An Introduction to Steve

Hi. I’m Steve. This blog is mine. I’m 44, and I’ve been skating for half of my life. Until 2 years ago, I only skated in parks, and almost always alone. Then I heard about the Houston Inline Marathon and decided I wanted to give it a try. I decided to try to find some skaters to train with, and I found Inline Swine. I met them for the first time in around July of 2008, and that night was a revelation. It was all about fun and comaraderie, and nothing like any skating I’d ever done before. It was a little terrifying, too! After years of skating in broad daylight on smooth park paths, I was skating in the dark over potholes and railroad tracks, fighting cars for the road. But what fun!

The second night I skated with IS we pulled up to a bar. I was a little scandalized, so I waited outside. By the third or fourth week, I went in and had a soda. About the sixth week we rolled into a real dive, with pool tables and working class patrons unwinding after a hard day. I announced to Laurie that I was going to have half a beer, and she offered to buy it for me. (Right from the start I found myself always next to Laurie, and we were ‘kissing’ all night long. Don’t worry about Brock—in skating, ‘kissing’ is when you are skating next to someone and you accidentally clip skates. And it’s not cool. I was really worried that she was going to get pissed at me, but if she did, she never let on.) Well, after my half a beer, I rolled out of the bar and thought I would be eating the pavement in 23 seconds, but I found that I could skate just fine, and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the evening. Beer has been one of my favorite parts of skating ever since. Thanks for corrupting me, Laurie!

A year ago, a small group of us decided we wanted another skate night each week, and we wanted to push ourselves. So we started skating on Thursday nights, and we do 20 miles pretty hard. I didn’t know the city well, so I decided to organize the courses using mapmyrun.com. At that point I brought a map and a list of each street with me each time and prayed that I didn’t get us all lost. We explored some really interesting places, and we’ve managed to get together every Thursday that it didn’t rain for over a year. We’ve had as few at 3 people and as many as 12, but 6 to 8 is the norm. Laurie and I have been core members from the beginning, Mar joined us a few months in, and Brad and Natalie have been coming lately, seeing it as great preparation for our trip. I still map the course out beforehand (we don’t want to push hard and expect 20 miles and find out it’s really going to be 22!), but now I know the city so much better, and I’m able to keep it all in my head.

In my non-skating life, I’m a new realtor, and I’ve found that my knowledge of the city from skating it has really served me well. Whenever I talk to someone looking for a house in a particular neighborhood, or someone who wants to sell their home, I’m able to say, “Oh, sure. I know that area. I skate there all the time.” I’m loving my new career, and I’ve helped one skater find a home and am currently working with another to find her dream home.

I have a 2 ½ year old, 100 pound Rhodesian Ridgeback, Minga. I don’t know how I’m going to make it 2 weeks without seeing her, and I’m very worried that she won’t eat while I’m gone. I love her dearly, and don’t know how I lived 42 years without a dog in my life!

I love to read (especially contemporary literature and history), I always have a couple of TV shows that I watch religiously (Lost!, HIMYM, Glee), and I’m very into my genealogy (my first trip to Germany was to meet the family of my great grandfather, who emigrated in 1880).

I’ve been looking forward to this trip for two years, and I can’t believe it’s actually close enough to count down to it in days. If the trip is 1/10 of the experience I think it is going to be, it will be a trip to remember for a lifetime. I’m so glad you’re going to live through it with us!