Z Valdir's races

Back to the index The day before So this year's finals of the FADOQ Games were to happen in Sherbrooke, a city 150 Km away to the east of Montreal. On September 19th, the day before the race, I took a bus from Montreal to Sherbrooke. A little more than two hours later I arrived at the terminus Sherbrooke. From there I had to walk to the hotel, five kilometers in all. Yes, I could have taken a taxi, but I'm cheap, what can I do?... I quickly discover that no matter where you want to go in Sherbrooke, it's always uphill! Mamma mia! Who designed that city? I finally arrived at the hotel, took a shower and went to bed, the following day would be full. Race day The organizers put the main hotel of the event in one place, the accreditation site five kilometers away in one direction and the race course seven kilometers away in the other direction. So, I knew going in that there would be a lot of walking during the day. I left the hotel at 6 am and walked to the accreditation ...

Back to the index This year the FADOQ regions of Montreal and Laval decided to join forces and organize their regional finals together. In the case of the race they also joined forces with the Course des Pompiers de Laval, so we were hundreds at start line. I started strong, I did the first kilometer in 4m34s, slowed down a bit on the second (4m47) and even more on the third (5m02s), regained my speed on the fourth (4m36s) and finally slowed down a lot (5m09s) on the last one because there was an impossible hill in the last five hundred meters. I almost walked on that one, I was so tired. I eventually finished with a strong time of 24m09s, only 24 seconds away from my personal best. If that last kilometer had been flat, I might have had a chance at breaking my record. After getting my medal I met the people from FADOQ, they gave me my FADOQ medal and an invitation to participate in the provincial finals later this year in Sherbrooke. I'll be going, for sure! Back to the index...

Back to the index Last year the organizers of the FADOQ Games in Montreal messed up a lot of things on the rapid walk event, so this year I was hopeful that the problems would have been ironed out, specially because this time they paired up with the Laval region. The event happened in the Park Bernard Landry, in the south of Laval. I went there cycling, it was quite a long journey. Even though there were two regions competing, the number of at hletes was quite small, we were a dozen or so. There were three events: 1K, 3K, 5K. The 5K went first, there were only three people on that group. I was in the 3K, with another four walkers. I left the others behind quite early and was alone all of the time. When I crossed the finish line they told me I was done, but I showed them that according to my Garmin I had only done 1.5K. After some discussion with the organizers, they told me to do another lap. They had not measured the distance that the athletes were supposed to cover? How can they no...

Back to the index The day before the race My wife and I left Montreal on Saturday morning, we travelled to our contry's capital for the Ottawa race weekend. Arriving at the hotel we got our room right away, which was a nice surprise. We left our things in our room and went out, each one in a different direction. My wife went to a museum, I went to the Expo to get my bib. This year they changed the venue of the Expo. Every year it was at the Shaw Centre, which is very central, easily accessible. This year they moved it to the Landsowne Park, a few kilometers to the south. The organizers provided a shuttle bus service connecting the city centre to the Expo area, but when I got to the starting point of the shuttle, there was a long line of people waiting for the bus. I got in line and had to wait for more than twenty minutes to get into the bus, because the first one left and I had to wait for the next one to come in. At the Expo everything was quite fast, there where no delays. I m...

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...

Back to the index I woke up at two in the morning. Obviously I couldn't try to go back to sleep, because I might miss the wake-up time for the marathon. Just before seven in the morning I went down to have breakfast, I thought it would be crowded with runners, it was even quite empty. I didn't eat much, so I wouldn't be too heavy for the race. I left at eight in the morning and walked to the nearest subway station: Here is the entrance to Vijzelgracht station: I struggled with this machine to buy my ticket, I couldn't make it... Then three Italians arrived, bought their tickets and helped me buy mine. When I went down the stairs, the train was already there, it left before I arrived: I was alone at the station: I was going to go only three stations, until the final one, called Zuid: The Zuid station is off the ground: The transfer train was overcrowded with athletes: Fortunately, we only had one station to go... Getting to the stadium was easy, I just had to follo...