Montreal 2025

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Getting the bib

I don't like the Montreal marathon. Even though I live here, I rarely participate in it. But the last time I ran it was in 2016, so I had forgotten how bad it is, so I did it again.

The bad stuff started already on the Friday, two days before the race, when I went to the Palais de Congrès to get my bib. There was a kilometer long queue to get the bib, there must have been more than two thousand people in line. 

The organizers were telling the marathoners to come back the next day because there would be less people, but I had my Saturday fully booked (Congrès Boréal), so that was not an option for me...

I waited for more than an hour and a half to get my bib! Totally unacceptable! I've participated in many big events and I never had to wait this long. Not funny at all...

Race Day

On Sunday morning I took the metro and went to the Parc des Îles, where the race would start. I started near the four hour bunny:


He said he would try to do it in 3h59m59s... :-)

For the first time I was wearing my carbon plated super shoes (New Balance Fuel Cell Super Comp), so I was expecting a sub-4h result myself.

The first half of the race was fantastic, I established a new 10K personal record (50m16s) and a new half marathon personal record (1h51m33s). I started thinking that I might get my sub-4.

But the second half was quite hard, I had to stop to walk a few times because cramps were threatening to show up.

At kilometer 38 I stopped to take a pebble out of my shoes. When I tried to put it back on, I got the most horrible cramps imaginable. A paramedic was around and came to talk to me. He said that he knew it was just cramps and he couldn't help me much with that, but stayed around to see if I needed help. I was finally able to put my shoe on and limped away to the finish line.

I finished in 4h11m03s, my second best time ever. I was happy with the result, even though it was not a personal best nor a sub-4. 

 
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PB list Distance PB Event 5K 23m13s Petit Train du Nord 2025 10K 48m59s Petit Train du Nord 2025 3K (march) 18m46s FADOQ 2019 (Trois-Rivières) * Half marathon 1h49m14s Petit Train du Nord 2025 Marathon 4h00m50s Munich 2022 * The distance was not even 2.8 Km. Race list Click on the city name to read my full report of the event: Date City Country Race type Time Comment 2011/09/25 Montreal Canada Half marathon 2h52m56s Walking 2012/06/30 Båstad Sweden Half marathon 2h41m21s 2012/08/12 Mont Tremblant Canada Half marathon 2h30m22s 2012/09/23 Montreal Canada Half marathon 2h20m36s 2013/05/19 Copenhagen Denmark Marathon 5h24m33s 2013/08/11 Mont Tremblant Canada Half marathon 2h07m30s 2013/11/10 Athens Greece Marathon 5h38m10s 2014/05/25 Ottawa Canada Marathon 5h06m23s 2014/08/16 Helsinki Finland Marathon 5h04m18s 2014/09/28 Montreal Canada Maratho...
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