Z Valdir's races

Back to the index When I got back to our hotel I told my wife that the Porto St. Silvester is not a race, it's a grand popular party, during which tons of people cross the city, sometimes running, sometimes walking... :-( I was not happy...  :-(  :-(  After running the Lisbon St Silvester the day before, we travelled by train to Porto, where I ran another St. Silvester (10K race). They are victims of their own success. There are way too many people participating. I was in the sub-60 group, so we started after the faster guys and girls of the sub-50 cohort.  A minute after we had started, we had to stop, just stop and wait for the mass of people ahead of us to get out of the way. Not funny to have to stop in the middle of a race... I was all the time worried about causing an accident, I had seen a runner fall on a bad cobblestone patch. Some parts of the way were not properly lighted, it was a bit dangerous. The last kilometer we go through a long tunnel, they ha...

Back to the index We visited Lisbon once more during Christmas, it was a wonderful experience all over again. This time we skipped most of the main museums and went instead for some of the second tier. I was quite impressed with the Water Museum. A small place, but quite interesting. On Sunday, December 28th I ran the Lisbon St. Silvester 10K race. It was a blast, like last time. At the beginning of the race it was a bit crowded, I couldn't develop the speed I wanted, I had to be careful not to cause an accident. Around km 2.5 I got stomach aches and I had to stop to walk. Damn! A kilometer later I felt the beginning of a cramp and had to ease on my stride.  The last kilometer is one big downhill, everybody goes crazy there, it's awsome! My average during the race was 5'26''/km, but on that last km my Garmin showed even 4'15''/km. Wow! I finished the race in 54'15'', a respectable time for me.

Back to the index Once again I returned to the Petit Train du Nord to do the marathon there. It's one of the most beautiful events that I've ever participated, we run through the forest, near a river, with the mountains at a distance, very photogenic. The event happens on a Sunday, we travelled to the starting city on Friday afternoon. I got the bib at a store on the way north and then we continued our way. Our GPS told us to take some little country roads, because the main one was supposedly under repairs. It got dark very fast and even with the GPS it was hard to know the way. We eventually got to our hotel, much later than expected... :-( On Saturday we visited a national park nearby for some light walking. On Sunday morning I had breakfast at 6h in the restaurant of the hotel. Shortly before 8 we went to the start area by car. I only had to wait a bit for my group (6) to be called to the start line. The first half went quite well, I completed it in 1h52m18s, my second bes...

Back to the index The day before the race On the day before the race my wife and I picked up a Commun auto c ar and drove to Ottawa: We parked the car in the Bytown market: Here is a view of the market from the p arking lot: We walked to our hotel and got our room right away. That was a nice touch, we didn't expect that: We left everything in the room and went out for a bite, my wife was a bit hungry: My wife went to the shopping, I went to the expo. That was a nightmare, the bus 7, which should come every fifteen minutes, took over half an hour to appear, we almost hit the bus stop closure time: The trip to the expo, which should take eighteen minutes, took longer than half an hour. But I finally arrived at the expo: Here is the entrance of the expo: In other years I would just go in and get my bib. This year there was a mile long queue to get in, it took over half an hour for me to get in. Once inside, getting the bib was actually quick and easy: At the exit we could see our na...

Back to the index For this year we decided to return to Copenhagen for the marathon: We arrived on May 3rd and went directly from our hotel to the M arathon Expo, to get my bib: Here is the bag and the t-shirt. This ye ar they decided to go with the colour black for the t-shirt, it looks very  nice: On May 5th I arrived forty minutes before the start of the marathon: The line for the washroom was so long that I spent all my forty minutes in it. I was still waiting to go when the marathon started. But, with fifteen thousand people waiting to start the race, I still had to wait with the crowd: I started the race more than twenty minutes after the elite had gone. I was with the 4h20 bunny at the start. The first two kilometers I had to go slower than I intended because the crowd would not allow us to develop our regular speed. But in the kilometers after that I was able to run the time that I wanted.  I started to struggle around kilometer 16. Up to that my averages per kilome...

Back to the index Usually in April I run the Montreal half marathon in the P arc des Îles, but this year I wanted to do something different, I chose the half marathon in St. Je an sur Richelieu. My wife took me there on the morning of the race and went to visit a friend who lives in th at city. It was a bit on the cold side, but it w as sunny, which was good. We could pick up our bibs on the s ame day, so we didn't have to arrive in the city the previous day as is usually the case with these events. Here I am, half an hour before the race: We started the race at 8h32, we were a small crowd, seven hundred people took part in the half. The event also had a 5K and a 10K race. It had rained the days prior to the race, so there were puddles of water on the course. I had gone to the washroom before the start of the race, but I guess that because the day was cold, I felt the need to go again, so at km 2 I had to stop and go into a port-a-potty. I hate to waste time like this in a race s...