2007 Reports

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The Numbers | Inga's Report | Mark's Report | Skater Feedback

The Festival Story

The Numbers

Festival statistics by year:

Inga Petri's Report

My day started with driving along Rockcliffe Parkway heading to set up for Festival Village at 7:15 am: hundreds of Hot Air Balloons launched ,set against the mist rising from the Ottawa River. WOW. (The Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival (Canada's largest) is in town every Labour Day Weekend.)

That set the tone for the day for me: beautiful, fun, smooth.

The Village set up worked beautifully providing 300+ skaters, spectators and volunteers ample of space to congregate and catch up, and the racing was fast!

The marathon had 5 (!) women finish under 1:20:30 - that's a rare feat outside of world cup level racing - The men's marathon finishing time was under 1:14. Every other race was equally fast.

We also saw some great racing by young inliners, both in the short events and the long ones: Ottawa skaters Bailin and Hugh Xie, showed off their huge talent from 2 to 42k.

One of my best moments was meeting Phillip and his 3 daughters - they travelled all the way from Richmond, BC to come to our Festival - thus "winning" the title of farthest travelled.

Another awesome moment: Working with Chelsea Miller and the Ground Crew from LiVE 88.5- our EMCEE for the day. Seeing a pro on the mike was awesome and added so much to the atmosphere.

The Festival is organized by a group of dedicated and skilled volunteers. The logistics are huge for this event with 5 races in 4 hours, plus all the details that have to come together. And, I think given the feedback we got, we pulled it off beautifully.

Congratulations to the skaters, organizers (many who also competed) and spectators!

We'll see you all next year, September 7, 2008.

(Inga is past president of OISC and a member of the OIS Festival Organizing Committee.)

The Festival Story

By Inga Petri

With the 2007 Festival wraped up, I want to take a moment to reflect on the last 3 years - or actually the last 6 of our history.

The Roots

The Ottawa Inline Skating Festival grew out of the X-endurance Training Weekend. That weekend was organized by Stephane Tremblay with a bit of help from the club's board and the club race team he spearheads. Starting with Labour Day weekend in 2001, the objective was to invite skaters to train for the legendary ultra-distance events during the fall. We would use track formats, our many recreational paths and the Gats to play, skate, train, socialize. Those who completed every skate would log about 150k over the 2-day training weekend.

The X-endurance format evolved each year (change is good). Each year we learned more about organizing events and were able to develop the skills and knowledge to be able to provide a safe, fun competitive experience for larger numbers of skaters.

In 2003, we started offering an informal marathon race on a 2km loop at Asticou - our training facility at the time. In 2004, the marathon was officially timed and winners were awarded accordingly. More skaters from Montreal and Toronto joined us that year, encouraging further development.

The Leap in Vision

In large part due to the indefatiguable Steve MacDonald (club president 2005 to 2007) the X-endurance weekend turned into the Ottawa Inline Skating Festival. In 2005, we held the first Festival and right away drew close to 200 skaters - making it one of the largest inline road races in Canada. In fact, we offer more races in a single afternoon, than any other road event I'm aware of. The Festival is organized by  a dozen leaders, supported by 50 plus volunteers and embraced by recreational andcompettiive inline skaters.

K2 Skates came on board as founding sponsor. Somersault, a local race producer focussed on triathlones and running races, provides equipment and initially expertise. Il Peloton a company started in 2006 by elite inline speed skaters here in Ottawa, has also supported the Festival with substantial merchandise prizes.

The Festival format is still predicated on enabling skaters to log as many km as possible. But they now do it in bona fide races ranging from 2 to 42 km. The triple crown is the combination of the 10k, 21k and 42k - with all 3 races completed within a 4 hour period! Each year, skaters register for the tripel crown challenge and several have completed it. ( All of them are listed in the above statistics section.) Special mention here goes to Ray Vermette, one of the club's founding members and avid inliners. He is the sole inline speed skater who has completed the triple crown each of the last 3 years!

We attract Canadian elite skaters: competitors who are on Canada's National Team and represent Canada at World Championships and Pan-Am Games. The finishing times are accordingly fast and the racing is fun to participate in and to watch.

