For me it was in 2019, the day before the Défi actually happened. On the Friday before the Défi we received an e-mail message from the organizer telling us that due to a shortage of volunteers to man the stations, there would be only one water station in the course instead of the usual four.
For me, at least, this was the death knell for the Défi. I'm a slow skater who needs all the help he can get; one water station in the whole 128 Km course just doesn't cut it. When I registered for the event I was counting on the four water stations at the end of each phase that we always got in the past. And with less than a day to prepare for the lack of support on the course, my chances of finishing the Défi were doomed.
I don't want to slam the organizers too hard on this, but if that is the level of support I'm going to get, then I'll prefer to do the event by myself on the day of my choosing and starting from my house (I live near Km 115 of the race course) and finishing at my house as well.
Anyway, I still tried to be optimistic and decided that I would at least start the race. Who knows? Maybe this year things would go my way and I would have a good experience after all.
I had not done the Défi last year and I was eager to try it again, even if I were not going to finish it. I left home on Saturday morning before 6 am with plenty of time, so even if the metro took a long time to arrive I would still be on time.
Well, the metro took ten minutes to get to the Pie IX station. I was still ok, still plenty of time to get to Verdun before seven am, the official starting time. But while I was in the metro my memory started playing games with me. I knew I had to go to the Verdun Auditorium, so that should be near the Verdun station, right? Why was my mind trying to convince me it was the De l'Église station? Funny...
So I got out of the metro at the Verdun station and started walking, but nothing seemed familiar. I walked for three or four minutes before I realized I was in the wrong neighbourhood. I ran back to the metro station (well, as much as it is possible to run carrying a large, heavy bag containing all my skating equipment) to go to the De l'Église. And the train took another ten minutes to arrive, so all my buffer time was gone, I would arrive late at the start line. Damn my bad memory!
When I saw the Verdun Auditorium I almost wept. What a sad façade it is presenting now. They are doing renovations on the building, so in some future year it will probably regain its old glory, but today it looks really bad, a ghost of its glorious past.
Because of all the construction around the auditorium, the regular starting place was gone, so I circled around the building looking for the organizers. It was 7h05, so I imagined that the skaters had already gone off, but the organizers should still be there, I thought.
I did the entire perimeter of the building looking for anyone, but there was no one in sight. I considered putting on my skates and doing at least a few kilometers in memory of the good old times, but ended up deciding against it. It felt to me that the Universe was telling me that this was not meant to happen, so I let go.
Over the years I have had a recurring dream where I'm at the beginning of the Défi, getting ready to start and then I find out that I forgot to bring my skates and have to run back home to get them. I always wake up relieved when I see that it was just a dream. But what happened today was a little bit like those nightmares. I did not expect my relationship with the Défi to end like this, with a DNS because I couldn't even find the organizers.
I went back home, logged in to Facebook and saw the video of the skaters beginning this year's Défi where they say that they started a bit late, at 7h05! So when I was looking for them, they were all still there. But because of the construction they had to move the starting point further down the path, close to the river, and I did not see them at all. What a shame!
So, now this is final: from now on I'll do the Défi on my own, using my CamelBak to carry the water and supplies; I'll choose a day when the weather and other conditions are more appropriate for me; and I'll start and finish from my house, which will save me some of the hassle.
If some day in the future the Défi returns to its former glory, with dozens of participants, tons of volunteers, four support spots and all the rest, I may consider re-joining. But until then, I'll prefer to do it on my own.
I want to wish the organizers and future participants of the Défi all the luck in the world, I feel no ill toward anyone. I just don't want to be part of such a bare-bones event. Skating 128 Km is already hard enough, I don't need the extra struggle.
Good luck, good skating and be happy!
Sunday, 22 September 2019
Sunday, 24 September 2017
Défi 2017: probably my last one
Rant post Défi
I have been doing the Défi for fifteen years now, I started in 2003 and have not missed a start ever since (I did miss the finish four times, but at least I tried...). And this year I came to the realization that maybe this is not for me anymore. Don't get me wrong, I still love inline skating and intend to continue rolling for as long as I can, but to subject my body to the torture that is the Défi, I guess the time has come to say "no more!".
On my first Défi I finished with great difficulty in 11h23m. This year, fourteen years later, I finished again with great difficulty in 11h25, so it will probably go downhill from here... During the Défi this year two volunteers (at the end of phases 3 and 4) told me that the important thing was to enjoy yourself while doing it. I didn't have the heart to tell them I was thoroughly not enjoying myself at all. I was in pain, multiple pains, really, so it felt more as a chore than something I would do for pleasure.
I know that pain and blister are part of the Défi experience, but this year it seems that I got a bit too much of them. I have never seen such big blisters on my toes before! And the pain on my lower legs, specially where the skates where grating my skin, were close to unbearable. The heat and the sun's brightness that I got all day long didn't help either.
And now, the proper review of this years Défi...
Phase I: they destroyed the bike path!
I woke up before 5 am, got all my stuff ready and left home at 5h50 to catch the metro at Pie IX. I missed the train by a few seconds, the next one came only ten minutes later, but I had plenty of time.
When I arrived at the Verdun Auditorium I saw that they had totally destroyed the bike path! It was closed off and there was heavy machinery all around. Rocky start we would have... :-)
We were only seven skaters this year, but I got the bib #16; I guess the organizers were reusing the ones that had not been used last year...
I put on my skates and protection, did some warm-up skating and was ready to roll when the organizer called us to the start line. At the seven am mark he rang the bell and off we were...
There was a small patch of gravel connecting the parking lot of the auditorium to the bike path, I was the last one of the seven skaters to cross it and that was a good thing, because I had some problem with it, my skates blocked and I had to put my hand on the floor to avoid a fall. What a good way to start the Défi... :-(
But then everything was fine when I got to the bike path. I even passed one of the skaters (Pierre Lamy, I believe) and joined with Raymond Savard and Eduardo Viadas, we rolled together for a while. Eduardo and I left Raymond behind and after a few minutes more Eduardo had to stop to take off his jacket, so for a few minutes I was in fourth place, with three skaters ahead of me and three behind.
There was a place with some construction where we had to skate on the sidewalk. Eduardo was slower on this one, so I left him behind. Raymond was faster to handle that trick part and put some distance to us.
Later on, when I was alone, I had a little "incident": an old woman in a car absolutely wanted me to go to the sidewalk to pass me and I indicated that she should go around, as going to the sidewalk at that point was not feasible to me. She honked her horn a few times, but there was nothing I could do about it. Eventually she did what everybody else was doing and went around me. Phew!
The first phase was very good, the temperature was still quite bearable, the skating was easy, I had no pain at all. The fact of having two other skaters with whom to share the road was also a plus. We went together for a few kilometers, right to the end of phase 1.
My average speed at the end of this phase was 18.8 km/h, pretty good for me.
Phase 2: nobody at the end!
After passing the end of the first phase Eduardo and Raymond left me behind, I was already starting to feel the heat and the pain the skates were beginning to create in my lower legs. But the skate was still good nonetheless.
At Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue I passed Eduardo, who had stopped to rest a bit. Then I stopped right before the
Senneville hill and he passed me back. We kept doing this a few times during the early part of the day.
