He proves his mettle in skating marathon

THE VILLAGES -- Bert Martin laced up his in-line skates, ready to glide through his terrain -- bricks, wood planks (slippery when wet), concrete, rough asphalt, and a sloping upward ramp -- 13.1 miles total.

Now, multiply that by 2. Martin took the gold medal in his division at the 2007 Walt Disney World Inline Marathon -- 26.2 miles -- last month. The official time was 2:01:14.

"I was glad to get it," Martin, 71, said of the gold medal. "It's not easy, let me tell you."

Martin, a member of the Rollerblading Whiz group in The Villages since 2001, came in fourth in the marathon last year.

"I decided I wasn't going to quit until I got first place," he said. "The first year I was green. You learn from one year after the other.

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