Patins de rodas

Défi 2011: giving up less than halfway again...

2011-10-17T14:07:00.006-04:00

0. Before the race.

Two days before the Défi I was cycling along René-Levesque, just in front of the CBC building when I was stopped by a policeman: he gave me a ticket for not stopping at a red light! You know that red light in front of the CBC headquarters? Nobody stops there! I was very angry for getting a ticket there, I couldn't believe it! Argh!

As you can imagine, this was my first ticket in almost twenty years living here in Montreal. I can't say I didn't deserve it (like everybody else, I have gone through my fair share of red lights...), but to have something like this happening to me just two days before our great event was really annoying.

1. Phase 1.

When I got to the Verdun Auditorium, the inscription list had only fifteen names on it! This was the smallest turnout ever, excepting the first event back in 1996. My wife joked that next year it will be just Mr. Belisle and myself... :-)

I got my number (lucky 7!) and got ready with some help from my wife. At this time an anglophone woman came to talk to me briefly, she said she read all my reports. It was her first Défi and she was a bit hesitant to do it in those horrible weather conditions, but she signed up anyway.

A few minutes before 6 am I went to the starting line. It was cold and wet, a horrible day to be outside. And to think that the week before we had a nice Indian Summer with the sun out and everything. Grr...

M. Fortier did the traditional countdown right before six am and off we went into the darkness. As expected, I was soon by myself, most participants just took off, much faster than I could go. A few latecomers passed me in the first thirty minutes or so, but after that I was on my own all the way.

The asphalt was wet, slippery, full of leaves and branches, not a good thing to skate on. And the headwind was just unimaginable. I thought in previous Défis that we had had bad winds, but this year most certainly was the worst of them all. It was a titanic struggle to go forward.

Right before the end of phase 1 it started raining heavily. The situation, which was already bad beyond description, took a turn for the worst. Even though I had impermeable clothes and more than one layer of plastic on me, I quickly got soaked. I thought: “great way to spend the day”...

There was nobody anymore at the end of phase 1. That could only be a bad sign. I didn’t have a watch on me, but that fact told me that it was already past 8 am. With all my herculean effort to keep skating, I hadn’t noticed how slow I was going.

2. Phase 2.

I was counting on getting a refill for my water bottle at the end of phase 1, so at the beginning of phase 2 I was getting a bit desperate: my feet and thighs were already aching, I already had the first indications of cramps (which in other years would only appear around the 40 km mark), I was thoroughly soaked by the heavy rain and I had no water anymore.

I stopped at a Dépanneur, bought a water bottle there and continued for a few kilometers more. I had to stop a few times to adjust the “second skin” adhesives that I had on my ankles. Even with them on, my skates were making my feet ache, so that’s why I had to adjust those pads to put them on the areas that were suffering the most.

At around km 36, in front of the John Abbott college I decided that I had had enough and could no longer continue. The weather had cleared, conditions were improving, but the toil of the first thirty kilometers under heavy rain and bad pavement had taken its toll and I could no longer continue.

Other than that, it was almost 10 am already, I was going at 9 km/h. At this rate it would take me more than fourteen hours to complete the Défi. I could not do that to myself

I called home, but my daughter told me that my wife had just left home to go to Costco. My options were: one, to wait for her to come back and then come pick me up (something like a two hour wait); two, try to get a taxi (yeah, right! I would never find a taxi around that area); or three, continue on my own to get to civilization (Pierrefonds, at the end of phase 2).

I took a longer rest and then continued on my way. The skating was actually better at this point, the sun was out, even the wind was not so bad anymore. For a few seconds I toyed with the idea of going all the way, but I soon dropped that: my feet would not allow me ten more hours of effort.

It felt actually good to do the Senneville hill and the downhill right after it. Now that in my mind I had already given up, the skating was more enjoyable. I still had to stop a few more times to rest a little bit, but I eventually got to the end of phase 2. Needless to say, nobody was there anymore.

3. Giving up officially.

I went to the same gas station on Pierrefonds/St. Charles where I stopped last year, called my wife and asked her to come pick me up. My daughter called M. Fortier to advise him that I had given up.

4. For next year.

Well, after quitting two years in a row before the halfway mark, I definitely have to do something different for next year. For sure I’ll get new skates, these old ones that I have are good for my ten km run to work every day, but they are not fit for the Défi. I will also consider acquiring a CamelBak to be more independent in terms of food and water. And I’ll do some training in the rain (I usually avoid training when it rains, but it doesn’t help to be fully prepared to do a dry Défi and then have to face wet conditions).

Till next year, hoping for a milder weather on Défi day!

Défi 2010: a short-lived dream

2010-10-17T10:07:00.007-04:00

0. Pre-race.

It had rained all day on Friday and for a good part of the early Saturday morning, which promised a very rough Défi for all of us.

As I would be going to Europe in the following week, I had already decided that this year I wouldn’t do the full Défi, I would stop at the end of phase 3, so that I wouldn’t mess up my legs too much.

My wife and I got to the Verdun Auditorium a little after 5h30, I got my package (I’m #3 this year) and sat down to get ready. There were just a few people in there, I think this year was our lowest level of participation. The highest number that I saw was 35.

I was ready ten minutes before the start time and went out for some warming up. There was some very light drizzle and it was a bit cold, part of me wished I were in bed, under warm covers...

1. Phase 1.

So a little before 6 am we all got together at the start line, Mr. Fortier announced that we would leave in two minutes, I said goodbye to my wife and she took some pictures.

At the beginning I stayed in a group of four skaters, numbers 5, 25 and 29 were there with me, we were all going more or less at the same speed. I stayed with them for some fifteen minutes. A few faster skaters who had started a bit late passed us in the meantime.

The wet pavement plus the leaves and branches made it quite difficult to skate. At a certain point our little group decided to go on the street because the bike path was unusable. I returned to the bike too early, didn’t see a manhole cover (covered by leaves, of course) and almost had my first accident of the day.

Due to this “close encounter”, I had to slow down and the group that I was going with left me behind. I was never able to catch up with them because my feet were already giving the first signs of pain, so I had to go softer on them.

Some ten minutes later I caught up with skater #5, who was by this time alone, the group had left her behind as well. She was not doing so great either, so I left her behind as well.

Short before the end of phase 1 Mr. Belisle (the only man to have competed in all Défis) caught up with me and we skated together for a few minutes. I told him I’m thinking of doing the Montreal marathon next year, he told me he had done more than twenty marathons in the eighties and nineties. As he’s twenty years older than me, there is some hope for me... :-)

2. Phase 2.

I stopped at the end of phase 1 to get a new bottle of water and ask the time (it was 7h44), so Mr. Belisle continued without me.

Pascal Roy and two other skaters passed me by somewhere in phase 2. They must have started at least half an hour late because they were going much faster than me. When they passed me, Pascal (who knows me from other Défis), gave me words of encouragement. I believe he was also recording the adventure as he did it in 2008 (see his fourteen episodes starting with #1).

During phase 2 my feet really started to hurt, specially that small pointy bone right above the ankle. I felt that the skin was being rubbed hard there and skating was becoming a real pain.

Due to this pain I had to slow even further and skater #5 was able to catch up with me again. We went together for a minute or two, but then I could not follow her anymore and she took off.

I met Mr. Fortier just before the Senneville hill, sat down in his car to see if there was anything I could do for the pain. He suggested I put a padding in the region, so I used a paper towel folded a few times. It didn’t help very much...

The hill wasn’t as bad as I remembered it and after it the descent was also great. There were no cars, so I could do it in all safety. As I didn’t have to skate and just let gravity do its work, it was the best part of the race for me. More than ever, I wished it were downhill all the way to the finish line... :-(

They properly paved Senneville! The “moonscape” is gone and we can actually skate on that pavement! Fantastic!!

By this time I had already decided that I wouldn’t even go to the third phase, I would stop at the end of the second one. There was no point in rubbing my skin bare for another thirty kilometers. I started looking for a public phone. Of course I found none in the wilderness of Senneville and Gouin.

3. Giving up.

When I finally got to the end of phase 2 it was around 9h45. I told the volunteer there that I was abandoning the event. Unfortunately he didn’t have a cell phone, so I had to continue for another two or three kilometers until I found a gas station with a public phone.

I called home, explained to my wife where I was and waited for her to come pick me up. It was cold, so I sat in an abribus and waited. I couldn’t stop shaking; I was wet and the cold was really getting to me.

My wife and daughter finally arrived and my daughter took a picture of me:

We have this ingrained “training” that if someone is taking a picture, we must smile to the camera. Oh well...

But then I asked her to take another picture of me to show how sad I was not to finish the event:

Giving up is never easy, but considering my trip the following week, I believe I did the right thing by stopping after fifty kilometers.

4. Next year.

For next year I most definitely have to solve the rubbing problem that I had this year. I’ll have to try some strategies during the summer to see what works best. I don’t want ever again to be forced to abandon the race due to feet pain.

Medal Ceremony

2009-11-29T21:11:00.007-05:00

If you came here from the Défi site looking for my report on my Défi 2009, then click here.

