Part 3: Kim Perkins Interview - a2a Champ Talks About How She Came to Inline Racing

Planet Interview: Kim Perkins

Ultra-Distance Champ Talks About Her Life and Career in Inline Skating

Kim Perkins: First Geek, Then Chain-Smoker, Then a2a Champion

By Robert "Just the Factoids" Burnson

(page 3 of 4)

Robert: What kind of skating would you do?

Kim: I would go and play in traffic, which was my favorite thing to do. I wore elbow pads, wrist pads, knee pads, but no helmet. I would be out there in Central Park doing the loop and trying to beat everybody else on skates up the hills.

I had no idea it was a sport. I remember one time seeing four spandexed people going by me in a pace line, and just blowing by me, and I thought, "Bunch of weirdoes."

Robert: What came next?

Kim: I moved to Miami. I had a job with a publishing company reading manuscripts, and I worked from home. So there was nothing really tying me to New York.

While I was down there, I co-founded a magazine with a friend of mine, and to support the venture, since neither of us had any cash, I worked at a fancy celebrity restaurant at night.

So I would get all dolled up and put on my rollerblades and take my high heels in my hands and skate down to the restaurant. And then at the end of the night, put my rollerblades back on and skate home again.

At the time, it seemed normal because everybody skated.

Robert: What happened next?

Kim: Then I got a job in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Hilton Head was not a very fun place for me to live. It is all about golf and tennis, and it's the deep South. There was no diversity and nothing for young people to do. But it was a great job.

Robert: Another magazine job?

Kim: Yes. I was editor in chief of the Hilton Head Monthly. It was the monthly resort magazine of the area.

(continued)

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