Z Valdir's races

Back to the index Here I am on Saturday morning, ready to leave the house to go to the race: I have run the Montreal Half four times in the past, one of them (2019) was my PB, I finished that one in 1h52m09s. So, today my plan was to try and stay close to the 1h50 pacer. I was able to do that only up to km 7, then I had to stop to walk a bit and I never saw them again. My plan after that was not to allow the 2h pacer to pass me. I was doing ok most of the time, but on the final K, already with the finish line on sight, I turned and saw that pacer just behind me. I thought to myself: "You're not going to pass me, no way José!" and I did a final sprint that took me over the finish line in 1h58m53s. Not great, but a sub-2 is a sub-2. And here am I chilling with my medal: The post race meal was rather Spartan: Here is the medal, front and back: On the back we can see the iTab with my time.   Back to the index

Back to the index As my first race of the year I decided to do a 5K rapid walk as part of the Tour de l'Horloge de Montréal.  Here am I getting ready to leave the house on Sunday morning for the race: The race happens in the area around the watchtower of the old port of Montreal. There are many events happening on the same day. When I arrived, the people doing the 8K march or run were already competing. I had to wait for half an hour or so for my event. I participated in the 5K march. The problem is that the 5K run happens at the same time and quite a few of the 5K runners were slower than the fastest walkers, so the race was a bit chaotic to navigate. Well, even the start was confusing. The marchers were supposed to start two minutes after the runners, but there were so many runners that we ended up not having our separate start, it was one big mess. Some of the places we went through were narrow, there were places where we were going on single file, it was impossible to over...