The hill was not so bad, the downhill right after I could also manage (I'm always afraid of falling there like I did on my first Défi); the day was beginning to warm up, but it was still manageable. I started feeling the skates grate against my skin and I knew what was coming, nut for now it was still good.
Things started to fall apart close to the end of phase 2, around 10 am. The heat increased, the sun brightness was on my face the entire time, the grating on lower legs got to a point where it was starting to annoy me.
I did not find anyone at the end of phase 2 (Avenue du Château Pierrefonds with Boulevard Pierrefonds), there was no volunteer in sight. I thought that maybe they were at the other location, further north, that had not been used in the last three or four years.
My average speed for this phase had been 15.6 km/h, which brought my overall average to 17.1 km/h, still good.
Phase 3: things get rough
I stopped at a gas station two kilometers after the end of phase 2, took out my skates and applied second skin to four places in my legs that were causing me pain. I also rested a bit from the heat. And I continued, slower than before.
And I had to start making stops in the shadow every ten kilometers or so in order not to overheat.
We met some construction at the end of the Pierrefonds boulevard, but that actually helped, because it closed the end of the boulevard to the cars, so I could skate in all security in the middle of the street for a short stretch.
The beginning of the Gouin boulevard was too dangerous, I skated mostly on the sidewalk, the cars were going way too fast, way too close to the sidewalk, there was no point in trying to skate on the street. Also, because of the construction everywhere, I didn't even try to get to the Lalande boulevard, which in previous years had provided some shelter from the speeding cars on Gouin.
I stopped under the bridge of road 13 for another session of cooling down. Eduardo passed me one last time. I never saw him again for the rest of the day.
The heat was starting to get me delirious. I would be skating and would get sleepy, I just wanted to stop and have a nap.
I reached the end of phase 3 at 12h25. Another skater (Guillaume, I believe) was ready to go, so I took his place at the chair. I stayed for at least twenty minutes. The volunteer there was such a nice lady, her name is Pierra and she is an instructor at the VLR Club. She offered me water, juice, even a cold compress.
My average speed for this phase was 12 km/h, which brought my overall average to 13.9 km/h, which was already looking bad. I only had less than fifty kilometers to go, but it was not looking pretty...
Phase 4: Pain all the way
I was going slow, but even at this easier level I was suffering. I had to stop many times to let the heat go away. One of these stops was at a ice-cream place on Gouin. It wasn't the best ice cream I ever had, but considering the heat outside, it was very welcome.
Not much else to report on this phase other than that the heat by now was just killing me. I was so pleased to get to the end of it and find another very helpful volunteer with some cold water and juice for me.
My average speed for this phase was 10 km/h, which brought my overall average to 12.6 km/h. I knew the last thirty kilometers would be awful and I was not disappointed...
Phase 5: I'm going to finish this, no matter what
By this point I had already decided that this would be my final Défi (even before seeing the giant blisters and all), so my only thought was to finish, no matter what.
I did not take the 81st street because it was under construction. I continued on the shoulder area of the Sherbooke street. There was a nice long stretch there that it is not marked as a bike path bu may well become one in the future. I went through it for quite a while and when it finished I turned left to try and find the bike path that I was supposed to be on.
I did not find it right away, but I found a newly renovated street called Montigny that was very nice to skate on. I followed it for a while, until that one also got some construction. I turned here and there and soon I was lost. I knew more or less the general direction I should go, but after so many turns I was not sure I was in the right path.
I don't know exactly what I did, but I somehow ended up on Notre Dame, where I was supposed to be and continued through the path that is so well known to me from so many other Défis. By now I was stopping at every five kilometers to hide from the sun and rest a little bit.
Pierre Lamy passed me somewhere around km 115. I was having another stop to rest from the heat, I just waved him good luck. I got up soon after that but I never saw him again. I knew he was suffering too, but not as bad as me, it seemed.
After a final stop in the old port where I almost fell asleep, I finally arrived at the Verdun auditorium at 18h25 for a total time of 11h25, one of my worst times ever in a Défi.
My average speed for this phase was 8.2 km/h, which brought my final average to 11.2 km/h.
Pascal and Olivier were there to greet me, they even had a folding chair for me to sit on. Here is the medal that I received:
And the reverse of the medal showing my time:
I took out all my equipment, put my shoes back on, confirmed that I was still able to walk (difficult at the beginning), thanked them for all their patience and went home slowly, very slowly.
My wife was waiting for me because the organizers had called home short after 6 pm to see if I was still going to finish, so she was a bit worried about me.
I took a bath, I saw my gigantic blisters, drank a beer and rested a bit. Details of my blisters here (sorry if you are squeamish...):
My wife told me that the Montreal marathon (that was supposed to happen the following day) had been cancelled due to the heat that was hitting the city. Maybe the Défi organizers should also consider postponing the event in case of extreme weather like we had this year...
I have been doing the Défi for fifteen years now, I started in 2003 and have not missed a start ever since (I did miss the finish four times, but at least I tried...). And this year I came to the realization that maybe this is not for me anymore. Don't get me wrong, I still love inline skating and intend to continue rolling for as long as I can, but to subject my body to the torture that is the Défi, I guess the time has come to say "no more!".
On my first Défi I finished with great difficulty in 11h23m. This year, fourteen years later, I finished again with great difficulty in 11h25, so it will probably go downhill from here... During the Défi this year two volunteers (at the end of phases 3 and 4) told me that the important thing was to enjoy yourself while doing it. I didn't have the heart to tell them I was thoroughly not enjoying myself at all. I was in pain, multiple pains, really, so it felt more as a chore than something I would do for pleasure.
I know that pain and blister are part of the Défi experience, but this year it seems that I got a bit too much of them. I have never seen such big blisters on my toes before! And the pain on my lower legs, specially where the skates where grating my skin, were close to unbearable. The heat and the sun's brightness that I got all day long didn't help either.
And now, the proper review of this years Défi...
Phase I: they destroyed the bike path!
I woke up before 5 am, got all my stuff ready and left home at 5h50 to catch the metro at Pie IX. I missed the train by a few seconds, the next one came only ten minutes later, but I had plenty of time.
When I arrived at the Verdun Auditorium I saw that they had totally destroyed the bike path! It was closed off and there was heavy machinery all around. Rocky start we would have... :-)
We were only seven skaters this year, but I got the bib #16; I guess the organizers were reusing the ones that had not been used last year...
I put on my skates and protection, did some warm-up skating and was ready to roll when the organizer called us to the start line. At the seven am mark he rang the bell and off we were...
There was a small patch of gravel connecting the parking lot of the auditorium to the bike path, I was the last one of the seven skaters to cross it and that was a good thing, because I had some problem with it, my skates blocked and I had to put my hand on the floor to avoid a fall. What a good way to start the Défi... :-(
But then everything was fine when I got to the bike path. I even passed one of the skaters (Pierre Lamy, I believe) and joined with Raymond Savard and Eduardo Viadas, we rolled together for a while. Eduardo and I left Raymond behind and after a few minutes more Eduardo had to stop to take off his jacket, so for a few minutes I was in fourth place, with three skaters ahead of me and three behind.
There was a place with some construction where we had to skate on the sidewalk. Eduardo was slower on this one, so I left him behind. Raymond was faster to handle that trick part and put some distance to us.
