Z Valdir's races

Back to the index I missed my sub-5 by twelve seconds! The day before To go to Ottawa, we rented this beautiful car: My wife liked it very much, it has a few nice extras, like a rear camera to help the driver while going backwards. Here am I, ready to start the trip: On the way: Leaving Quebec, entering Ontario: The Shaw Centre, in downtown Ottawa, where I picked up my bib: After getting the bib and visiting the Expo, we had lunch in a nearby restaurant: At 1h30 pm, we were ready for our bus tour of the course: It was quite interesting, our guide told us stories about Ottawa, the marathon and other things while we were going through the 42 km: Near the end of the tour, the bus emptied out: We find this graphic quite interesting: My wife told me that she had a new respect for marathoners, now that she had gone through the entire course. She said that even on a bus that was exhausting... :-) Later...

Back to the index Last year I became a member of FADOQ , an organization for people 50 and older. I became a member in order to play ping pong in one of their tournaments. This year I registered again for ping pong and also for their 5 km race, which would happen at the Maisonneuve Park, very close to my house. On the Saturday before the event they called me at home to inform me that because the weather forecast for Monday was full of rain, the event would happen at the Centre Pierre Charbonneau. For me this was even better, because I train there three months of the year, so I know the place. This morning my wife and I walked there with our umbrellas, it was really raining. I received the bib 349. It was a simple paper bib, no chip like the ones we receive at marathons. It's a much simpler event... Little before 9 am the main organizer spoke a few general words about the many events of the day (there would be more running and walking after the main race). Then the per...

Back to the index I left home at 8 am and went to the Longueil metro station, where the marathon would start. Arriving there, there was an enormous crowd on the move to the start line. Unfortunately here in Montreal the organizers start the two races (the marathon and the half marathon) at the same time and at the same place. The marathon attracted 4,900 people while the half marathon had more than 16,000 registrations! So the Jacques Cartier bridge was a sea of people everywhere!! I was in the third “wave” (corrals 21 to 28) which was supposed to start at 9h05 am. I got there twenty minutes before that and walked up the bridge. I passed by my corral, but everybody was just moving on, there were no more corrals as such, it was everybody together. A young woman started a conversation with me in English, she wanted to know if she was in the right place. She was part of corral 23. I told her that now everybody was combined together, they wouldn’t be checking the corrals anym...

Back to the index This year I chose to run the Helsinki City Marathon in Finland's capital. My wife and I arrived there almost two weeks before the race and did a lot of sightseeing. Sightseeing before the race We visited the Senate Square with its magnificent cathedral: We went to a lot of museums, like the National Museum of Finland: The Sibelius monument is a must-see: We spent a day in beautiful Tallinn, across the Baltic: We went as well to Turku, the ancient capital of Finland to see its magnificent castle: Race Day Then, just like that, it was race day: The Helsinki City Marathon was on: I did some stretching... ... and then we were off to the races: The race track is the worst I've ever seen: We had people coming and going almost in the same spot. Ridiculous! In some parts we could not pass the slower runners in front of us for fear of hitting the elite runners who were already coming back. Shame on...