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On Thursday, November 26th I went to the Verdun Auditorium for the Medal Ceremony of the Défi 2009. We were only thirty people in total, probably the smallest group that I have ever seen in any of the seven medal ceremonies that I attended.

The food was good, the conversation interesting, it was a quite enjoyable event.

Mr. Fortier gave the medal first to the "winner"* of the Défi, who was in a rush to leave and then he started the ceremony the usual way, at the bottom and going up. I was, of course, the first one called to the stage because I had been the last one to finish the event. As I took more than twelve hours to complete the Défi, I didn't get a medal, just the certificate.

The funny part happened a few minutes later: one of the participants went to the stage, took his silver medal and those of some friends and after returning to his place at the table, he came to me and gave me one those medals! Wow! I wasn't expecting such a show of generosity! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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* I put "winner" in quotes because for me anyone who completes the Défi is a winner, it doesn't matter if you crossed the line first or last.

Défi 2009: The worst ever!

2009-10-19T07:09:00.026-04:00

The thirty-second summary, for those in a hurry

This year, with all the construction going on in Montreal, it was really difficult to skate; there were way too many places with no pavement, just pebbles; and I felt cramps for most of the way. My total time was my worst ever: 12h16!

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And here the full story, for those with a lot of time in their hands

Pre-race

My wife and I left home at 5h and were at the Verdun auditorium a little after 5h30. As I had pre-registered, I just got my registration package and t-shirt and started my preparations.

The day started cold, we were at zero degree Celsius! Brrr! I had three layers of clothes on my upper body and two on the lower body. The temperature eventually got better during the day, but that was the coldest start ever for a Défi.

I was ready ten minutes before the start, we took some pictures and I went outside to do some warming up skating. This year we had the smallest crowd ever, the highest number that I saw was 59!

When Mr. Fortier warned us that we would leave in one minute, I said goodbye to my wife and went to the start line with everybody else. As usual I got to the back of the pack. We counted down from ten seconds and started our day of skating at 6 am.

Phase 1

Skating in the dark is always a weird feeling, but by now I'm used to it. I could see a lot of stars, it was a magnificent view!

Phase 1 was mostly uneventful. I quickly got into "cruise mode", there's no need to hurry, I passed some skaters, some others passed me, I was at a comfortable pace.

The one notable absence was the wind. Some years we had strong headwinds in this phase which made our lives difficult, but this year the air was almost still. Cold as hell, but still, which was a welcome change.

I got to the end of phase 1 at 7h30, which is my "normal". The problem is, I had already started feeling cramps coming up. I sat down at the end of this phase, drank some water, talked to the volunteer there. A few skaters passed by while I rested, some people that I had previously left behind. Little did I know that I would never be able to reach them again...

Phase 2

I had to start phase 2 at a lower rhythm, in order not to upset my muscles, specially in the calves. Any sudden movement and I would feel a stinging pain. At this point I wasn't too worried because I had had cramps before at the Défi. Usually they start in the middle of phase 2 and go away after an hour or two, so I thought I would still be ok.

Up to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue this phase was ok, even considering the pain in my legs. Here we met with our first detour. I say "we" because a little before another skater had caught up and stayed with me for a while.

I had been in this section the week before to check out the route, so I knew what was ahead and helped my colleague, telling him not to go too fast down the Lamarche street because there was a patch of pebbles down there.

As usual, I stopped right before the Senneville hill for some resting, water, food. My colleague continued. A few other skaters passed by. I wished them luck on the hill.

I'm a movie star!

When I finally decided to tackle the hill, I saw that Mr. Fortier was up there, filming my performance. Oh boy, I hope he doesn't put that in the next DVD, I was awful! :-)

Going up the Senneville hill is never easy, but this year was even worse due to my cramps. Usually the cramps start after I clear Senneville, but this year...

Well, if it goes up, it must come down, right? After the hill there is a nice slope downward. There was no traffic at all, I could go in all security, it was quite good.

The Senneville moonscape

This year I was carrying my daughter's cell phone with me in order to facilitate communication with my wife (who had gone home and would meet me for lunch). Everybody has cell phones these days, Bell is taking down their payphones everywhere, it gets really hard for people without cell phone like me to place a call. But I digress...

My wife called me exactly when I was going through what I call "the Senneville moonscape". That Senneville road is horrible, always difficult to skate on. And with cramps, it required quite an effort to get through.

Anyway, my wife called, I told her about my cramps, she told me that if I wanted it to give up, she could come and pick me up. I thought: "Me? Quit? Never!". I thanked her but said I would continue, I was still sure that the cramps would go away and I would go back to my "normal" skating.

Pebbles, pebbles everywhere!

This year they are doing construction everywhere, but specially on Gouin. I had gone through the area the week before on my bicycle and I thought "we'll never be able to do this on skates!".

When I got to the main pebble section on Gouin, I fell. I hit a pebble when trying to slow down, got out of balance, tried to correct it with a sudden movement and this sudden movement sent a most horrible shot of pain all over my body and I could not control myself, I fell on my left side and hurt my upper thigh.

A skater who was some twenty metres ahead asked me if I needed help. A man on a car that was just behind me also stopped and offered his help. I thanked them both but said I would be ok, I just needed to rest a bit.

I sat down by the sidewalk and rested for some ten minutes, waiting for the various layers of pain that were now crossing my body to subside a little.

On a marché sur la lune!

Mr. Raymond Bélisle ("the only man to have completed all Défis") caught up with me when I was ready to go and we did the section ahead together.

The next three hundred metres was something like this: skate twenty metres, walk sideways five metres, repeat until you're totally pissed off and want to quit the damn thing.

While we were going through that I told Mr. Bélisle "On a marché sur la lune!". I'm not sure he got my little attempt at humour... :-)

I'm in heaven! But not for long...

When we turned right on the Morandière street, I thought I was in heaven. The pavement is the best that I have ever tried anywhere. Skating there was like flowing on clouds...

But the dream lasted for about three minutes. Soon we got to another patch of pebbles, this one a hundred metres long. And we walked on the moon...

Soon after that we got to the new and desert part of the boulevard Pierrefonds, the end of phase 2 was right before the Château Pierrefonds. I stopped there for some more resting and Mr. Bélisle continued on his own.

Phase 3

When I started phase 3 it was 9h45, which considering everything, wasn't so bad. In my first year at the Défi in 2003 I had passed by the end of phase 2 at 9h50, so I guess that this was ok...

The boulevard Pierrefonds has a good bike path, it was a nice ride. It did seem longer than usual this year, but I guess I can attribute that to my poor physical condition at this point.

I had never given much importance to the detour on the Lalande boulevard but this year this boulevard was closed (more construction...) and we had to continue on Gouin. Boy, how this part is dangerous! I skated on the sidewalk, the street was way too dangerous.

Like a walk in the park

When I got to the bridge of road 13, there was no Gouin anymore! Constructions crews everywhere, heavy machinery and all that. I stayed for a few seconds there without knowing where to go when one of the men in the construction team yelled to me saying there was a passage. When I got to where he was pointing, it was the entrance of the Bois-de-Liesse park. And there was no pavement. Just rocks, wet ground and leaves...

An elderly couple was coming out of the park, I asked them how long that would be. They told me it would be some six hundred metres before I would get back on Gouin. And there I went, marching with my skates on no pavement at all. This is not funny!

After what seemed like at least fifteen minutes, I was back on Gouin. One nice thing was that there was almost no traffic in that part... :-)

Really late

When I stopped under the bridge of road 15 and checked the time, it was already noon. I was really late, I should be under Pie-IX by then!

I called my wife and told her that I would be at our lunch meeting point at 1 pm and continued on.

Lunch time

I passed under the Pie-IX bridge at 12:50, there were no more volunteers there, of course.

I met my wife at a park two kilometers after the end of phase 3 and had my longest pause of the day, I ate the delicious meal that she had brought, drank some Gatorade and told her of all the horrors so far.

Skater #40 passed by while I was there and at that point I knew I was the last skater, there was no one else behind. All of them were either already on their way to the finish line or had had the good common sense of quitting...

My right toe started hurting and I knew that this could only mean a bad case of blister. Add another layer of pain to everything else that was already going on...

Phase 4

The bridge of road 25 is not yet ready - it doesn't seem that it ever will, after a year there is not much to see there, but I digress again - so there I go for another detour.

After some five hundred metres on the boulevard Perras, more construction, only one lane for the cars, I had to walk on unfinished sidewalk. And then I had to hurl myself over the concrete barrier to go back to the boulevard. What an adventure!

But after that the boulevard was quite a good ride, I stayed longer on it because I knew that the bike path on Gouin is pretty bad at that point. I eventually got back to Gouin at the 24th avenue; later on I saw that I could have stayed on Perras a lot longer. Oh well, for next year...

I eventually got to the end of phase 4 at 3h15 pm. Skater #40 was there, resting and talking to the volunteer. In a few minutes he was good to go, I stayed a bit longer, got some water from the volunteer and rested before facing phase 5.

