So a few weeks ago (6/26) I skated 10 miles, I would have gone 11 miles but my skates broke! I wasn’t exactly thrilled about this, but at the same time I wasn’t all that distraught. My skates had been hurting my feet, pretty bad actually, but I didn’t want to spend the money on new ones. My skates were K2 Radical 100s that I had purchased in May of 2007. I’ve had experience dealing with K2’s customer service in the past (circa 1995) so I shot them an email to see if they could do anything about them.
K2 took a few days to get back to me, confirming that the skates were indeed outside of the year warranty (I knew this) but suggesting that I send them in through my dealer so that they could look at them and see if they might be able to do something, even outside of warranty. So I called my dealer, an online shoe retailer, who I will fail to mention as I really don’t want to get anyone there in trouble. They couldn’t figure out why I wanted to return my skates as they were outside of the 365 day return policy, but they said they would call me back nonetheless. Well 24 hour later I got an email asking me to call in. I called, and to my surprise the dealer told me they were going to give me my money back on the skates.
Twenty-five months after purchase I had the full purchase price refunded to my credit card! Holy crap, that was cool. So this was last week some time. I knew which skates I wanted, the 2009 K2 Radical Pros
, but the cheapest price I could find for them was $399, and that price wasn't from Amazon. So I decided I would just wait. Well, fast forward to this past Saturday night (after midnight), I was surfing Amazon's website and came across the 2008 K2 Radical Pro skates
, not what I was hoping for, but I figured they would be way better than having a broken pair of skates. I also noticed that Size 13 was going for $269, just days earlier they were $399, so I jumped on them, even with overnight shipping (due to Amazon Prime) they were only $273.
The next day when I checked the website the skates were back up to $399, so I wondered, what if the skates were simply showing the picture for 2008, but really they would be 2009 skates, perhaps after my order someone realized that and corrected the price. Come Tuesday when I got the box at work I was rather excited, I tore into them, and sure enough, brand new 2009 K2 Radical Pros!!!! Here’s a photo
I didn’t get a chance to use them yesterday because I had made plans with Natalie to scrub down the horse trailer out a the barn. Well tonight after work I took them for a spin on Grant’s Trail, 6.38 miles in just under 40 minutes. I think I could have done it in around 35-37 minutes had I not gotten stopped by stop lights, stop signs, and a minor spill. I haven’t fallen on a pair of skates (inline hockey doesn’t count) in YEARS, probably 6 or more. Oh well, a few minor scrapes on the knees are all I have to show for the spill, fortunately I was at a stop when I ended up falling down, though it was right in front of a Suburban, thankfully she was also stopped.
I didn’t reach my goal of 50 miles in 30 days, as I was without skates for most of three weeks, though I did do roughly 30 miles in that time frame (3 sessions on Grant’s trail and the one session on the bike path down by the arch)
Once we get settled into Colorado I’ll attempt the 50 miles in 30 days goal again, though maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get it done in the next 30 days, even with the move.