Later on, when I was alone, I had a little "incident": an old woman in a car absolutely wanted me to go to the sidewalk to pass me and I indicated that she should go around, as going to the sidewalk at that point was not feasible to me. She honked her horn a few times, but there was nothing I could do about it. Eventually she did what everybody else was doing and went around me. Phew!
The first phase was very good, the temperature was still quite bearable, the skating was easy, I had no pain at all. The fact of having two other skaters with whom to share the road was also a plus. We went together for a few kilometers, right to the end of phase 1.
My average speed at the end of this phase was 18.8 km/h, pretty good for me.
Phase 2: nobody at the end!
After passing the end of the first phase Eduardo and Raymond left me behind, I was already starting to feel the heat and the pain the skates were beginning to create in my lower legs. But the skate was still good nonetheless.
At Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue I passed Eduardo, who had stopped to rest a bit. Then I stopped right before the
Senneville hill and he passed me back. We kept doing this a few times during the early part of the day.
The hill was not so bad, the downhill right after I could also manage (I'm always afraid of falling there like I did on my first Défi); the day was beginning to warm up, but it was still manageable. I started feeling the skates grate against my skin and I knew what was coming, nut for now it was still good.
Things started to fall apart close to the end of phase 2, around 10 am. The heat increased, the sun brightness was on my face the entire time, the grating on lower legs got to a point where it was starting to annoy me.
I did not find anyone at the end of phase 2 (Avenue du Château Pierrefonds with Boulevard Pierrefonds), there was no volunteer in sight. I thought that maybe they were at the other location, further north, that had not been used in the last three or four years.
My average speed for this phase had been 15.6 km/h, which brought my overall average to 17.1 km/h, still good.
Phase 3: things get rough
I stopped at a gas station two kilometers after the end of phase 2, took out my skates and applied second skin to four places in my legs that were causing me pain. I also rested a bit from the heat. And I continued, slower than before.
And I had to start making stops in the shadow every ten kilometers or so in order not to overheat.
We met some construction at the end of the Pierrefonds boulevard, but that actually helped, because it closed the end of the boulevard to the cars, so I could skate in all security in the middle of the street for a short stretch.
The beginning of the Gouin boulevard was too dangerous, I skated mostly on the sidewalk, the cars were going way too fast, way too close to the sidewalk, there was no point in trying to skate on the street. Also, because of the construction everywhere, I didn't even try to get to the Lalande boulevard, which in previous years had provided some shelter from the speeding cars on Gouin.
I stopped under the bridge of road 13 for another session of cooling down. Eduardo passed me one last time. I never saw him again for the rest of the day.
The heat was starting to get me delirious. I would be skating and would get sleepy, I just wanted to stop and have a nap.
I reached the end of phase 3 at 12h25. Another skater (Guillaume, I believe) was ready to go, so I took his place at the chair. I stayed for at least twenty minutes. The volunteer there was such a nice lady, her name is Pierra and she is an instructor at the VLR Club. She offered me water, juice, even a cold compress.
My average speed for this phase was 12 km/h, which brought my overall average to 13.9 km/h, which was already looking bad. I only had less than fifty kilometers to go, but it was not looking pretty...
Phase 4: Pain all the way
I was going slow, but even at this easier level I was suffering. I had to stop many times to let the heat go away. One of these stops was at a ice-cream place on Gouin. It wasn't the best ice cream I ever had, but considering the heat outside, it was very welcome.
Not much else to report on this phase other than that the heat by now was just killing me. I was so pleased to get to the end of it and find another very helpful volunteer with some cold water and juice for me.
My average speed for this phase was 10 km/h, which brought my overall average to 12.6 km/h. I knew the last thirty kilometers would be awful and I was not disappointed...
Phase 5: I'm going to finish this, no matter what
By this point I had already decided that this would be my final Défi (even before seeing the giant blisters and all), so my only thought was to finish, no matter what.
I did not take the 81st street because it was under construction. I continued on the shoulder area of the Sherbooke street. There was a nice long stretch there that it is not marked as a bike path bu may well become one in the future. I went through it for quite a while and when it finished I turned left to try and find the bike path that I was supposed to be on.
I did not find it right away, but I found a newly renovated street called Montigny that was very nice to skate on. I followed it for a while, until that one also got some construction. I turned here and there and soon I was lost. I knew more or less the general direction I should go, but after so many turns I was not sure I was in the right path.
I don't know exactly what I did, but I somehow ended up on Notre Dame, where I was supposed to be and continued through the path that is so well known to me from so many other Défis. By now I was stopping at every five kilometers to hide from the sun and rest a little bit.
Pierre Lamy passed me somewhere around km 115. I was having another stop to rest from the heat, I just waved him good luck. I got up soon after that but I never saw him again. I knew he was suffering too, but not as bad as me, it seemed.
After a final stop in the old port where I almost fell asleep, I finally arrived at the Verdun auditorium at 18h25 for a total time of 11h25, one of my worst times ever in a Défi.
My average speed for this phase was 8.2 km/h, which brought my final average to 11.2 km/h.
Pascal and Olivier were there to greet me, they even had a folding chair for me to sit on. Here is the medal that I received:
And the reverse of the medal showing my time:
I took out all my equipment, put my shoes back on, confirmed that I was still able to walk (difficult at the beginning), thanked them for all their patience and went home slowly, very slowly.
My wife was waiting for me because the organizers had called home short after 6 pm to see if I was still going to finish, so she was a bit worried about me.
I took a bath, I saw my gigantic blisters, drank a beer and rested a bit. Details of my blisters here (sorry if you are squeamish...):
My wife told me that the Montreal marathon (that was supposed to happen the following day) had been cancelled due to the heat that was hitting the city. Maybe the Défi organizers should also consider postponing the event in case of extreme weather like we had this year...
Saturday, 17 September 2016
Défi 2016: under new direction
Pre-race
After last year's Défi Amical, four young skaters took upon themselves the organization of the Défi. They created a new web site called Défi 128km. They took two very good decisions: first, to bring the Défi from October to September; and second, to move the start time from 6 am to 7 am. Two huge improvements.
The temperature was much better, hanging around 20 degrees Celsius (in previous years we got even negative temperatures!). And the fact that we had one hour more to sleep really helped.
For the first time I could go to the Défi by metro, which is a nice change. I arrived there at the Verdun Auditorium at 6h30, with plenty of time to get ready for the 7 o'clock start.
As I had been the first to register, I got assigned the number 1. Later on I would comment with one of the volunteers: "I'm the fastest on the registration and the slowest on the course"... :-)
We were only nine participants, eight men and one woman (one of the organizers). I knew they were all faster than me, so last place was a given for me from the start.
Phase 1
At 7 am the organizer gave the go ahead and we went off. He told us that he had painted a sign on the pavement at every 10K to indicate to the skaters how much they had already covered. I did a quick mental calculation and saw that I should pass each 10K mark in 40/45 minutes if I wanted to finish around 9h. To my surprise, when I passed the 10K mark it was only 7h32, I was going considerably faster than I thought.
For a few kilometers I passed one of the other skaters, so for a very short time I wasn't last. But soon he passed me and I never saw him again.
When I passed the 20K mark, another 32 minutes had gone by, so I was keeping my speed, I was quite happy.
Around km 26 I met the first volunteers at the end of phase 1. I sat down to rest a bit, they gave me water, which I added to my CamelBak. I took off my jacket and they offered to take it to the finish line for me. That helped quite a bit, I didn't have to carry it the rest of the day.