I asked the volunteer to tell Mr. Fortier that I would arrive after 6 pm, but that I had all the intention of completing the Défi.

Phase 5

It was probably 3h30 pm when I said goodbye to the volunteer and started the last phase of the Défi.

In this phase I was so utterly tired and achy that I couldn't skate for more than five or six kilometers before taking a break. I did quite a few five-minute pauses in there.

When I stopped at Pie-IX it was already 5h10 pm. I called my wife and told her to be at the Verdun auditorium in 1h15.

The rest of the way was absolutely uneventful, I was just doing it to complete the Défi, nothing more mattered.

When I was at the corner of Wellington and Henri-Duhamel waiting for the lights to turn green, I saw my wife and my daughter pass by on the car. We waved at each other, in five minutes we would be together.

At the last light before the baseball diamond, an old man saw me and asked me if there was a competition going on. I said yes; he asked if it was close to the end. I could only say "One kilometer more! One kilometer more!".

I got to the finish line at 6h16 pm with a total time of 12h16, my worst ever. This most definitely will be a Défi to forget!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

My usual words of thanks to Mr. Fortier and his incredible team of volunteers for putting up this amazing event year after year.

My thanks to my wife, who was there when I needed her.

And finally, to my daughter, for lending me her cell phone. It proved to be a good advantage to have it with me.

2008 Défi report

2008-10-30T10:31:00.005-04:00

Défi 2008: I've known hunger and I've known pain!

This year for the Défi my family and I decided to do something different. Usually my wife would follow me in the car all day long but my son volunteered to do a big part of this work this year. His girlfriend had given him the idea that they could follow me part of the way on bicycle and thus free my wife from the burden of spending her day on the Défi track.

The week before the Défi I went with Ivan (my son) through the bike path in phase 3 to show him the way that I would follow, so that on the day of the Défi he would know the way and avoid missing me because of a wrong turn. He agreed to meet me at the end of the Pierrefonds boulevard and follow me most of the way. It would be a big help and good encouragement.

So, on the day of the Défi I woke up at 4 am, we left home at 5 am and were there at the Verdun Auditorium a little after 5:30 am. As I had pre-registered I just had to find a free spot and get ready. The day was cold, but dry, very good compared to previous years.

A few minutes before 6 am we went to the starting line. We were fewer this year, the highest number that I saw was 71. M. Fortier gave us some last minute info: we were not to enter the Visitation Island Park as its bike path had been totally destroyed; and we were to do a big detour in the middle of phase 4 because of the construction work going on for the bridge of road 25.

He announced that we would be departing at 6:02 precisely. I said goodbye to my wife and waited with the others. M. Fortier did the fifteen-second countdown and off we went into the night. After a few minutes I got behind a couple of skaters who were going a bit slower than I could go, but considering that the Défi was still young and the night was still dark, I stayed with them for some ten minutes or so, it was a gentle pace, I kept my strength for later.

At a certain point the girl in the couple had problems with her skates and they had to stop to take care of that, so I left them behind. By now I was already alone, so I could go at my own rhythm. I started pushing, not as hard as I could, but harder than those first fifteen minutes and I started passing skaters here and there. It's always a good feeling to pass other people... :-)

The sun came up, the darkness went away and skating got better. At this point I saw a skater in front of me, he should be some three hundred meters or so in front. I was going faster than him but just a tiny bit faster. Our speeds were almost identical because it took me almost twenty minutes to bridge those three hundred meters that separated us. As I finally caught up with him, I saw that he was #12. We went together for a while, chatting all the way. He told me it was his first Défi. We crossed the end of phase 1 together and continued on.

A little later we met up with two other skaters and stayed with them for another ten or fifteen, until we got to a street crossing in Ste. Anne de Bellevue where the pavement had been turned into gravel. Each one took a different route out of that mess and we got separated.

I met skater #12 once again a few minutes later and we continued together up to the Senneville hill, where I did my first stop of the day, to eat a bar and drink some water before tackling the hill. Skater #12 continued on and a few others passed by while I rested.

The hill didn't seem so bad this year, I did it with some puffing and with some huffing but it was otherwise unremarkable. The downhill thereafter came as a relief to my already tired legs.

I felt the beginning of cramps at the 45 km, which is usual for me, I get it almost every Défi. I just had to slow down a little bit and the muscles got better.

There was nobody at the end of phase 2, but the organizers had left a long row of water bottles in the middle of the street, so I took one for me, to replace the bottle that I had just finished.

Unfortunately, I hadn't gone more than one third of the Pierrefonds boulevard when this bottle fell off my bag and I only noticed when it was already gone. With no time to waste and knowing that my son would be at the end of the boulevard with more water for me, I pressed on without any worries.

Two older skaters caught up with me, so I went with them for a while. However, close to the end of the boulevard they crossed on a yellow-turning-red street light and I preferred to stay behind.

My son and his girlfriend were not at the end of the Pierrefonds boulevard. At first I wasn't too worried, because I knew I was going faster than expected, so it was normal that they had not arrived yet. I continued on with the certainty that I would meet them somewhere in phase 3.

Well, the kilometers piled up and there was no sign of them. The thirst started to bother me a bit and there was no sign of a water fountain either. This kept going for many kilometers.

I finally found a water fountain in a park, drank all that I needed, took my third Advil of the day and continued on. By now my problem was hunger. Other than my regular breakfast at 4:30, I had only eaten a granola bar the entire day.

I wanted to find a public phone to call home and try and find out what had gone wrong with my son but there was no phone available anywhere, so I just kept going. I started considering buying something at a depanneur, but even those were non-existent in that part of Gouin.

It was 10:50 when I got to the Pie-IX bridge, where a volunteer gave me another bottle of water. Unfortunately, she told me, the car with some food had left a few minutes before to go to the end of the fourth phase.

Phase 4 was an ordeal to me. I was so hungry I could not concentrate on anything, let alone skate. One or two skaters passed me by, I couldn't compete with them.

The detour near the bridge 25 was what saved me. Due to this detour I went through some streets that I would never even consider in a regular Défi and in one of them there was a small shopping area, where I finally found a depanneur, where I could buy some junk food. I never ate anything as delicious as those Tostitos, believe me!

After having eaten I called home and talked to my daughter. She told me that my son had a flat tire and because of that could not meet me in phase 3.

Anyway, now with the power of Tostitos running in me, I took to the road with renewed energy. Some skaters had passed by the depanneur while I ate; I not only caught up with them but even left them behind without much effort!

It was 12:30 when I got to the end of phase 4. Another water bottle from a volunteer and some more resting under the sun (the sun was shining, it was a glorious day).

Phase 5 was easier this year because we almost had no wind, which is a first for the Défi. Usually we have to face strong headwinds in this part of the event, but not this year. This was a welcome change.

I stopped at a public phone in Notre Dame to call my wife and tell her to come and pick me up. Unfortunately there was some problem with the machine: I could hear my wife but she could not hear me. I tried again, using the last fifty cents that I had and once again the communication was one-way only. I had no way to let my wife know that she should go and pick me up. There was nothing else I could do, so I just skated on.

The rest of phase 5 was uneventful. Other than the hunger that was coming back (well, you know, a little bag of Tostitos will only go so far...) I had a very pleasant ride.

My last stop was at the beginning of Wellington, where I drank the rest of my water and rested to have the best possible finish.

It was 2:55 pm when I crossed the finish line, with a time of 8h53, another silver medal for me! And another personal best. I improved my time by fourteen minutes, which is not so bad, considering that a big part of the way I was running on no food at all.

M. Fortier offered me some fruits and cheese. I ate a lot of them! I was so hungry you wouldn't believe it!

M. Fortier was also nice enough to lend me his cell phone to call my wife. She got there half an hour later and we could finally go home. Another Défi completed for me. Yay!

I would like to thank M. Fortier and his organizing team once again for his wonderful efforts to make another successful Défi. I would also like to thank my wife and my son for their efforts in making this Défi possible for me. My son couldn't fulfill his part of what we had arranged but he should be acknowledged anyway.

I hope next year we'll have as good a weather as we had this year and that I won't feel so much hunger as I did. Maybe then I can do it in 8:30? Who knows...

2007 Défi report

2007-10-30T06:43:00.000-04:00

As they are no longer publishing skaters' reports in the Défi site, here it is, my report for 2007.

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It's silver! It's silver!

For this year, I'm doing a double report: the long one, that you guys are used to and the short one right beside, for those who don't have a lot of time for reading. I hope you enjoy it!

