NorthShore Inline Marathon offers fun for all ages

The NorthShore Inline Marathon has been around for 26 years, bringing skaters from all over the country. 

“I have family coming from Washington, California, Wisconsin, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, Tennessee, and North Carolina,” said Mollie Meinhold. “Every year, my entire family gets together this weekend. We have 40 people in town this year.” 

For many, inline skating is a passion from a young age. 

“I saw some neighbor kids doing it when I was like 11 years old and that was a long time ago, 28 years ago,” said recreational skater Mike French.”I just get the adrenaline rush.”

Jack Study has been skating since the age of five and coaching for over twenty years. Study won Friday’s inline sprint and is competing in the marathon on Saturday.

“I haven’t trained a lot because I’ve been coaching more, but sprinting, it’s fun. I’ve always been a sprinter more than a marathon skater,” said Study. “It’s just exhilarating, and you make friends when you’re racing anyway.”

As part of the marathon weekend, there were a variety of family-friendly activities at the DECC from 12 to 9pm on Friday. Attendees enjoyed salsa lessons and other demos as well as kids’ sprints.

Our family’s been doing this since the beginning, and we knew that they’d have a lot of fun out here,” said Meinhold. “Usually they have skaters around, and so now they want to roller skate.”

French has one piece of advice for those learning the sport.

“Wear pads until you learn what you’re doing,” French said. “No fun breaking bones, learning, you know? 

Saturday’s races will begin with the Half Marathon Skate Race start at 6:45am. Road closures can be found at this link.