Phase 2
In phase 2 I started slowing down already. The day was still great, sunny, the best conditions ever for a Défi, but my legs started feeling the lack of training. This year I devoted most of my time to running and didn't take care of the skating. Today I was paying the price for that mistake.
I arrived at the end of phase 2 at 9h50, one of my best times in all my Défis. There were two volunteers there, I sat down in their chair and rested for a good ten minutes. The feet were already hurting, despite the second skin and the cloth band around my lower legs.
Phase 3
I had gone just a few kilometers on the Pierrefonds boulevard when I got a bad case of cramps in my left leg. I had to "walk" for a few minutes, not putting much effort on the bad leg. Fortunately, the problem went away the same way it came in and I could resume normal skating again.
Many parts of Gouin were under construction, with just one lane for the cars. Therefore, I was forced to skate on the sidewalk, which was not always easy. The streets may be badly kept, but the sidewalks are even worse...
I was already having problems of my own, my legs were getting really tired, and the bad sidewalks didn't help at all. I started sweating cold, I was having a bad day and began thinking about giving up.
I stopped under the bridge of highway 13 and ate some pickles that I had brought with me. The salt and the acidity of the pickles gave me the boost necessary to continue a bit more.
The rest of phase 3 was quite uneventful. One good thing that I noticed was that there were practically no leaves nor branches on the bike path. On previous Défis they had been a big nuisance, but this year, because we were doing it a month earlier, they were not a problem. That helped a lot.
Phase 4
I arrived at the end of section 3 at 12h15, a full hour behind the last group of skaters. I sat down on the volunteer's chair and had my longest pause of the day, fifteen minutes to have my lunch.
After this point I had to stop every five to seven kilometers to rest a few minutes. My skating was suffering a lot, just going forward was hard enough. Fortunately this is the shortest section of the Défi, it didn't take as long as the other ones.
There was heavy construction on Gouin, it was completely closed at a certain point. I had to take the parallel road for a few minutes in order to get back where I wanted to go.
Phase 5
For this year they moved the end of phase 4 some 500m from its usual location. The volunteer was there with his car, I could stop and sit down for a while.
Soon after I left him, I hit a gravel patch and a small pebble lodged itself in my right skate and I could not continue. I had to sit down, take off the skate and force the pebble out.
As it is usually the case, this was the slowest section for me. My lower legs were really hurting, I could barely continue. I stopped four or five times in this section.
At 16h20 a light rain started. The pavement got wet, but that didn't affect me much. I was already going so slow that the wet pavement didn't hinder me at all.
I had agreed with my wife that she would go to the Verdun Auditorium around 5 pm to get me back home. We met by chance on Berry, we exchanged a few words and we both continued our way to the auditorium.
The rain returned in force and now it was really pouring. On Wellington I had some close encounters with a few angry drivers, so I had to go to the sidewalk a bit more.
It was 17h23 when I finally arrived at the finish line. Pascal, one of the organizers, was there waiting for me with my medal. The poor guy had waited for two hours for me...
Afterthoughts
The last Défi always feels like the worst ever because it is the one that we remember the most, but this one was particularly hard on my feet, even with all the precautions I took.
I also didn't like the fact that I made the volunteers wait hours for me. Everybody was absolutely great, super nice, they all told me not to worry, that the Défi is not a speed contest and all that, but I know that if it wasn't for me, everybody could have gone home a lot earlier, so I feel bad about it. So bad that I mentioned to my wife that this may have been my last Défi; I don't want to repeat this kind of experience again. The Défi is already hard enough without me having to worry about the volunteers.
For next year I'll wait to do my registration. If I see that there are only a few participants and they are all much faster than me, I won't bother. Or I may tell the organizers upfront not to wait for me after section 3. I can get my medal by mail later... :-(
Sunday, 18 October 2015
Défi amical
The Défi is dead! Long live the Défi!
At the end of August, we got the bomb via Facebook: M. Fortier would no longer organize the Défi. But instead of letting the event just die like that, a group of skaters took charge "unofficially", created a FB page for the Défi amical (a new version of Défi) and in just a few days we had more than a dozen people confirmed to once more skate on the third Saturday of October.
There was some discussion about doing the Défi in September, because the weather would be better, but as we were already in September, the organizers preferred to keep the traditional date, with the understanding that for next year we would discuss more about the date.
Personal Défi
After some consideration, I decided to do my Défi starting and finishing at my own house. I live near the km 115, so I could do the last 13 km first and then meet the other skaters for the "départ amical" at the Verdun Auditorium. There was no point in forcing my wife to take me to the starting point by car and then have her get me back at the same place at the end. If this was going to be unofficial, then for sure I could do it my own way. I announced that at the event page on FB and got a positive reply from the organizer, so I was set.
Mother nature is a b!@#$!
One week before the Défi I did my last long training session, I skated 38 km around Montreal. It was glorious, the weather was perfect: it was a bit cold, but it was dry, it hadn't rained in days, the pavement was just right for some skating.
But then the temperatures started falling and the winds got stronger. The leaves of the trees fell down in tons, it was really hard to skate in those conditions (I go to work through part of section 5 of the Défi and could see the conditions worsening day by day).
Then on the day of the Défi it rained non-stop overnight. The tons of leaves transformed in one immense mess...
Nevertheless, at 5 am on Saturday morning I was ready to go:
I must have skated even slower than my usual pace. I had imagined that I would have a few minutes to talk to the other skaters when I arrived at the Auditorium, but when I got there the organizer said "So, we're all here? 3, 2, 1, go!" and off we went for the first Défi amical.
Mudslide
As usual, I was one of the slowest skaters, most of the others just went off and I never saw them again. I only left behind one female skater. I don't know if she had had other experiences with the Défi. She did not seem to have even a lamp with her. Skating in the dark, alone is not something I would like to do. I never saw her again either, so I must assume that she gave up at the first stages of the event.
So I was skating in the dark, with just my head lamp to help me, when I got to a place where I was not sure where to go. I continued forward and ended up in a mud patch. I fell sideways. My only fall of the day, but pretty annoying considering I was all dirty now. Then I looked around and saw that the bike path at that point does a hard turn to the left. Oh well, I cleaned myself the best I could and continued on my way.
Snow!
I had seen some snow in 2004 or 2005 but it had been very light stuff. This year, it snowed for real! We had some real snowing in the first hour or two. I had never seen that during the last thirteen Défi events in which I took part. What an experience!
The rain did not stop at all in the beginning, I got thoroughly wet inside and out.
The path seemed longer this year. By now I almost know the Défi path by heart, but everything seemed to take longer to show up. For instance, I got to the end of the first section at 7h51, one of my slowest times ever for this section.
DNF again! :-(
Going through the second phase of the Défi under the rain and the cold was painful. Around midway of the second section I had already decided that I was going to quit once more, there was no way I could finish the Défi under those conditions.
Around km 45 another skater showed up; she said her name was Catherine and she had started later. She asked me how I was doing, I told her I was going to quit, I was just looking for a public phone to call my wife. She was gracious enough to lend me her cell phone to make the call.
I talked to my wife and we agreed that we would meet at my regular "quitting point", soon after the end of section 2 at the corner of St Charles and Pierrefonds.