The weather was great! I improved my time by an hour and a half!	I) Intro It was all due to the temperature: in previous years the temperature in the day of the Défi was usually close to the freezing point, it was always very hard to skate because it was difficult to keep warm. But this year we had an absolute great weather with us, the temperature was around fifteen degrees Celsius most of the time, which allowed us to spend our energies on skating and not on keeping warm. I was amazed at how much of a difference the temperature made. In my case I was able to improve my personal best time by almost one hour and half! Up to last year my best performance had been 10h32 but this year I did it in 9h07! And I can say that it didn't feel as tiresome as in previous years. But let's go in order, shall we?
Many accidents during the summer... In one of them I got hit by a truck!	II) Summer preparations: too many accidents This year was specially bad for me in terms of accidents during the training period: 1) in April I went down on some late snow while biking back home and broke a rib; I had to stop all exercise for a month and go on a diet of painkillers to bear the pain in my chest; 2) in July I had a minor accident at the Vieux-Port, my left elbow got scratched and bled more than I like to remember (for me any accident involving blood is a big accident, even more when the blood is mine!); 3) in early September a small pebble brought me down on Guy street below René Levesque: shoulder and chin bled quite a bit; I didn't skate for many weeks while recovering, which put a dent on my preparations for the Défi; 4) and finally, in late September I got hit by a truck while biking to work! Fortunately we were both going very slow, so we were able to avoid the worst; but I got really shaken! It's not fun to see a monster vehicle like that coming on to you...
Long range weather forecasting is a joke! And I get the first hint that people read my reports.	III) The great day finally arrives Someday, someone will write a thesis about how useless long term weather forecast is. Me, I have this same experience every year: two weeks before the Défi I start checking daily the 14-day forecast at the Meteo Media website and every day it's a different story. It looks like those guys roll dice to determine what will be put on the site, there is no logic! One day the forecast was of full sun the entire week of the Défi; then the next day it turned into rain all week; then it went to cloudy all the way! There was no rhyme or reason! Anyway, it rained a lot on Friday night before the Défi, so we all knew that the pavement would be wet. But the forecast was sunny for the entire day Saturday, so we would be mostly ok. My wife and I woke up at 4 am and were leaving the house at 5 am; we drove to the Verdun Auditorium and were there before 5:30 am. I got my race bibs and t-shirt from Mme. Fortier, went to a corner and got ready for the event. While I was doing this, skater #65 (Nathalie Trépanier) came to me to let me know that she had read my previous reports and that they had been a good inspiration for her to take part in the Défi. Wow! We went to the start line where other skaters were already warming up. It's always a wonderful sensation to be there with the small crowd of fellow skaters waiting for the 6 am signal to start the Défi. This year M. Fortier must have been a bit behind the schedule because he didn't have time for his usual words of wisdom to the skaters. He just started the one-minute countdown and at zero, we all departed for the big event.
It was dark. And windy. I had my first fall of the day.	IV) Phase 1: Creatures of the dark As usual I started slow. My biggest concern in the very beginning is always not to cause an accident. Can you imagine someone falling at the very beginning? At least a dozen other people would be involved in such an incident! I surely don't want to be the causing factor of this! :-) It all went pretty well after the countdown, the fast skaters were soon far away and the vast majority took care and went on without much problem. I met Melissa Vézina and her sister Paméla after a minute or two of skating. At my first Défi in 2003 I met Melissa and a friend close to the end of the day; in the intervening years she has done much better than her initial 11h30 time, she has even gotten a gold medal! This year, however, she said that she was with her younger sister, so she would go just for the fun, she would take her time. I met skater 48 (Sophie Lachance) for the first time at this point. She was easy to recognize: both her and her bicycle friend were wearing a yellow t-shirt that could be seen from afar. We crossed our paths many times during the day. Some places in the bike path had big water pools created by the rain of the previous night. Fortunately I didn't get my feet wet. It would be horrible to spend the day on wet socks... I had my first fall of the day while it was still dark. It was right after the Mercier bridge, the pavement was wet, full of leaves and it was dark, a perfect combination for an accident. Fortunately it wasn't anything important, I only had to stop the fall with my hands (always protected, of course) and stopped at a garbage can. Not a great way to start the day, but I have had worse falls... For the next kilometer or two I skated on the road because the bike path was full of leaves. I only returned to the path when we crossed the Lachine canal. The wind on this first section was quite something. When we got to those areas where the river was fully in view, we would get gusts of lateral wind that were enough to destabilize me, I had to fight to stay on. The areas where we were protected from the river by houses or trees were easier to handle, but still you could feel the wind. Less than a kilometer before the end of phase 1 I passed by a skater who had had a bad accident. Some volunteers and other skaters were there to help her. I got to the St. Jean checkpoint at 7:32, eight minutes before my scheduled time. And I wasn't so tired as in previous years. I even felt that I could have done better. But with the dark and the wind it's better not to go too much beyond your abilities. I met my wife at the parking lot at the end of phase 1, rested for ten minutes or so, took my second Tylenol of the day (not that I felt I needed it, it was just a preventive measure), drank some water, chatted with my wife about the event so far and then I left to tackle phase 2 after agreeing to meet my wife at the end of phase 2 by 9h30.
Way faster than I expected. Senneville moon landscape. The Senneville hill, always a challenge.	V) Phase 2: Way faster than I expected. I met skater #20 (Ariane Croteau) at the beginning of this phase. She was accompanied by three people in bicycles! So many people without anyone to help them and she had three! Wow... :-) While she and her group were with me I almost fell. It would have been bad because two of the bikes were right behind me. Fortunately I got a grip of myself and kept going. She was going faster than me, so she and her group left me behind after a few minutes. This phase was mostly uneventful for most of the way. I met a few other skaters here and there but other than that it was a quiet phase. I did my traditional stop before the Senneville hill to drink some water, eat a chocolate and rest a bit. Some skaters (including our now famous backward skating wiz) passed by, I cheered them on on their way to the hill. The hill was as hard as I remembered it, but it was ok. A volunteer was there at the end of the uphill to cheer us on and say that the rest of the way is flat. I felt the downhill right after more dangerous than in previous years. In my first Défi I had a bad fall here, so now I'm always very careful not to gain too much speed. The problem is that I have new breaks that are not yet properly worn, so it was difficult to control the downhill. I managed to do it, anyway, not without some scares, but I did get to the bottom of it unharmed. Senneville is always Senneville. It has gotten a bit better over the years, but it is still a moon landscape, totally horrible to skate on. I skated most of the time in the middle of the road, because the yellow line separating the lanes was the only spot that was more bearable on that horrible road. It's always a good feeling getting to Gouin and leaving Senneville behind. The surface is much better, we can actually skate here. However, it can also be discouraging: Gouin is such a long avenue, it crosses the entire island on the north, so we stay on it quite a while. It's also at this point that every year I get the cramps. But miraculously, this year I didn't feel anything. I kept skating and my legs didn't hurt at all. It was a great feeling to be able to complete phase 2 without suffering with cramps as I always do. Again, I believe this is due to the weather. When I got to the end of phase 2 I asked what time is it, people told me it was 9:10 am! I couldn't believe it, I was a full twenty minutes ahead of my revised schedule and half an hour ahead of my original schedule. I was really impressed with myself. Of course, my wife wasn't yet there, so I kept going, I couldn't wait for her.
People really read my reports!	VI) Phase 3: People read my reports! I met my wife in the boulevard Pierrefonds a few minutes after completing phase 2. She was going to our meeting spot, she saw me and turned around to stop at one of the intersections. She was as surprised as I was at my performance, I had shaved half an hour off my original schedule and I wasn't that tired yet. Again I rested for a few minutes, changed my bottle of water, ate a granola bar and then I continued my way. I met Pascal Roy and his group at this point. He recognized me (I guess from the pictures posted on the Défi site), introduced himself and told me that he read my report from a previous year; he even mentioned its title! I was impressed: people read my reports! I stayed with them to the end of the Pierrefonds boulevard. When we were about to re-enter Gouin I almost had an accident with one of them: we crossed the boulevard at different angles, he got a bit unstable and we almost crashed into each other. Once again I was lucky and we were able to avoid the worse. I was feeling strong, so I left them behind before entering the Lalande boulevard. A group of skaters was right behind me, it felt great to push and push to stay "in front"... :-) I met my wife at a tennis court place right after bridge 13 at the halfway point of the Défi. It was 10 am. Usually I get here close to 11 am! I was almost one hour in advance to other years. After some rest, I took the road again. Some parts of the bike path are in parks, with lots of trees, which means wet pavement, leaves, branches, a whole mess. In one uphill spot I had to stop skating and walk sideways to be able to get to the top of the bike path. One day I'll do a completely dry Défi. I have been telling myself this for the last five years... Anyway, this phase also didn't feel as bad as it had in previous years. I remember that I suffer a lot in this phase, I'm always hoping to see the Pie IX bridge at every curve. This year I was amazed when I got to the Sophie Barat school. I asked myself: I'm already here?! Wow!! When I got to the Pie IX bridge and asked the volunteer for the time, it was 10h58 am, one hour better than my previous attempts.
Lunch break. Phase 4 is short. Some fun with fellow skaters. Second fall of the day.	VII) Phase 4: Ok, now I feel the pain... I kept going for two kilometers more to meet my wife at a small park where we always have lunch. I remember last year I was trembling so much due to the cold that it was hard to eat. This year it was sunny and agreeable. I had my biggest break of the day, ate well, rested well, it was great. And I still left the place before 11h30, a time at which I'm usually not even finished with phase 3. However, not everything was flowers. My skates had started to grate my legs, I was now feeling some pain from the effort. And, I can't deny, the piling up of kilometers was beginning to weigh down on me. Fortunately phase 4 is the easiest beause it's the shortest, so it's not so bad. I met skater #48 once more with her fellow yellow biker friend. We spent a few kilometers together passing each other many times in the way. It was funny: on the smooth surfaces, where sheer strength was king, I would leave her behind; however, on the hard spots, where you must rely on technique rather than muscle, she would pass me by... :-) I had my second fall of the day here: again wet pavement, leaves, branches and I had to stop my fall with my hands. Nothing major, just annoying. I met my wife once again at the park near the 87th street. Here I took out my skates to apply Bloodstop to my legs, a product I had recently bought at the pharmacy. I wasn't sure it would work, but it was worth trying. It didn't work: my socks by now were soaked with my sweat and washed away the product before it could help me much. I had to endure the pain the rest of the way... The rest of phase 4 was totally uneventful. Gouin has some bad pavement at this point, it's not an easy ride, but I have done this so many times that I'm used to it. I met my wife at the end of phase 4 at 12h27, one hour and a half before my usual time. Even with the pain in my legs I was still gaining time over my previous years. It was clear to me at this point that I would get the silver medal I had been after for so long, so I could rest here in preparation for phase 5, which is normally the worse one.
The wind! The pebbles! The pain! Some "train"ing. I couldn't break on the Berri downhill. No water is no fun. 9h07, new personal best!	VIII) Phase 5: the wind, the wind! I left the Avadeo restaurant at 12h40 with Pascal and his group (yes, the same guys I had met at the Pierrefonds boulevard). I kept with them for a while, but when we got to the Notre Dame avenue after Georges V they stopped to talk to some friends, so I continued by myself. Notre Dame is always the hardest part of the event because your energy is already all drained and you have to face the unbearable headwind all along the long avenue. It's decided: for next year my training will include skating in a wind tunnel!... :-) This year was slightly better for me because I could see some skaters a hundred meters or so in front of me, so that gave me the incentive to keep going. And I even eventually caught up with them, we formed a small train for fifteen minutes or so. Any help is welcome at this point... The other problem that we faced this year on Notre Dame was the ridiculous amount of pebbles on the pavement. In some spots I went to the area reserved for cars because it was really hard to skate on that surface full of pebbles. I stopped at a street light, got disconnected from the "train" and could not catch up with them anymore. Then I stopped before Pie IX to eat my last granola bar and drink some water. I could see that I would have a problem on that front for the finish: my water bottle was running dangerously low, I wouldn't have enough for the rest of the way... After crossing Pie IX I didn't meet any other skates until the end of René Levesque. When I passed under the Jacques Cartier bridge I saw that it was 2:25 pm on the giant clock of the Molson brewery. I knew for sure it would be silver, so I took it easy, there was no reason to force anything now. Going down on Berri with all the pain in my legs was very difficult. I could not manage to break properly to stop at the street light, so I had to do an emergency right turn, continue a few meters and then stop completely to resume in the proper way. It wouldn't have been any fun to have an accident this late in the event... By this point I had no water anymore and I was really needing it. Fortunately for me, my wife and kids were going to the Auditorium to pick me up, they passed by the de la Commune street, saw me, honked and I made a sign for them to stop. My daughter brought me the water I needed and I could continue without a problem. The rest of the way after the Vieux-Port was pretty uneventful, I was going real easy, making sure nothing bad would happen. The clear and sunny day at the end was very welcome. I finally got to the finish line at 3:07 pm, with a total time of 9h07, my new personal best, 1h25 better than my previous best time. I'm sure it was the good weather that allowed me to improve my time by so much. In the previous years it was usually cold and rainy, the weather was always against us. But this year we had a great day to skate and so I had my best Défi ever.
Thanks to M. Fortier and my wife.	IX) The usual words of thanks I would like to thank the members of the Academy... Hey, wait, wrong speech! :-) Many thanks to M. Fortier and his team of volunteers who once more made our lives so much easier in this grueling event. Last year M. Fortier had mentioned that he wanted to retire as organizer of this incredible skating event, I'm happy that he has decided to continue with it. Of course, many thanks also go to my wife, who was there to greet me at our many meeting points during the entire day and to give me the water and food that I needed. Without her to ease the way for me, the Défi would be ten times more difficult.
We'll do it again next year!	X) Next year, we'll do it again! I'm already counting the days for our next meeting. I hope to see you there! Thanks for reading.

