My name is Paul Reevesman, I am an American living in The Netherlands. I am getting close to being on this planet for 70 years now (March 2026 to be exact), in that time I had never been on skates in my life until 2 years ago! I have always been active, running, open water swimming, surfing, etc. I tend to gravitate towards things you can do yourself & without a lot equipment, you know, lace up the shoes & go for a run or grab your board & check out the waves, that kind of stuff.
For years while on my runs I had seen people inline skating in the park near where I live in Amsterdam. They looked like they were having so much fun, half flying half dancing through the park! I envied them, but never thought seriously that I could do that in my late sixties!
Then something happened that changed all of that! I run marathons & love it, but am not fast enough anymore to qualify without going through the lottery. In 2023 dear friends of mine qualified for the Berlin Marathon, but I did not! The Berlin Marathon has a program called “Skate to Run” if you skate the marathon you get automatic entry into the next years running marathon. However, I’m a horrible skater & as a matter of fact I have never been on skates in my life. The idea kept dancing in my head though, until finally I pulled the trigger & registered!
That done, with 3 months to go before the marathon, all I needed to do was learn how to skate, ha & maybe get some skates too!
It was a steep learning curve for me, I basically taught myself through online videos & a lot of practice. Some of those videos were from Asha at Skatefresh. Berlin is a big beautiful city with all that entails (think tram tracks). My plan was to skate in the back of the pack & try and avoid getting too close to other people (the other thing that made me nervous). I finished the Marathon in time, learned to not fear tram tracks & did it without touching another skater. I crossed the finish line and was thrilled to have skated my first marathon!
Fast forward to November 2024. I applied for the Inline Marathon & was accepted, then a week later was informed I’d also been accepted to the running marathon. WOW! Now what to do? Do one or the other or do both? Well I decided to do both, 2 marathons, 2 days, 2 different disciplines! …I knew it would be a challenge, & one or the other would suffer. The time limit for the running marathon was 6hrs 15min, I knew I could do that if I just keep to a slow & steady pace. It would be my 29th marathon & I had nothing to prove. I just wanted to enjoy the atmosphere & camaraderie of running through the streets of Berlin with 50,000 of my closest friends! The point was to finish!
The skating marathon was a different story. In the two years since I had skated my first Berlin Marathon the finish time had been lowered by 20 minutes, from 2hrs 30min to 2hrs 10 min. That was a problem for me.
I decided to concentrate on the skating, in the 2 years since my first inline marathon I had gotten faster but not fast enough, I could stop pretty well with plough stops, but didn’t really have anything else in my arsenal & I knew that if I was going to be able to finish in time I had to overcome my fear of skating close to other people, a big challenge for me!
Then in August 2025 I heard that Asha was in Amsterdam & would be giving two classes while she was here, ‘Stops & Slopes’ & ‘Stride Fitness’, I took both. Asha is an amazing teacher! I learned a lot & have a lot to work on over the next year, but the thing that made the biggest difference for me was unlearning some bad habits.
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I could not master a T-stop because my balance & stance was not correct. Asha helped me change that, hence knees over toes & weight on the ball of the foot. Those two corrections made a huge difference for me, I could never do a T-stop because I was always off balance. I have another stop in my arsenal now & improving my stance also made a big difference to my stride as well!
Learn the T-stop using the Skatefresh Method.
I finished the inline marathon in a personal best by over 20 minutes! I was thrilled not only with the result, but that I was able to do something I wasn’t sure I could do! My stride had improved, I was able to keep up with my pacers & surprisingly no longer afraid to skate with other people!
My philosophy especially as I get older is to just keep moving, skating has become another way for me to do that! I have found that I love skating as much as I love running or any of the other things I do! It is a full body workout & a great reason to get outside & dance through the park with a smile on your face! I have also learned that skating is a sport with so many facets to it. I don’t worry about mastering all of those. I skate for fitness & maybe one day I will learn to skate backwards, but for now just happy with the improvements I see & glad to able to say I am a skater!
While writing this post I revived a message from the Berlin Marathon that through the Skate to Run program I have qualified for the running marathon next year, it will be my 6th Berlin Marathon & 30th overall! I will most likely skate my 3rd Berlin inline marathon as well!
I am still in the afterglow of my Berlin adventures & thought that maybe my experience may help to inspire others, no matter what the age, to try things they don’t think they can do or maybe to just keep on moving!
Here’s to 2026!
Cheers Paul