My fellow skater went on by herself, I continued as well, but much slower, because it would be some time before my wife could come and get me.
This is me when my wife (and my daughter, what a surprise!) arrived to take me home:
My hands are black because my gloves started releasing a lot of dye with all the rain I got. It would be days before that ink would disappear...
At home, after a good shower and a nice meal I went to check the computer to see what had transpired. In the end only five of the ten or twelve people who started the event finished it. This is what they got at their arrival:
Yes, it snowed enough to get some little snowmen on the bike path! Wow!
I announced my DNF on the FB page and told them that next year I'll do my Défi in September. There is no point in waiting for so long in the season.
Thank yous
Thanks to Christine for organizing the FB event page; to Pierre for the yellow arrows and all the info about construction; to Catherine for lending me her cell phone; to all the other skaters and friends that one way or another made this event possible; and, of course, to my wife for rescuing me from the cold and bringing me home.
Plans for next year
As I said before, there are talks already about doing the Défi in September, which is a good thing. For my part I intend to do the Défi more than once: I'll do it in May/June, then again in September with the rest of the gang and if we have dry weather on the third Saturday of October I'll do it once more. I just won't skate in the rain and in the cold anymore. It's absolutely not fun at all.
Saturday, 18 October 2014
Défi 2014: another failure... :-(
0. Before the race
This year my family decided to accompany me part of the way. My wife, my son, my daughter and her boyfriend were there with me at the Verdun Auditorium right before six am for the start of the Défi.
We were only eleven skaters in total, the lowest number of participants since 1996 (the first year, when there were only eight people finishing the Défi).
Before the start we had a small ceremony where M. Belisle (who no longer runs the Défi, but is now volunteering) presented a commemorative plaque to M. Fortier, the founder of the Défi.
1. Phase 1
Two minutes after six am M. Fortier did the countdown, I said goodbye to my family and we started the Défi.
It had rained the previous days, the pavement was wet most everywhere, dangerous conditions to be skating.
In less than five minutes I was already by myself. Most skaters were already far in advance, there were only two behind me that I could no longer see.
The first half of the phase 1 was all fun and games despite the dangerous pavement, my pace was good, I was feeling quite well. But the troubles started around km 15, my skates were already "eating" at my feet and legs, even though I had generously applied moleskin everywhere.
I was not carrying my Camelbak, I had agreed with my wife that she would be waiting for me at the end of phase 1 and I would take it there. I did feel a bit thirst, but nothing that could not wait until meeting her there.
Unfortunately for me, when I arrived at the St Jean checkpoint (at 7h28), my family was not there. I talked to a volunteer, he gave me water and I continued.
2. Phase 2
My ankles were already hurting a lot, I wanted to apply more moleskin to them, but they were in my Camelbak, with my wife. So, I continued limping ahead...
At around 8 pm my wife reached me and parked the car in a small street to wait for me.
I sat down in the luggage compartment of the car and surveyed my legs: my skates were hurting me even on the places padded with moleskin, so there was no point in doing anything, I would have to face the pain.
At this point it started raining a lot. It was a quick shower, but I was totally wet now. What a wretched day to skate.
I got my Camelbak and continued forth. I saw my family once more under the bridge of the 20 a few minutes later, but we just waved, I did not stop there.
I did my traditional stop right before the Senneville hill to eat my first bar of the day.
The hill was not so bad this year. I did it very slowly, of course. With the wet pavement and all the pain in my lower legs it could not have been different, but it wasn't particularly difficult.
When I was approaching the end of phase 2 I was already thinking of giving up, but then I looked at my watch and I saw that it was just 9h10. I thought "I have done much worse than this in previous years and I finished, so there is no point in giving up now".
I stopped at the end of phase 2 and talked a little bit to M. Belisle, who was the volunteer at that point. I also checked my lower legs again to see the damage done so far by my skates.
3. Phase 3
I continued through the Boulevard Pierrefonds but when I was getting to the end of it, I had enough and called it a day. I called my wife and she came to pick me up on Gouin and we went back home. Another unfinished Défi for me... What a horrible feeling it is...
Saturday, 19 October 2013
Défi 2013: I still got a silver medal!
This year, a special feature for the TL;DR crowd: the really important parts appear in this font, while the rest of the text is in a lighter colour, so that you can quickly skip to the good parts.
0. Pre-Race: where I twist my ankle
On August 25th I went out to watch the first edition of the Lachine Canal Half Marathon. I was considering doing it next year if I saw that the event was well organized. I went on rollerblades...
Everything was fine until I hit the green bridge near the Dollard avenue, less than two kilometers from the place where the half marathon was happening. This green bridge has a very nasty turn, it's 180 degrees and it goes down two meters or more.
I tried to do that turn and it did not turn out too well. I started falling and tried to stop it, I twisted my right ankle pretty badly.
Long story short: I could not skate for the rest of the season, I had to go for physiotherapy, so I didn't have high hopes for the Défi.
1. Phase 1: where we skate in the dark
This year it was not going to rain during the Défi, so the prospects were good. If my ankle could hold, I would be ok.
My wife and I arrived at the Verdun Auditorium at 5h30 am, I got my race pack and got ready for some real skating.
Even though our bib numbers were in the 60 to 80 range, I don't think I saw more than thirty people at the starting line.
Mr. Fortier did the traditional countdown just before 6 am, my wife and I said goodbye and off we went.
This year I had gotten a small lamp from MEC, it helped me quite a bit in that first hour until the sun came up.
I met a group of three skaters (numbers 69, 70 and 71) and a cyclist and stayed with them for the first twenty minutes or so. Then the girl (it was one woman and three men) had a problem on her skates and I left them behind.
But I was going slow, I didn't want to force my ankle, so they caught up with me by the middle of phase 1, right where we cross the Lachine Canal.
We had to go on the street because the bike path was closed there. I was less than fifty meters ahead of them and I missed the point where we should retake the bike path. The group of skaters shouted to tell me
that and then I wasted a few precious seconds to find how to go back to the path. They took off and I didn't see them anymore for a few hours.
So, by then I was alone, I did the rest of phase 1 by myself. When I got to the end of phase 1, a nice surprise: the volunteer told me it was only 7h33, so I had done the first phase in just 1h33. This is one of my best splits. Considering that I was not forcing the pace because of my ankle, this was a great result so far.
2. Phase 2: where almost nothing happens
Phase 2 was mostly uneventful. Mr. Fortier filmed me a little bit on the Senneville road, asked me if everything was ok and I continued to the hill.
At the end of phase 2 there were three nice volunteers, one of them a very young girl (she couldn't be older than 10) on roller blades. They offered me a chair, so I could rest a bit.
When I took out my left skate to survey the damage so far I got a bad surprise: there was a sizable red stain near the bottom of my sock. I didn't even feel the pain there, considering all the other pains I was feeling around my legs and feet.
Anyway, one of the volunteers helped me with changing my second skin and I could put sock and skate back to continue.
They told me it was 9h05, a very good time to complete phase 2, one of my best actually. Later I learned that many people got a new PB this year at the Défi, the conditions were really great.
3. Phase 3: where dogs attack me and I fall
At the Pierrefonds boulevard I got attacked by a dog. It didn't actually touch me at all, because his owner restrained him at the last possible instant.