2006 Défi report

2006-10-30T07:05:00.001-05:00

Note: I sent this report to be published at the Défi site but the webmaster no longer published skater's report, so I decided to write my own blog to keep these things...

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I don't want to sound like the proverbial whiner, but let's see:

· too much gravel on the pavement (those four hundred meters in Beaconsville were deadly!)

· the wind against us (section 1 was really hard!)

· the cold!

· construction work everywhere!

Were there no good things to talk about this year? Yes, of course there were. The partial asphalting in Senneville was definitely a plus, it helped a lot. The sun showing up in parts of the way was very welcome, too. Meeting skaters for most of the day was also uplifting.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start from the beginning. This year my kids wanted to be there with me and my wife in the first half of the way, so we all woke up very early, between 4 am and 4:30 am. We were ready to leave home at 5:10 am and arrived at the Verdun Auditorium in a little more than twenty minutes.

I took my first aspirin of the day in preparation for the pain that would certainly come. I had no idea of the amount of pain I would endure during the day and that no amount of pain-killers would help...

Mr. Fortier announced that some sections this year were better (like the new asphalt in parts of Senneville) and others were worse (like Beaconsville and the detour in Rivière-des-Prairies). At 6:02 am we were ready to go. I said goodbye to my wife and took the bike path after the traditional ten-second countdown.

As usual I started slow, in order to avoid accidents. No one needs a fall right at the beginning, right? And anyway, I know I have almost eleven hours of skating in front of me, I'm not in a rush at this early hour.

I stayed with a small group of skaters for a while, they were going at a good pace, so I saw no point in passing them. And the conversation was a good distraction from the enormous task ahead of us.

It didn't rain this year on the Saturday of the Défi but it had rained heavily on the previous day, so the pavement was wet everywhere and there were huge amounts of dead leaves on the ground that made advancing very difficult. At some points the bicycle path was totally impracticable, we had to use the street instead. In one of these points I had a minor fall. I saw some skaters leaving the bike path and going to the street, but I insisted in continuing on the path. There were just too many wet leaves, I couldn't control it and fell. Of course, I went to the street right after that...

Close to the end of section 1 I met Raymond Bélisle, the only person to have taken part in all eleven Défis. We chatted for a while, until we reached the end of this section. He is such a nice person that I hope to see him again next year.

I arrived at the end of the first section near St-Jean Blvd at 7:43 am, way behind my schedule. My wife and kids were there waiting for me with the car in the parking lot. I got a new bottle of water and some food and rested for a few minutes before engaging section 2.

The gravel in Beaconsville was everything Mr. Fortier had said and more! How I hate to have to stop because of construction work! We do this event of ours this late in the year because supposedly the construction time is finished, but this year looked like election year, there were construction teams everywhere. I'm all for road improvements, but not on the day of our big event! :-(

Other than the Beaconsville gravel, section 2 was mostly uneventful until I reached the Senneville hill. I did my traditional stop before the hill, ate a granola bar and drank some water. A few skaters passed by and continued to the hill. I followed them a few minutes later when I was in better shape.

After the uphill we're entitled to a nice downhill, where we get some good speed. It's dangerous (in my first attempt, in 2003, I had a big crash there) but if done properly, it's a lot of fun. I remember that while going down I thought "if just all the rest of the way would be like this, a nice downhill...".

Senneville this year was not as hellish as usual because some good parts of the way had a nice new asphalt. And even the bad parts didn't feel so bad, probably because we had good parts in between. I just hope that for next year they put asphalt everywhere in that area. Then it will be that much easier to get through section 2.

This year the traditional cramps that I get around km 45 didn't happen. I was very happy for that. Every year I have to stop a few kilometers before the end of section 2 in order for my muscles to get back to normal, but this year I was able to continue without problem.

My wife and I were supposed to meet at the end of section 2, but, unfortunately, they were not there when I passed by. I learned later that they got there a little after 10 am, some fifteen minutes after I had crossed that area.

Therefore I had to face the never-ending Pierrefonds Blvd without the usual help of resting in the car and all that. At this point my skates were beginning to grate on my ankle and lower calves, the pain started to set in and I had to compensate for that, which meant that my skating went from bad to worse.

I was completely alone all the way in the Pierrefonds Blvd, I didn't meet any other skaters. It was the first part of the Défi that I was all by myself this year.

After the bridge of highway 13 I finally met my wife and kids again, so I could sit down, eat something and chat about our adventures so far. It was already 10:40 am, I was a bit behind my schedule. The skates - that I praised so much last year – were now killing me and I had to put a band-aid to try and ease the pain.

I met a few skaters on Gouin here and there, which was a good change from previous years. Usually at this point I'm completely alone but this year there were a few people that I was constantly meeting, it was good.

