Already we're thinking about staying in the shade.

The sun persisted in squeezing us into a narrowing strip of shade so we took it head on and took to the roads again. I'm sorry there's no photos of the afternoon's events, including the "Uphill Challenge", the final competition before lunch. What we weren't told is that we needn't have worried about entering the event since lunch was being served at the top of the hill. It is one of those long winding affairs where you think you've broken it's back only to work your way around a bend to see a string of asphalt winding up and out of site. (A2A came to mind pretty quick, "Oh my god am I really going to do that again for 7 hours?")

After lunch came the Combination Relay. I'll call it the talent portion of the program, four legs, up and back a 50 yard track, first leg slightly downhill through cones, which many participants did backwards. Leg two, back up, but this time it was mandatory to skate backwards. Leg three down the hill again in splits. It was amazing to see skaters accelerate while imitating an Egyptian hieroglyphic. The last leg, a straight sprint uphill, where some folks just flew. Kudos to all, what an entertaining event.

Back from lunch to the blazing sun mean's only one thing, Pool Party! With all the dunking that you would expect from a sedate crowd such as this.

Oh yes, chick fights too! (Sorry, but what is this splendid form of entertainment really called?) After the pool we have just enough time to run back to our rooms, throw on dry skate clothes and hit the streets again. (I don't think anybody's skate boots dried out all weekend.)

Wait, but not for long. Donning shoes we head down into the depths of Philly and prepare, (read that as wait) to board private train cars for the posh suburban neighborhoods of Philly and a 25 mile down hill skate back into town. We even bring our own police with us for protection.