Later on, another big dog also came running in my direction and stopped short of hitting me. Several smaller dogs were restrained by their owners while I passed them. Do you guys have experiences like that? What makes the dogs not like rollerblades? Is it the sound of our wheels on the pavement?
I met skaters 69/70/71 at the beginning of the Lalande boulevard, they seemed to be a bit lost. When they saw me continuing through Lalande, they took it, too.
I had to stop again at a park on Lalande to take care of my feet. The pain at this point was past the point of bearable. I used up the rest of my spare second skin. For next year I want a full sock made of thick second skin!
This year there seemed to be more traffic than usual on Gouin. On many spots I had to skate on the side walk, the cars were whizzing by dangerously close to the pedestrian area for me to skate on the road.
At the Parc de la Merci (around km 70 or so) I had my only fall of the day. It was nothing important, but when I tried to stop the fall, the cramps showed up on my left leg and I had to stay down for a while massaging my calf.
At the end of phase 3 I met two nice volunteers (Claudia and Mélissa) who offered me a chair, water, chocolates and even sandwiches! Nicest break of the day, for sure.
They told me it was 11h19, so I was still doing pretty good, all things considered.
4. Phase 4: where I meet a new friend
And then I started the real limping phase. They say the real Défi starts there, under the Pie-IX bridge at the end of phase 3. And it is so true. With almost 80 km of skating behind you, it's really hard to face the next 50 km or so.
At this point the pain in my legs and feet didn't allow me to properly skate, so I was mostly just trying to go forward with minimum effort, which slowed me down considerably.
There was some construction on Gouin, so I had to go up the 52nd or 53rd street and ended up on 3rd street, which is parallel to Gouin. It's wider and much better maintained, so I stayed on it as long as I could and only got back to Gouin when I really had to.
When I was going down on 68th street, I saw a skater passing by on Gouin. We went for a few minutes like this, him ahead of me some fifty meters or so.
He was on the other side of the road, so when he saw me he came to the left side, where there was the bike path and we skated for the next few kilometers exchanging a few words here and there.
When we stopped at the end of phase 4, he told me it was 12h58. There were no volunteers there and no water either. I started worrying about not having enough water to get to Verdun.
5. Phase 5: where two old men limp ahead
Later I learned that my new friend was called Randy. I told him that if he wanted, he could go on ahead, because I would go very slowly in this phase, due to all the pain everywhere.
But he was not in much better shape than I was, so we stuck together for the next three hours. Yes, it took us almost three hours to complete the last thirty kilometers...
We stopped many times along the way to catch our breaths, drink and eat. In one of these times, at the Bellevue park, he let me use his cell phone to call my wife. She thought that I was calling to ask her to get me because I was giving up. She was quite happy when she understood that I was going to finish the whole thing in the next ninety minutes.
Randy and I continued in our struggle, stopping here and there. My wife took this picture of us while we waited for the light to turn green for us.
Our last stop was just at the end of the Comune street. At this point two other skaters caught up with us and we continued for the last four kilometers more or less as a group.
In the final stretch Randy got some distance between us and was the first of the group to arrive at the finish line. The other two skaters also left me a bit behind and finished half a minute or so before me.
When I got to the end my wife was there to greet me and she took pictures of my triumphal arrival. Mr. Fortier told me that my total time was 9h53, good enough for a silver medal.
I was so happy to take off those skates...
And here you can see how utterly tired I was...
Going back home I was completely normal. Last year I had had a weird reaction to the electrolytes and shook pretty badly in the car, scaring my wife and my daughter. This time I just had the usual pains that are part of the Défi.
6. Thanks
Thanks to Mr. Fortier and his team of volunteers who made this Défi a success once more.
Thanks to my wife for all the help. This is our eleventh Défi together, she's always there at the start line (struggling with the cold temperatures) and at the finish line (cheering up for me and taking the last pictures!).
And, finally, thanks to Randy for being there on those last few hours of the Défi. It was quite a nice change to have someone to share the pain and the struggle that are the final kilometers of this madness of ours.
7. A month later...
I've got my medal and my diploma:
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Défi 2012: personal best!
Personal best!
This year I finished the Défi in 8h48m, shaving off five minutes from my previous best time. And considering the wet pavement that we had in the morning plus the wet leaves all day long, that’s quite an achievement!
A different kind of report
For this year I’ll do something quite different for this report. Instead of doing a blow-by-blow of every phase, I’ll just make some general comments in a more relaxed fashion. I’ll try to follow the order of the phases, but it won’t be a 100%. So here it goes...
Are quads even allowed?
For the first time ever I saw someone at the start line on quads. I thought those things had disappeared during the 80’s... :-) And I also thought they were more for exhibitions, not for long distance runs.
C'est parti!
In the action:
The safety pins are not optional
I didn't have the time to put on the safety pins on my number tags. The front one fell off before I had gone through half of phase 1, the back one soon after. For next year I have to find the time to put them on, I just have to.
Splashing water all over the place
This year I bought a CamelBak to be more independent in terms of food and drink. I tried it during the summer and I even used it in two foot races (half marathons) that I did in Mt. Tremblant and in Montreal. So I was quite used to it.
Right before leaving home to go to the Verdun Auditorium I filled my Camelbak with 1.8 litres of electrolytes that I had just prepared. I also put power bars, chocolate bars, gels and other stuff in it that I would need during the race.
By the middle of phase 1, when I wanted to drink a little bit of the electrolytes, I pulled the tube of the Camelbak a little too hard and the little faucet that controls the flow of the liquid got ripped off, so that now I had liquid coming through the hole. This would annoy me for the rest of the day. Every time I would flex my knees to lower my centre of gravity, liquid would come flowing through that hole. I must have wasted at least half a litre of the electrolytes! Argh!
We’re following the leader, wherever she may go
During the second half of phase 1, I got together with three other skaters, two men and a girl. They were going at a stronger pace than I usually go, but I decided to follow them for as long as I could. We went together for quite a few kilometers.
We would rotate the leading skater in a very informal way. At one moment, close to the end of phase 1, the girl was in front and I was in second, just a few meters behind her. With the very wet pavement and all that, she eventually fell down. I had a split second to avoid a nasty collision with her, the two other skaters who were a bit behind were able to slow down and help her up.
Huffing and puffing
Past the midpoint of phase 2 we have to face the famous Senneville hill. Usually I stop right before it to eat and drink, but not this year, I just continued on and up. It was hard... I was huffing and puffing all the way up. But I eventually did it and got rewarded with a nice downhill right after.
Skater 39 and his friend on bicycle (who had been part of the group of four I mentioned earlier) had stopped at the top of the hill to rest a bit, they encouraged me saying the worst was over and wished me good luck for the rest of the day.
Dreams of gold
I got to the end of phase 2 by 8h50, my first personal best of the day (four years ago I got there at 9h10). So, fifty kilometers in 2h50, I did some mental calculations and saw that if I could keep the rhythm, I would do the Défi in 7h20. Even allowing for some slowing down at the end, I thought I had a good shot at a gold medal. Yeah! Keep dreaming...
Four-legged encounters
At the beginning of phase 3, at the Pierrefonds Boulevard, there was a small white dog walking right in the middle of the bike path. As I approached him, I tried to look for his owner, but he was nowhere to be seen. Odd...
