History of Texas Road Rash Inline Skate
Round Rock's Parks and Recreation Department and Hill Country Speed hosted the first annual Texas Road Rash Inline Skate Marathon and Half Marathon in Central Texas in 2004.
In early 2003, Richard Littrell from Austin's Hill Country Inline Club approached the City of Round Rock Parks and Recreation about hosting an inline skate marathon in Texas.
Round Rock Parks and Recreation welcomed the idea of adding a new sport to the many that the city hosts each year. Round Rock Parks and Recreation hosted numerous city events, but nothing for inline skating. Round Rock, the Sports Capital of Texas, is always looking for new sports and opportunities to showcase the city of Round Rock and our parks.
In its first year, the Texas Road Rash Marathon and half marathon had 110 skaters participating from across the country.
In 2005, the marathon grew to 161 skaters and Texas Road Rash added the first Youth 1K Fun Skate for junior skaters. After the 2005 event, Texas Road Rash was ranked 8th in the nation from MarathonSkating.com.
In 2006, Texas Road Rash grew by 35 percent, with 210 skaters participating including skate teams from Mexico and Canada. In 2006, Texas Road Rash added a matt-free timing system to make it easier to cross the finish line, and added packet pickup at Chipotle where all participants received a free burrito at packet pickup, and enjoyed a "Taste of Texas" at the finish line with food from Rudy's Country Store and BBQ, chili, and complimentary drinks from New Belgium and sodas from Wag-A-Bag.
In 2007, Texas Road Rash organizers continued to offer great hospitality and a great time to the inline skate community. With new prizes for the winners, a cheese-grater trophy, to symbolize that dreaded scrape for which the event is named. In 2008, Texas Road Rash joined the NROC and added an elimination race and a cash purse for marathon skaters.
Behind the "Road Rash" name
The founding committee brainstormed clever names for the event. We
wanted something representative of inline skating, something to set
our skate apart and the state of Texas' premier inline skate
marathon. If you haven't noticed yet, the logo is a Texas state
highway sign turned Road Rash.
Every year we have skaters ask: Do you know how unpleasant true Road Rash is? Yes, we do, and for those new to skating or confused by our name, if you haven't heard of road rash or experienced it first hand, you're lucky. Road rash is the scrape you get when you fall. It's just part of the sport!
One tradition of the Texas Road Rash skate is the "road rash photo." After the race, we have all participants who received Texas Road Rash come up front and model off their injuries and the worst road rash gets a deluxe first-aid kit!
We certainly don't want to encourage anyone to fall at our event and we take all precautions to make sure the course is safe from our street sweepers the morning of the event to our police presence to oversee road closures and traffic.
Questions? Call Round Rock Parks and Recreation at (512) 218-5540.