Daniel Nielsen’s First Marathon, Berlin

Daniel Nielsen is an aggressive inline skater from Aalborg, Denmark. Daniel has been skating for 15 years and has been sponsored by Razor Skates the last 9 of those years. They have been flying Daniel around the world to compete in aggressive competitions and to film for promotional edits. This year they released a new skate called ”The Shift” that allows you to easily change out small wheels for big wheels. This is what helped give Daniel his first taste of Big Wheel Blading, here is his story….

For the first time in my life I received a frame that fit 4x80mm wheels. This opened a completely new world for me. Right away I really like skating on bigger wheels and immediately started paying attention to the fitness side of rollerblading. This led me to register and compete in the “Runway Night Run” half marathon. This event takes place in the middle of the night on the runways of Aalborg airport. Before skating this marathon, I didn’t practice for it at all, because I thought my long experience as aggressive inline skater would be enough. I was quickly proven wrong and aggressive skating experience does not transfer over to speed skating at all. After the race I realized that to compete again I would need some bigger wheels to help me go faster, and possibly doing some training would help out as well.

When I got back from the marathon, I contacted Andy from Razors about getting a set of the 3x110mm Ground Control frames. I wanted to have the option to easily switch out between my 64mm, 80mm and 100mm setups depending on the type of skating I wanted to do on any given day. My skateshop sponsor “Skate Pro”, took interest in my new found addiction and invited me and Anders Hauerholt to go with them by bus to the Berlin Marathon. Unfortuntely between school, other competitions and a busy filming schedule I had absolutely no time to prepare for the race.

At the Expo, prior to the race, I quickly realized that many people competing had dedicated a lot of their time training and preparing for this marathon. This made me a little nervous because I spent absolutely no time training and preparing for this marathon. My goal coming into this race was simply to complete it.

At the EXPO I prepared myself for the race by filling my pockets with isotonic gel to give energy boosts when I need it. Anders and I took our spot at the starting point, which was maxed out with almost 6000 skaters from around the world. This was really one of the most amazing sights I have ever witnessed in my life. Due to unknown reasons, we were placed in Group C, which is normally reserved for faster skaters. In the moment that we watched the countdown begin on the big screen, Anders and I decided to give it our best shot and push each other as much as possible into completing the race. We initially sprinted away from the starting line, but quickly learned about keeping your pace by skating in packs. We had no idea how they worked before the marathon, since we had never skated anything like this before. Even at the half marathon I attended earlier this year, I didn’t notice any packs. This might have been because of the darkness though!

I didn’t get any cramps or pain in my legs during the marathon, but my lower back started to hurt after 15km. I was able to push myself to complete the race from the motivation of Ander and Ricardo Lino, who we met during the marathon . Anders and I ended up at the finish line with a time of 1h 24min 52secs, which I was very stoked about! There was never a thought in my head that I would finish this race in under 1h 30m. In fact neither one of us thought we were even capable of finishing a marathon.

Skating this marathon helped me discover a new passion of speed and long distance skating that I never knew exist. Aggressive inline skating will always be my main passion and focus until I can no longer do it anymore, but this new kind of skating is a great secondary sport for me.

For more information about the Berlin Inline Marathon visit their website, facebook and instagram.

Like this? Check out the 2017 Berlin Marathon x The Lino Life article as well!

Check out these great edits from the weekend:

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