As the dog heard my wheels on the pavement, he started running, but still right in the middle of the bike path! When I finally passed him, I had to skate with my legs wide open not to hit the little fella. When he saw me he got scared and tried to bite me, but fortunately couldn’t reach me. Phew!
Later on, in phase 4 or maybe even 5, a white mouse crossed right in front of me, I missed it by just a few centimeters. I could see it was well kept, it wasn’t a street mouse, it probably had fled its cage...
At least twice during the day I scared cats (one black, one white). They were thinking of crossing the bike path but when they saw/heard me, they ran away in the other direction.
And don’t get me started on the squirrels! Boy, so many squirrels!
Cramps
Right in the middle of the Pierrefonds Boulevard, I got the first signs of cramps, so I had to go easier on my body. The cramps didn't fully develop, so I didn't have to stop, but they continued with me for the rest of the day: every time I tried to push harder, they would show up their ugly head and I would have to stop pushing. My pace got slower.
Trainspotting
During most of the Pierrefonds boulevard I was with another skater (I forget his number now...). Close to the end of the boulevard I opened some distance from him, he was some 50 m behind me.
Right after the boulevard, when we get back to Gouin, there is a train crossing area. When I got to that point I heard the warning bells indicating that the train would soon pass. Soon after I got through, the barrier came down. The other skater, instead of stopping to wait for the train, decided to circumvent the barrier and go through anyway! Stupid crazy stuff! Fortunately he went through unharmed, but that was a totally unnecessary risk on his part.
First stop of the day
At the midpoint of phase 3 I sat down at a bus stop to eat some biscuits and rest a little bit. During the less than ten minutes that I stayed there, at least half a dozen skaters passed by.
Salut Lynne! Salut Crystel!
Past the midpoint of phase 3, on Gouin, we got to a construction crew, they had blocked off some 200 m of the road for their work. As Gouin is really narrow on that point, they had people stationed on each end and they would let cars flow in one direction only at a time.
Skater 44 and myself had to stop there and wait for the flow to go eastward again. The woman handling the cars at our end told us to greet the two other women at the other end with “Salut Lynne, salut Crystel”. Kind of weird... :-)
And by the way, when are we going to finish rebuilding this city? Every single year we have tons of construction crews out on the day of the Défi. This is not funny!
I’m dreaming of a dry Défi, just like the ones I used to know
Wet leaves everywhere! And in the parks of phase 3 it was even worse, they would just pile up. If they were dry, we could go through them just making a lot of noise, but as they got wet from a full day of rain on Friday, they lumped together, creating veritable barriers to our skates. In some places I had to walk sideways, it was totally impossible to advance by skating.
How is that golden dream coming along?
I got to the end of phase 3 at 10h55. If we consider the total average (79 km in a little less than five hours), I could still hang on to my dream of a gold medal, I would need exactly three more hours, which is what I had. But if we consider just my performance in phase 3, I would miss the gold by half an hour. And I wasn’t getting any more rested along the way... At this point I was already giving up on gold and just going for a personal best.
The sun is shining
The weather got better, the sun had been shining for a while and now parts of the pavement were even dry, it was possible to skate normally again during phase 4. Unfortunately, I couldn't benefit much from it because my feet were already hurting bad, I couldn't push much.
Big pause of the day
Phase 4 was quite uneventful. Gouin is still awful (if the guys in Senneville were able to fix their “moonscape” of some years back, why can’t we have a half decent bike path on Gouin?), nothing new there.
I stopped at the end of phase 4 for another ten minutes to rest. It was already 12h15 when I got there, so there was no way in hell I would make it before 2 pm, so no gold for me this year. Therefore, I was no longer in any kind of hurry. I got two new water bottles from the helpful volunteer there, we chatted a bit for a while, I ate the rest of my biscuits and left just as skater 39 had arrived. He was accompanied by a friend on a bicycle, we had been crossing each other all day long.
Some new stuff on the last phase
This year there was some new paths to follow on phase 5, it was a good change. We avoided at least one other park, which I’m sure would be full of leaves, so that’s definitely a plus. I hope we keep this new way for the upcoming years.
ET phone home
It was a little before 1:30 pm when I got to a public phone on Notre Dame and called home to tell my wife that I should be at the Verdun Auditorium in one hour or a bit more. She was quite pleased that I was so close to the end. After giving up two years in a row, nobody in the house (even myself) believed I could finish the Défi ever again...
Construction crew ahead
Heavy construction going on in at least two different places on Notre Dame. But at least this time I got something out of it. Right after Pie-IX, as the two ways of traffic had been jammed together on one side of the street, I had the other half all to myself for two or three blocks. It’s not always that you can skate directly on Notre Dame! :-)
A heart as dry as the pavement
Every year when I get to Wellington street I’m usually overwhelmed with emotions. Not this year though. I don’t know why, but when I got there, the only thing in my mind was just to finish this damn thing and be done with it. No joy, no crying, just the will to see it through. Weird...
Grand reception
When I showed up in the distance, people at the back of the Verdun Auditorium started making a lot of noise, clapping, whistling, shouting. What a grand reception!
My wife and daughter were there, they took some pictures of my arrival. Mr. Fortier was there as well, of course, he filmed me too. He told me my time had been 8h48m. Yay, personal best!
Shake, shake, shake
We talked with Mr. Fortier for a few minutes and then we drove home. In the car, I started feeling weird, my fingers and lips started “vibrating”, as if there was electricity on them. Weirdest stuff.
I thought I would faint, but eventually I got through. The only thing very different this year was the electrolytes, I’m guessing I got a bad reaction from drinking so much of the stuff and keeping it all in my body for such a prolonged time. For next year I’ll have to do some testing to see if it is really the electrolytes. I don’t want to feel like that again at the end of a Défi...
This year I finished the Défi in 8h48m, shaving off five minutes from my previous best time. And considering the wet pavement that we had in the morning plus the wet leaves all day long, that’s quite an achievement!
A different kind of report
For this year I’ll do something quite different for this report. Instead of doing a blow-by-blow of every phase, I’ll just make some general comments in a more relaxed fashion. I’ll try to follow the order of the phases, but it won’t be a 100%. So here it goes...
Are quads even allowed?
For the first time ever I saw someone at the start line on quads. I thought those things had disappeared during the 80’s... :-) And I also thought they were more for exhibitions, not for long distance runs.
C'est parti!
In the action:
The safety pins are not optional
I didn't have the time to put on the safety pins on my number tags. The front one fell off before I had gone through half of phase 1, the back one soon after. For next year I have to find the time to put them on, I just have to.
Splashing water all over the place
This year I bought a CamelBak to be more independent in terms of food and drink. I tried it during the summer and I even used it in two foot races (half marathons) that I did in Mt. Tremblant and in Montreal. So I was quite used to it.
Right before leaving home to go to the Verdun Auditorium I filled my Camelbak with 1.8 litres of electrolytes that I had just prepared. I also put power bars, chocolate bars, gels and other stuff in it that I would need during the race.
By the middle of phase 1, when I wanted to drink a little bit of the electrolytes, I pulled the tube of the Camelbak a little too hard and the little faucet that controls the flow of the liquid got ripped off, so that now I had liquid coming through the hole. This would annoy me for the rest of the day. Every time I would flex my knees to lower my centre of gravity, liquid would come flowing through that hole. I must have wasted at least half a litre of the electrolytes! Argh!