Once again the bike path in the parks was horrible, the leaves and branches made skating truly hard. With the rain from the previous day, those leaves and branches were very treacherous!

At some point in one of the parks there was a van from the city of Montreal parked right in the middle of the way. I thought I would be able to pass on the side, but when I saw that it wouldn't be possible, it was already too late and I had my second minor fall of the day. What a stupid idea to stop a van right in the middle of the bike path!

At the Île de la Visitation I met skater 27 (whom I had met a few times during the day); he didn't seem to be in good shape and was limping ahead. I told him that the end of section 3 was really close and that he should continue.

I got under the Pie-IX bridge at 11h53 am, only seven minutes before the deadline! After checking the time with the volunteer parked there, I went on to meet my wife for lunch at a park nearby.

It was cold, too cold for me. During all the time I ate my lunch, I was trembling. My jacket was not enough for the cold of the day. This was my longest pause of the day, I stayed there for almost twenty minutes. After I had rested and eaten the good food we had selected for today, I left for the shortest section of the Défi.

We had agreed to meet again at a park near the mid-point of the section, but due to some more construction work, that was not possible. I had to do a long detour from Gouin and when I came back to it, the bike path was closed for even more construction work!

I met skater 27 again very close to the end of section 4. He showed me his map and asked me where we were, he wanted to call someone to come and pick him up, because his legs would not take him any longer. I told him that we were less than a kilometer away from the last checkpoint and that he should continue up to that point, the volunteers there would be able to help him.

It was around 1:40 pm when I got to the end of section 4. As I accepted the water offered by the volunteers, my wife arrived and I could rest in our car. I took the fourth and last aspirin of the day, just for taking it, because by now the pain in my right leg was so intense that no amount of pain-killers would help me.

At the beginning of the fifth section I met a couple of skaters and stayed with them for a few minutes. Unfortunately the girl fell down and they stayed behind while she recovered a little, so I continued alone.

There's not much to tell about section 5, it's long and boring, just kilometers and kilometers by the railway, by the river, in the parks. At this point I was so utterly tired and in so much pain from the grating my skate was giving me that I was basically limping ahead, oblivious to anything that was going on around me.

Unfortunately I didn't see my wife at our last scheduled meeting point at the Honoré-Mercier park near the mid-point of the section, so I just kept going through Notre-Dame and its bad sidewalks. More construction here forced me to take the other side of the avenue, which, surprisingly, was not as bad.

I met some volunteers in this last stretch of the way and they cheered me on. Two volunteers were under the Jacque Cartier bridge and offered me a Gatorade and a granola bar. I did my last stop of the way to consume these, it was a welcome treat.

In the park of the Verdun Auditorium there were three big poodles of water, I had to “walk” around them. I ended up crossing the finish line at 4:55 pm with a total time of 10h53. Not too bad, considering the excruciating pain in my lower legs.

My wife was there to greet me and take a picture of me arriving. Mr. Fortier was filming me as I came, so I may end up in some future release of the Défi DVD... :-)

What a fantastic Défi we had this year! Yes, there were plenty of things to complain about, but it always feels good to cross that finish line, no matter how bad the pain and how tired you are.

As usual, I would like to take the opportunity to say a big thank you to Mr. Fortier and his team of devoted volunteers for organizing the Défi and making it run so well. Other than that, many words of thanks go to my wife for being there the entire day and carrying all my things for me. I said it before but it deserves saying it again: without her help I could not possibly have crossed that finish line!

2005 Défi report

2005-10-30T12:35:00.000-05:00

Note: this report was originally published at the Défi site under year 2005 (it's the last one in the list). Go there to see reports by other skaters!

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On Friday night I set my alarm clock to ring at 4 a.m. but I woke up at 3:30! That's how much I was tuned to the Défi!!

My wife and I left home (near the Olympic Stadium) at 5:10 and in just twelve minutes were at the Old Port, the streets were so empty that not even drunks were in sight! The light rain that was falling was probably the main reason...

When we arrived at the Verdun Auditorium there were already quite a few people there, all getting ready for the big event. I found an empty space, sat down and put on my skates and protective gear. This year, as I knew we would have a Défi under a lot of water, I put a plastic bag around my feet to protect the socks from getting wet (thanks Rod for the tip!). [Actually the plastic bag should go around the whole boot... Click here for the article.]

As I was finally ready, one of the organizers announced that we were ten minutes away from six o'clock, so we should go to the start line. I took my first aspirin of the day (during the year I never take pain killers, but on the day of the Défi I have to take four!) and went outside. The light rain was still going on...

The first surprise of the day was to see a CBC van nearby. We'll be TV stars! Yay! :-)

We had the traditional last-minute review of the rules (always on the right side, yield to the cars, respect the red lights, etc), did the ten second countdown and off we were. I said goodbye to my wife and took the bike path.

I always let everybody go in front of me, I fear that I may fall right in the beginning and bring down a ton of people with me. I know I have some eleven hours of skating ahead of me, so at this early hour I'm not exactly in a rush...

For the first ten or fifteen minutes I stayed with a group of ten skaters that were bringing up the rear of the Défi. But then I decided that they were going a bit too slow for my taste and pushed a little, leaving them behind.

Soon after that, I met another small group (five or so skaters) and stayed with them for a few minutes. I left them behind as well. The pavement was wet everywhere, so everybody was being ultracautious, which is quite understandable.

I arrived at the end of the first section near St-Jean Blvd at 7:35, ten minutes behind my self-imposed schedule. My wife was there, waiting for me with the car in the parking lot. She gave me water and a granola bar. I sat down and rested for a few minutes.

As I started the second section I joined again the group that I had just left behind before finishing the first section, this time they seemed to be going a little faster (or was I already slowing down?...), so I stayed with them.

I had my first fall of the day at the beginning of this section. The pavement was not that good, I had had many close calls during the first hundred minutes but this time I couldn't avoid it and went crashing down. It wasn't too bad, my left hand was hurting a little bit and the shoulder, too. Skater 101, who was just in front of me, stopped a little bit to ask if everything was ok with me. I told him I was good and quickly joined him again. I was feeling some pain but nothing that couldn't be endured. Well, that's the Défi, anyway, isn't it?

After this fall the second section was uneventful until I reached the Senneville hill. On my first year (2003) I had tried to tackle it as it came but had not been able to get to the top without stopping twice on the way up, so I learned that stopping before it and having some water and food was indeed a good idea. I did that last year and this one, too.

While I was resting there, M. Fortier showed up in his car and filmed me for a short while. I hope the sequence makes it out of the editing room! :-) Two volunteers in a van also stopped to ask me if everything was alright; I said all was fine, I was just getting ready to face the hill.

As I got myself prepared once more to take the road, a couple (skaters 14 and 15) were also going up, so I joined them. Even rested and fed, it was hard. Going up is normally difficult but with the rain, it's doubly so, you can't skate as usual, otherwise you glide sideways instead of going forward. Anyway, after a lot of effort I got up there with them and was able to breathe normally again!

The downhill immediately after the Senneville is also quite dangerous. In 2003 I went crashing down; last year I went with my brakes on; this year I went all the way in a nice crouch, I didn't have to slow down, so I was quite happy when I arrived in one piece at the other end.

But then comes the hell that is Senneville... It's the part of the Défi that I like the least, the pavement is just unusable. Fortunately there were not too many cars on the road, so we could choose the best parts of the street to skate, but even the best was truly bad. I'm always happy to get out of Senneville. Gouin feels like polyurethane after having skated through Senneville...

Every year around km 45 or so I get cramps. Maybe it's the effort to go up the hill or just the general tiredness that sinks in, I don't know, but the fact is that the muscles in my calves start acting up, I feel like they are "dancing" inside my legs. In the first two years I just slowed down and the threat of cramps subsided; however this year it was really painful, I had to stop. Fortunately there was a van with volunteers nearby and I could sit down in their car to rest for a while. We talked a bit while I waited for the pain to go away. They told me that this was their third Défi as well!

The cramps diminished enough to allow me to start once more the long road, I again thanked the volunteers, confirmed that I was feeling ok and went out. They told me that we were only four kilometers away from the end of section 2.

I met my wife right before taking Pierrefonds Blvd. She told me I was faster than expected. Even though I had been ten minutes late for section 1, I was on time now, meaning that my section 2, even with a fall, the hill and my cramps had been easier than I had foreseen.

I took my second aspirin of the day, got some water and another granola bar and faced Pierrefonds Blvd. Here I had my second fall of the day, a minor affair when going up and down on the bike path. I just got up and continued forward.

At the end of Pierrefond Blvd I met three skaters who were lost and were asking for directions. I told them to join me, because I knew the way pretty well. We stayed together for a good part of section 3, I showed them the entrance to Lalande (the small Défi sign was a bit confusing, it seemed to indicate not to take Lalande...) and we continued together through Gouin until the bridge at Hwy 13.

