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September 11 - Festival de la Sante Report
TThe Festival de la Santé is a race with character. That is to say, it's not an easy course, or a fast course, or a fun course to race, but it is a technical course which poses a lot of different challenges and tests your skating skills in a way that most other races don't.The challenge begins with a fast, steep descent from the Jacques Cartier Bridge onto Île Notre-Dame & Île Sainte-Hélènes. A friend of mine joked that you do not so much descend from the bridge as you fall off the side. It's not the steepest downhill I've ever encountered, but the quantity and quality (both good and bad) of skaters passing you and being passed, the curves in the road, and the mix of good and bad pavement are what make it challenging.
The first time down this hill is a little scary, because you can't see the bottom, and you wonder, "When the hell is this ever going to end?". But eventually it does, and you find yourself frantically looking around for familiar faces and good packs to hook up with. This time, I was fortunate to work with two fellow OISC-ers almost from the start -- Dominique Lalonde and Frank LaRue.
The bad pavement starts almost right away, as do the sharp 90 degree turns, loose gravel and dirt from dried-up puddles. Your ankles take a beating and you begin to wonder how much more abuse they can take when you finally enter the Gilles Villeneuve race circuit and skate on the most blissfully smooth pavement you can imagine. But not for long, as you have to negotiate a series of sharp turns an bicycle paths to get from the island onto a bridge over to the Island of Montreal proper. One of these turns was a little too sharp for the pack I was hanging onto and a few skaters took the turn wide. One managed to take a few steps on the grass and jump back onto pavement, but another wasn't so luck and skated into the bushes, kicking up dirt and grass as he plowed right into the shubbery. I was behind him and just barely made the turn. Close call for me!
The (Concorde?) bridge over to the island of Montreal is always windy and slow. Once you are across, the real fun begins. Left turns. Right turns. Hairpin turns. Potholes. Broken pavement. Really good pavement. Broken glass. Sponges and water. Bridge Expansion Joints. Railroad tracks. Experienced pack skaters with good cross-overs really shine on this course, because you constantly have to be aware of the pavement, your surroundings, the pack in front of you, and be ready to react in a split second. The important thing is not to freak out and to have faith that you will make it through the race unscathed. If you can master that, the rest is not that hard.
The route winds itself through run-down industrial areas along the waterfront and by historic buildings and office districts. Dr. Frank took the lead often through these areas and hammered hard. I kept reminding him "we still have some big hills ahead -- save your energy", when I wasn't struggling just to keep up with him.
Eventually we started to climb and we reached the big hill just before Lafontaine ParkA tough climb no doubt, but much easier then it was last year when it was only a few kilometers from the end. This year it was roughly half-way to the course finish.
We still had a bit more climbing to do and Dr. Frank kept hammering hard. Dr. Frank is a machine. A large pack caught up to us, led by a grey-haired VRL club member, in his 50's I would guess, who just kept pulling and pulling. He and Dr. Frank kept the pace very high; too high for many of the youngsters behind them who eventually dropped from sheer fatigue.
With but a few kilometers to go, we turned the corner onto (Viau?) and were greeted with nothing but water sponges, water bottles, bottle caps, and loose water everywhere, left over from the half marathon runners. Race etiquette for inline skaters suggests we carry our water for the entire race or throw refuse off the course near a volunteer to make cleanup easier. Aren't runners taught the same thing? And before a runner gives a rebuttal: yes, I know skaters are often guilty of poor etiquette, including littering, but that doesn't justify the mess we had to navigate in the last leg of the race.
Finally, we turned the corner and started a steep descent right into the olympic stadium. Fifty to sixy kilometers per hour over rough pavement? No problem. A few of us practiced this approach the day before, so it wasn't as intimidating on race day. The tricky part was throwing on the reverse thrusters after crossing the finish line to avoid plowing into the people milling about at the far end of the finish chute.
I had a course PB and was pretty content with that. Dominque placed 4th female overall. Way to go! Frank placed first in his age division. I heard that he was pleased with his race and well he should be -- he worked very hard to earn it. Pascale placed 2nd female overall. Adrien Loewen placed 4th, Stéphane Tremblay 7th, and Sergio Almeralla 9th overall. A number of other Ottawa skaters also competed and had good results. Probably the largest number of OISC skaters to ever attend this event. Way to go guys!
And to the race organizers: don't change a thing! I love this race, shortcomings, strengths and all, and I will be back again next year! Merci!