We’re following the leader, wherever she may go
During the second half of phase 1, I got together with three other skaters, two men and a girl. They were going at a stronger pace than I usually go, but I decided to follow them for as long as I could. We went together for quite a few kilometers.
We would rotate the leading skater in a very informal way. At one moment, close to the end of phase 1, the girl was in front and I was in second, just a few meters behind her. With the very wet pavement and all that, she eventually fell down. I had a split second to avoid a nasty collision with her, the two other skaters who were a bit behind were able to slow down and help her up.
Huffing and puffing
Past the midpoint of phase 2 we have to face the famous Senneville hill. Usually I stop right before it to eat and drink, but not this year, I just continued on and up. It was hard... I was huffing and puffing all the way up. But I eventually did it and got rewarded with a nice downhill right after.
Skater 39 and his friend on bicycle (who had been part of the group of four I mentioned earlier) had stopped at the top of the hill to rest a bit, they encouraged me saying the worst was over and wished me good luck for the rest of the day.
Dreams of gold
I got to the end of phase 2 by 8h50, my first personal best of the day (four years ago I got there at 9h10). So, fifty kilometers in 2h50, I did some mental calculations and saw that if I could keep the rhythm, I would do the Défi in 7h20. Even allowing for some slowing down at the end, I thought I had a good shot at a gold medal. Yeah! Keep dreaming...
Four-legged encounters
At the beginning of phase 3, at the Pierrefonds Boulevard, there was a small white dog walking right in the middle of the bike path. As I approached him, I tried to look for his owner, but he was nowhere to be seen. Odd...
As the dog heard my wheels on the pavement, he started running, but still right in the middle of the bike path! When I finally passed him, I had to skate with my legs wide open not to hit the little fella. When he saw me he got scared and tried to bite me, but fortunately couldn’t reach me. Phew!
Later on, in phase 4 or maybe even 5, a white mouse crossed right in front of me, I missed it by just a few centimeters. I could see it was well kept, it wasn’t a street mouse, it probably had fled its cage...
At least twice during the day I scared cats (one black, one white). They were thinking of crossing the bike path but when they saw/heard me, they ran away in the other direction.
And don’t get me started on the squirrels! Boy, so many squirrels!
Cramps
Right in the middle of the Pierrefonds Boulevard, I got the first signs of cramps, so I had to go easier on my body. The cramps didn't fully develop, so I didn't have to stop, but they continued with me for the rest of the day: every time I tried to push harder, they would show up their ugly head and I would have to stop pushing. My pace got slower.
Trainspotting
During most of the Pierrefonds boulevard I was with another skater (I forget his number now...). Close to the end of the boulevard I opened some distance from him, he was some 50 m behind me.
Right after the boulevard, when we get back to Gouin, there is a train crossing area. When I got to that point I heard the warning bells indicating that the train would soon pass. Soon after I got through, the barrier came down. The other skater, instead of stopping to wait for the train, decided to circumvent the barrier and go through anyway! Stupid crazy stuff! Fortunately he went through unharmed, but that was a totally unnecessary risk on his part.
First stop of the day
At the midpoint of phase 3 I sat down at a bus stop to eat some biscuits and rest a little bit. During the less than ten minutes that I stayed there, at least half a dozen skaters passed by.
Salut Lynne! Salut Crystel!
Past the midpoint of phase 3, on Gouin, we got to a construction crew, they had blocked off some 200 m of the road for their work. As Gouin is really narrow on that point, they had people stationed on each end and they would let cars flow in one direction only at a time.
Skater 44 and myself had to stop there and wait for the flow to go eastward again. The woman handling the cars at our end told us to greet the two other women at the other end with “Salut Lynne, salut Crystel”. Kind of weird... :-)
And by the way, when are we going to finish rebuilding this city? Every single year we have tons of construction crews out on the day of the Défi. This is not funny!
I’m dreaming of a dry Défi, just like the ones I used to know
Wet leaves everywhere! And in the parks of phase 3 it was even worse, they would just pile up. If they were dry, we could go through them just making a lot of noise, but as they got wet from a full day of rain on Friday, they lumped together, creating veritable barriers to our skates. In some places I had to walk sideways, it was totally impossible to advance by skating.
How is that golden dream coming along?
I got to the end of phase 3 at 10h55. If we consider the total average (79 km in a little less than five hours), I could still hang on to my dream of a gold medal, I would need exactly three more hours, which is what I had. But if we consider just my performance in phase 3, I would miss the gold by half an hour. And I wasn’t getting any more rested along the way... At this point I was already giving up on gold and just going for a personal best.
The sun is shining
The weather got better, the sun had been shining for a while and now parts of the pavement were even dry, it was possible to skate normally again during phase 4. Unfortunately, I couldn't benefit much from it because my feet were already hurting bad, I couldn't push much.
Big pause of the day
Phase 4 was quite uneventful. Gouin is still awful (if the guys in Senneville were able to fix their “moonscape” of some years back, why can’t we have a half decent bike path on Gouin?), nothing new there.
I stopped at the end of phase 4 for another ten minutes to rest. It was already 12h15 when I got there, so there was no way in hell I would make it before 2 pm, so no gold for me this year. Therefore, I was no longer in any kind of hurry. I got two new water bottles from the helpful volunteer there, we chatted a bit for a while, I ate the rest of my biscuits and left just as skater 39 had arrived. He was accompanied by a friend on a bicycle, we had been crossing each other all day long.
Some new stuff on the last phase
This year there was some new paths to follow on phase 5, it was a good change. We avoided at least one other park, which I’m sure would be full of leaves, so that’s definitely a plus. I hope we keep this new way for the upcoming years.
ET phone home
It was a little before 1:30 pm when I got to a public phone on Notre Dame and called home to tell my wife that I should be at the Verdun Auditorium in one hour or a bit more. She was quite pleased that I was so close to the end. After giving up two years in a row, nobody in the house (even myself) believed I could finish the Défi ever again...
Construction crew ahead
Heavy construction going on in at least two different places on Notre Dame. But at least this time I got something out of it. Right after Pie-IX, as the two ways of traffic had been jammed together on one side of the street, I had the other half all to myself for two or three blocks. It’s not always that you can skate directly on Notre Dame! :-)
A heart as dry as the pavement
Every year when I get to Wellington street I’m usually overwhelmed with emotions. Not this year though. I don’t know why, but when I got there, the only thing in my mind was just to finish this damn thing and be done with it. No joy, no crying, just the will to see it through. Weird...
Grand reception
When I showed up in the distance, people at the back of the Verdun Auditorium started making a lot of noise, clapping, whistling, shouting. What a grand reception!
My wife and daughter were there, they took some pictures of my arrival. Mr. Fortier was there as well, of course, he filmed me too. He told me my time had been 8h48m. Yay, personal best!
Shake, shake, shake
We talked with Mr. Fortier for a few minutes and then we drove home. In the car, I started feeling weird, my fingers and lips started “vibrating”, as if there was electricity on them. Weirdest stuff.
I thought I would faint, but eventually I got through. The only thing very different this year was the electrolytes, I’m guessing I got a bad reaction from drinking so much of the stuff and keeping it all in my body for such a prolonged time. For next year I’ll have to do some testing to see if it is really the electrolytes. I don’t want to feel like that again at the end of a Défi...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