There I met my wife once more and sat down for some more resting. She told me that I was ten minutes ahead of schedule, so it seemed I was going even faster than before. I'm sure my better performance this year is in big part due to my new skates. My previous pair of skates hurt my feet after long sessions, so they were not appropriate for the Défi. This year I finally bought a new pair and my feet didn't hurt anywhere as much as before, I could skate better for longer periods. Good investment, I would say!

Going the rest of the way through Gouin was mostly uneventful. But once again the bike path in the parks was horrid, the leaves and branches were scattered everywhere. With the rain, it was like skating on soap! Just going through without falling was already an achievement...

Soon after passing Christophe-Colombe I met skater 50 (or was it 52?) once more; we had crossed each other many times during the morning. We went together through the area of Île de la Visitation, she told me her ankles were hurting too much, she just wanted to get to the Pie-IX bridge and she would stop there, she couldn't go any further. Hey, eighty kilometers is already a lot...

I was under the Pie-IX bridge at 11h45, my best time ever! I accepted the water offered by the volunteer and went on to meet my wife for lunch at a park nearby. I had my longest pause of the day, I stayed there for twenty minutes or so, rested and ate some delicious food she had just bought on the way. While I was in the park I saw only two skaters pass by, which seemed to indicate that once more I was one of the last ones.

Well, fine as everything was, it was time to take to Gouin again, to complete the shortest section of the Défi. The rain had stopped and I even saw some spots where it was beginning to dry, I was able to skate more or less normally for the first time in the day. I had a short stop at the mid-point where I met my wife for what would be the last time before the end.

Around 1:20 pm it started to rain yet again, quashing all hope of a drier Défi. It was 1:35 pm when I got to the old site of the Farago restaurant (now a beauty salon, it seems), which marks the end of the fourth section of the Défi. I was a lot earlier than my scheduled time, so I did not meet my wife at this point unfortunately. One more aspirin and I was ready to take the road under a persistent rain. When I left the restaurant area there was a couple arriving, but I didn't see their numbers.

As usual, the fifth section was the hardest. The winds were quite mild this year, which was a welcome plus, but the bad pavement and the rain made it truly difficult to proceed. I had three small falls in this session, all due to the bad pavement and the tiredness that was setting in. None of these minor falls were important, but with the first one the cramps returned and I had to stay on the ground, the pain was just too much. A resident even came out and asked me if everything was ok...

The fifth section is long and boring, you see kilometers ahead of you and there is only road after road, it takes a lot of strength to keep going all alone under the rain, feeling pain everywhere, going on bad pavement and all that. At this point you're no longer thinking anything, you just keep going and going because stopping is just unthinkable after all you have gone through. The Défi is most definitely not for everyone...

My last scheduled meeting point before Verdun was the Honoré-Mercier park near the mid-point of the section. But once again I was too fast and got there way before the scheduled time. When I called home, my daughter told me that my wife had just called from the previous meeting point at the end of section 4! I saw that it would be impossible to communicate again before the end. I told my daughter that they should be there at Verdun between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. She was impressed, that would be an hour less than last year!

The bike path on the sidewalks of Notre-Dame were as bad as I remembered them, I had to slow down to avoid accidents. Anyway, I was not in a hurry. I knew I couldn't make it for 4 p.m., so there was no point in rushing things, I took my time and enjoyed the way.

Just after the military base there was some heavy construction work going on, it was dangerous to skate around those areas, I had to share the route with trucks and tractors, heavy stuff...

I know the way after Pie-IX quite well, I take this bike path every day to go to work, so I was "at home" in this area. I felt great, I knew I would finish in under eleven hours, something I had been trying since my first Défi two years ago. The silver medal was unfortunately out of reach, but that can wait for a drier Défi some year in the future, right?

Right before entering the bike path that leads to the Verdun Auditorium, more heavy construction on the road and I was scratching my head on how to get to the end. Definitely election years are bad for the Défi, the incumbent party wants to show off how much they are working for the people and the city becomes one huge construction area...

It was 4:36 p.m. when I finally got to the Auditorium. Mr Fortier, some skaters and volunteers were there to cheer me on. Unfortunately my wife and children arrived only ten minutes later, so they didn't see me coming in.

I ate an apple and some grapes while I waited for my family to arrive and then we went home for a small "after Défi party" with some friends. On Wellington Street we saw the last couple of skaters going towards the Auditorium.

Well, that's it for this year. As usual, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Fortier and his team of volunteers for organizing the Défi and making it run so smoothly. Also many words of thanks go to my wife for being there the entire day and carrying all my things for me, easing a lot the incredible task of completing the Défi.

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Medal ceremony

Mr. Fortier and his wife at the bar of the Auditorium:

A few words before the medal ceremony:

Raymond Belisle praising Mr. Fortier and his team:

2004 Défi report

2004-10-30T12:42:00.001-04:00

Note: this report was originally published at the Défi site under year 2004 (it's the last one in the list). Go there to see reports by other skaters!

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What an experience the Défi this year! According to the meteorological forecasts we would have a little bit of rain in the afternoon; in the morning we would even get some sunshine! What a joke! The rain started a little after 5 am and didn't stop for at least two hours!

Anyway, minutes before 6 am I was ready, I had my number 20 glued to my pants and I went to the start line with all the other participants. The highest number I saw was 138, so I think this year we had a lot less people taking part in this craziness of ours. I guess the rain was in good part responsible for the low number of participants...

Before the start we listened to some words of advice (about how dangerous the wet pavement was, etc.), did the traditional countdown and off we went into the dark and cold of the night.

Last year I finished the Défi in 11h23 so for this year my goal was to complete the event in less than eleven hours. I mean, that was my goal, because ten minutes into the race I had already changed my mind: now I just wanted to get to the end in one piece. If you were not there you won't believe how treacherous the wet pavement was. Skating in the dark, cold, wet and windy Section 1 took a heavy toll on me (and I imagine most everyone else).

I only fell once this year and it was a very minor thing. Just before mid-section of Section 1 there were two volunteers, they told us that the wooden bridge ahead was very slippery. So, I went very slow, took a lot of care, got onto the bridge and... Bang! I fell anyway! :-) But nothing other than my pride was hurt, so I just stood up and kept going. On the next bridge I didn't even think twice, I just grabbed the guardrail and pulled myself by hand to the other side... Editor's Note: The trick is to put on a real burst of speed *before* entering the bridge, so you can roll straight across without pushing.

My wife was once again with me this year, she was in our car and every fifteen or twenty kilometers we met, she gave me water and food, carried some of my things, it was a great help.

Last year I got to Pie-IX bridge four minutes before the limit (noon), this year my intention was to be there earlier than that but all the effort done in Section 1 made me arrive even later: it was already 12h13 when I finally reached the checkpoint under the bridge.

I continued for two kilometers more and met my wife for lunch. My daughter was also there. This year we had agreed that my wife would do the first three sections with me, and my daughter would do the other two on bike.

So, we had lunch, said our good-byes and off we went through Section 4. By now the pain in my feet was already slowing me down. It wasn't as bad as one year ago, but it was bad enough to make me go slower than I wanted. I also had to stop many times to rest and drink water.

Anyway, I got to the end of Section 4 ten minutes before the 2 pm limit and by now I knew that I would be able to finish. I sat down, accepted the water offered by the volunteers and rested for a few minutes.

Right before 2 pm we started the last phase of the Défi. It's the longest and usually the hardest. The wind blowing against you makes it very difficult to go forward and on top of that, all the pain and effort of 100 km start to feel very heavy on you.

I live near the Olympic Stadium, so when we got there my daughter and I said good-bye, she went home and I continued alone. This last part of the way I know very well, I take this bike path every day to go to work during the summer months.

Less than two minutes after leaving her I almost had a serious accident. The lights on Pie-IX are multi-phasic, so I patiently waited for the green light and then went on. At the same time someone in a car coming from Notre-Dame wanted to turn onto Pie-IX! He was totally wrong, the lights were red for him, but he came in anyway. Fortunately he saw me, had the time to react and turn away from me. Phew!

It was a little before 5h30 pm when I got to Wellington Street. I stopped at a bus shelter and my wife and kids appeared in our car, just like that! They gave me water and told me they would wait for me at the Auditorium.

After this final rest, I took to the street and did those last three kilometers. Only one thought was in my mind: to get to the finish line. Nothing else mattered now, just to get to the Auditorium! I finally arrived there at 5h41 pm, with a total time of 11h41. Mr. Fortier, his wife and another gentleman whose name escapes me now were there with my wife and kids to greet me. What a relief to get to the end unharmed after such a dangerous day!

We chatted a little while, the organizers gave us some fruit and we said good-bye. On the way back, on Wellington Street, we saw skaters 82 and 83 (who I had met a few times on the way) and 62. They were going to the Auditorium, but it was already past 6 pm, so they were too late for a medal. But they kept going anyway, it was their Défi and they wanted to finish it. Congratulations to them for having done that!

Words of thanks

Once again I want to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Fortier, his wife and all the volunteers who stayed in the rain, gave us water and guidance and cheered us on. What a wonderful group of people you all are!

