events, one could say that they are the equivalent to a running marathon, this events were very popular in the late 1990s but declined after the year 2001, there is a new movement of people keeping this events alive and bringing them back to the forefront of the speed skating world. There are two very old and popular Ultra Marathons in the USA:
The New York City Skate Marathon And NY 100K The New York City Skate Marathon & NY 100K on its 17th year this event has drawn the best skaters in the world such as Chad Hedrick and Derek Parra. Athens to Atlanta Road Skate (The A2A) This is the longest running point to point event in the USA with a maximum distance of 86.7 miles (139.5 km).

In the early days of inline racing, sponsors of distance races were often also running event organizers, and the races they organized were commonly the same distances as those of running races, about 5–10 km. By the mid-1990s such events were proving to not be very popular and in the United States, where sales of inline skates were also beginning to slip, there was a decline in participation at races. However, at about that time in Europe, where inline skate sales were beginning to rise, race sponsors began to regularly organize longer events, particularly inline marathons. Such events proved to be enormously popular among fitness skaters, with some events such as the Berlin Inline Marathon (with more than 11.000 at its peak) and the Engadin Inline Marathon in St. Moritz, Switzerland, regularly attracting over 5000 skaters each year.

In about 2000 American event sponsors followed suit, and inline half-marathons and marathons were scheduled more and more frequently around the country. As in Europe the events proved a big draw with fitness skaters looking for events which would give their training a focus. However, by 2005 this surge was tempered as some major events were either postponed for a year or cancelled permanently. In the United States the most popular inline marathon has continued to be the NorthShore Inline Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota.

In 1999, a team of six British men led by Paul Robinson skated from Land's End to John O'Groats, a distance of 886 miles (1,426 km). This is the only known long-distance skating event held in the world to date.

Dryland triathlons: Occasionally organized by triathlon sponsors, these events substitute inline skating for the swimming component of the race. These events were infrequent even during the mid 1990s boom in inline skating participation. Today they are rare to non-existent.

Downhill races: An event most popular in the Alpine countries of Europe, these races are timed events down a steep course. The use of concrete bobsleigh courses in summertime is not uncommon. Racers usually skate alone and the event commonly uses the best time of two heats to establish the winner. Downhill inline racers usually wear skates much more like "regular" inline skates than inline speed skates, along with extensive body covering and protective gear, and strong helmets. They may reach speeds of up to 130 km/h.