If you have driven past a man on an area highway, in-line skating or roller skiing in a colorful body suit, chances are it was Terry Holm.
Physical fitness is an obsession for the 57-year-old Brainerd High School graduate. He has been a passionate runner, skier and inline skater for most of his life. For years he has been one of the top professional inline skaters in the nation.
Fitness also happens to be his occupation. He sells advertising for Silent Sports, which bills itself as "Mid-America's Aerobic Recreational Sports Magazine."
It's only natural that Holm will help a fitness event roll into the Brainerd area this summer. He will serve as race director of the first Brainerd Dispatch Online In-line Half-Marathon, which will debut at 7:30 a.m. June 15 and will start and finish at the Baxter water tower along Highway 210 West.
Holm is an experienced race director. For seven years he has been involved with the North Shore Inline event in Duluth, which last year attracted more than 3,000 skaters.
His goal is to attract 300 skaters to the lakes area.
"If people respond like they have been, and show up, we will have 300 easy," Holm said.
The course will weave through 13 miles of Baxter. It will feature numerous turns and no dramatic hills. The course will be open to traffic so skaters must stay to the right.
"I virtually skated all the roads in Baxter and Brainerd, and the whole county area, looking for a nice race course," Holm said.
"The other thing I had to exclude was my own personal feelings about how I wanted the course. If I wanted the course, it would be the hilliest course in the country. I had to look at it from the big picture: What can we do to get all levels of skaters to do this? Everywhere I went, I kept coming back to where I was in Baxter."
The event is for males and females in pro/advanced and fitness/recreational divisions. Cross drafting will not be permitted. Classes will be for ages 13-15, 16-19 and 5-year categories thereafter.
Helmet and wrist guards are mandatory. Knee and elbow pads are recommended.
Participants may register at The Dispatch, by mail or via the Internet at www.brainerddispatch.com/onlineinline.
The race will be timed by computer chip.
"Each skater will wear a chip on a skate or ankle," Holm said. "Everybody will have the same start time. When they finish, they will skate across a mat on the road. That will instantly record their name, time and placement. It's all on computer."
Brainerd Community Action director Nancy Cross approached Holm about the possibility of conducting an inline skating event in the lakes area. Holm agreed to run such an event as long as it was offered as a Community Action activity.
Holm later received approval of the Baxter City Council and various law enforcement agencies to conduct the event.
"I originally was thinking August," Holm said, "but I know what it's like around here in August. It's just a zoo. At first, it was going to be on the Fourth of July weekend but I told Nancy I didn't think that was a good idea. Besides that, we would be stepping on some other in-line races.
"Everyone I've talked to is glad we're doing it in June. It's quiet. It's still not that busy yet."