Many thanks also go to my wife and my daughter who accompanied me and without whom I could never even think of undertaking such an event.

Valdir Jorge, #20

2003 Défi report

2003-10-30T07:07:00.000-05:00

Note: this report was originally published at the Défi site under year 2003 (it's the last one in the list). Go there to see reports by other skaters!

Part I: Preparing for it

I first read about the Défi in the Gazette last year (2002). However, it was already September and there was no way I would be able to prepare myself for such a challenge in just one month. I'm not a very endowed skater and I had never skated for more than two hours in a row, so I let it pass, without thinking about it for the next six months.

But then the snow was gone in May and the idea of doing the Défi came back to me. Now I would have enough time to prepare both physically and mentally for such a grueling event! The first task was to read all of Rod's very instructive web site. When I read the skater reports commenting on the non-stop rain and winds they had had in 2002, I thought "it was a good thing I let it pass, I would never have been able to do it in those conditions". And I started wishing for a warm and dry day for the third Saturday of October...

Next in line was to get to know the path. I did this survey mostly by bike during the months of May and June. As I live near the second half of section 5, I got to know that section quite well, but I also visited all other sections.

Anyway, by the end of June I knew the path and I thought I was mentally prepared to do it. Now I had to prepare physically for it, so I started skating longer than usual. And I also started going to work on my bike in August, taking the bike path through part of section 5.

At the end of August my wife told me that she was willing to accompany me in our car to provide me with the water, food and clothing that I would need on the day. What great news! I had been doing all my skating with a backpack to carry my things and it slowed me down considerably. After long stretches it seemed to weigh a ton, so my wife's offer was really very welcome.

So, we got to go through the entire path, but this time by car to decide on which spots she would stop and wait for me. Other than the five official checkpoints, we also decided to have one stop at the mid-points of every section except the first. So we prepared a map for her with indications of mileage, time I expected to reach them, etc. After going through the path twice, we knew we were ready.

Unfortunately, the end of August also brought a forced halt to my skating: in one of my outings I went over a manhole cover, fell down and hurt my tailbone. I could barely walk, let alone skate, for more than two weeks.

When I was able to skate again, it started raining every weekend, so I couldn't do much training in the last weeks leading to the big event. But I was ready. Or so I thought...

Part II: Doing it

So the big day came! I woke up at 4 am to get ready, we left home at 5h10 and were at the Auditorium a little before 5h40. Just enough time to do a little bit of stretching, put on my skates and all my protective gear (let me tell you, having fallen as many times as I did during my training, I knew I would need it...), do some warm up skating and go to the starting line.

What a feeling to be there, minutes before the start with all those skaters! It's just indescribable! The organizer talked to us in those last few minutes, asking us to start gently to avoid accidents. When he asked who was doing the Défi for the first time, I didn't see too many arms showing up...

Anyway, 6 am came, we did the 10-second countdown and off we went. It was dark, the lights on the park didn't help too much, but it was an incredible feeling to be there in the dark with so many people starting a skating marathon.

Since the beginning of my training my goal was just to finish the Défi, the total time was not important. Twelve hours you say is the limit? Very well, I'll be happy if I can do it in 11h59! Therefore I had set very achievable goals for each section: 1h50 for each of the first two, 2h20 for the third, twenty minutes lunch break, two hours for the fourth section and 3h30 for the last one.

The first section went without much stress, I was skating faster than I expected and when I met my wife at the first checkpoint, she told me that I had done it in just under 1h30, so I had gained twenty minutes on my schedule, I was very happy with myself.

A few kilometers before the end of section 1 I met skater number 133 [Sylvain Bourdon] and his wife for the first time. She was on a bike, carrying their things, and she followed him all the grueling way. As they were going at basically the same speed that I was, we went together for the next twenty kilometers or so.

But then came Senneville. And the light drizzle. And the hill. Talk about reality check... I couldn't handle the uphill, I had to stop twice on the way up, it was just too much for me. But downhill proved to be even worse. As I started gaining speed I knew I would fall, there was no way I could handle all that speed. And after two thirds of the downhill, it finally happened, I went crashing down like a rock. I was well protected so I only got some minor scratches and light bruises. I stayed on the ground for a while, let a few skaters pass me assuring them that I was all right and then I got up, composed myself and took to the road again.

Whoever got the idea of skating through that next part of the Senneville Road? The Défi manual says "the road is very rough". Talk about understatement! That is just plain unskatable! What a nightmare it was...

Anyway, somehow I survived all that and got to checkpoint number 2 in Pierrefonds at 9h20, still twenty minutes ahead of my scheduled time. Here I changed my jacket for a lighter one as it wasn't as cold anymore. My wife helped me transfer my numbers from one jacket to the other (note for next year: apply the numbers to the pants to avoid all this hassle!) and off I went.

I knew that section 3 would be longer than the first two and I was also getting the first symptoms of fatigue, my legs were sending hints that cramps were on the way, the muscles started behaving strangely, I felt like they were twitching and turning inside my legs.

But somehow I got on. Through Pierrefonds Boulevard, which seemed like it would never end, then Gouin and Lalande and Gouin again, to finally meet my wife at the mid-point of the section, a little after the bridge of Highway 13. I met her ten minutes ahead of schedule but I was so utterly tired and sore that I had to lay down in the car for the next ten minutes. After this rest and the first of four Tylenols of the day, I got up and went, knowing very well that all the extra time that I had gained in the morning had just vanished.

The second half of section 3 was almost uneventful, just long stretches of lone skating. For the slowest ones like myself, the Défi is almost invariably a lone affair. After the first fifty kilometers or so, I rarely passed or was passed by other skaters, I was just skating on my own, which can be a bit depressing.

Two or three kilometers before Île de la Visitation I was passed by Sylvain and his wife. They saw that I was limping ahead and gave me words of encouragement. She also told me that it was already 11h40 and reminded me that the checkpoint was at twelve under the Pie IX bridge, so I had only twenty minutes to do it. I thanked them and away they went.

Getting to see the Pie IX bridge after a curve in Gouin was like a miracle. When I finally got there, Sylvain and his wife were there, they told me the time: 11h56! I had barely made it!

I skated a bit more and met my wife at a little park two kilometers after the Pie IX checkpoint. There I had my lunch break and rested for twenty minutes. We exchanged stories about the Défi so far and by 12h30 I was again on my feet and going, rather slow, to continue on section 4.

This section is the shortest one but the tiredness had set in, I was skating badly and I knew it. Nonetheless, I reached the end of section 4 at 2 pm, half an hour before my schedule. However I had to sit down in the car for more than ten minutes to recover from the effort so far.

Sylvain and his wife were also at the end of section 4 when I arrived. According to my wife he was limping badly when they got there, he had sat down in a bus shelter and hadn't moved for more than five minutes, he seemed to be in bad shape.

At 14h15 I went on to tackle section 5. I met Sylvain and his wife (who had left a few minutes before me) after a few kilometers. She said that his feet were badly hurt, he could barely skate. I stayed with them for a minute or two and then I went on.

I met my wife for the last time before the end at the Bellerive park, took my fourth and last Tylenol of the day and kept skating. It was 15h20, I had just fifteen kilometers to go and more than two hours and a half to finish, so I knew I could do it. The problem is, at this point the pain in my feet and legs was so excruciating that I couldn't skate anymore, I was basically "walking with skates". It took me two hours to cover those last fifteen kilometers!

On René Lévesque I met two 13-year old girls, numbers 124 [Mélissa Vézina] and 125 [Valérie Lelotte], sitting on the sidewalk. They asked me if I knew how many kilometers they still had to go. When I said "five to seven", they jumped and said to each other "just seven kilometers? Let's do it!". We went together for a minute or so but then I got ahead of them because of a street light and I didn't see them again until the end.

At the Old Port I sat down, I was beyond being tired. At exactly that moment my daughter showed up to say some words of encouragement! My wife was in the car nearby, they would be waiting for me at the finish line.

Getting to Wellington Street was such a relief, I knew that the Auditorium was less than three kilometers away. The sight of the Canadian Tire store marking the last kilometer almost brought tears to my eyes.

In the end I got to the finish line at 5h23 pm, with a total time of 11h23. Pretty good for someone who was just looking at finishing it, even if it took all the twelve hours.

As I got off my skates and protective equipment, the two thirteen year olds arrived with another skater [Benoît Beaupré]. While I was going home through Wellington Street, I saw one other skater limping towards the Auditorium. I don't know if number 133 got to finish the race, I hope he was ok in the end... [Ed: He passed you somewhere in those last 15 km.]

Part III: Words of thanks

Well, that is it, this is my report on my first Défi. I would like to thank Robert Fortier and his volunteers for all the cheers and encouragement along the way and all the hard work they put into bringing this event to life. Warm thanks also go to Rod for keeping such a wonderful web site, it really helped me a lot. I thank also my fellow skater Sylvain Bourdon and his wife, it was good to see a "familiar" face every twenty kilometers or so. But my biggest thanks go to my wife for being there every step of the way. Without her I just could not have done it.

Valdir Jorge, #88