Catering to Young Skaters and Their Families

We also play our part in encouraging young people to discover inline skating and inline speed skating to make this activity viable as a sport. So, we decided with 2005 Festival to offer kids and family events, too. We have a 2k kids only race and a 5k family skate also well attended b y young skaters. We offer registration to young people at steeply discounted rates. In fact, the registration fees cover only the specificexpenses for these events: finisher medals, race kits, Festival T-shirts. Plus we have awards from top 3 male and female for the 2k and 5k as much as we do for the longer distances.

We keep looking for ways to encourage young people to discover this sport - the club offered a pilot youth program in 2006 and we keep working at figuring out how we can create sustainable programs for young skaters specifically.

The Leadership Model

I am proud to work with such a dedicated group of inline skaters who volunteer many hours and even more creativity and vision on behalf of this sport. Our club, a duly incorporated non-profit sports club, has been in existence since 2000. As a board member for 4 years, 2 of which I spent as President, I have enjoyed navigating the careful balance of developing gradually as well as supporting leaps in vision. One of these balances is to ensure that leadership is shared. That means we both nurture club leaders and renew the composition of the board of directors. In this way, the club as an organism is gaining a growing pool of skilled and knowledgeable volunteers while at the same time createing spaces for initiative and vision.

These past 6 years have been rewarding and interesting. And we are just at the beginning!

Mark's Report

CROSSING OVER - A Triathlete's Perspective

by Mark Cunningham

Hi all,

This weekend I did my first inline skate marathon - on the Eastern parkway. Quite a challenge getting the hang of skating in a pack. I mean, you have to really stay on your toes. As we didn't get rolling until 2:30pm, it was fairly warm out with some strong gusts, hence the benefits of hanging with the pack.

In this respect, I now know how roadies feel while riding in a peloton and then what it's like to get dropped. Kind of like Jan Ullrich desperately hanging onto Lance's wheel on the Alpe D'huez in 2001, prior to Lance snapping the cord. As for myself, this occurred at the 36km mark of the race: not the best of experiences, I must add...and needless to say, it was quite satisfying to see the finish line. Can you spell b-o-n-k?

Ahh well, it never hurts to humble yourself once in a while by trying somthing new (like golf for most folks!). But back to the race, the winners pulled down 1:13 times - for a marathon! Most of us would be hard pressed to do 42 km on our road bikes in under that time. Watch out for 9 yr old Hugh Xie and his 11 yr old sister Bailin: the future Barry Publow and Dominique Laroque of the inlining world. They put the boots (er...blades) to me as well; as most of the other grown ups out there: and they both did 3 races that afternoon...Bailin did 1:30 for the marathon! This, after track racing THE NIGHT BEFORE in Montreal. They also do the occasional KOS tris as well.

As for inlining, it's an honest workout - and not a freebie. Good cross over to xc skate skiing and biking. Check out www.inlineottawa.com and come on out for a skate! My initial feelings of intimidation were quickly quashed when I first came out to meet some of the skaters. Low key atmosphere, with tons of instructional tips...and btw, these guys can party too: sore quads on the dance floor afterwards at the post race antics.

So this all got me thinking...I can't believe that here in Ottawa, within the span of just a few months, one can XC ski race, do triathlons (including ones with kayaking and off road events), mtb race, and even rollerblade. Now tell me, in what other (large) Cdn city can you do this? Calgary? Nope - you have to drive a good hr out to get as good XC skiing and mtb biking as the Gats here. My hometown is Victoria BC, and although the biking and tri scene is pretty hard to top there (but only due to the climate), you just can't pull off the range that you can here. Sorry Dewain E, Lance Watson, Dan Smith et al on the left coast: yeah you guys, you know who you are (and I know you're checking in here with envy!)

Ottawa rocks. Indeed.

Next summer, look out: I'm going to try to bring out your true cross training self. I'm looking at putting together an event/epic workout/(whatever you want to call it) in the Gatineau Park..one encompassing swimming, biking (possibly both rode and mtb), kayaking/canoeing (hell, paddling), rollerblading/rollerskiing (you pick), and running (trail, likely). 5 legs. 2.5 hrs of work....then beers afterwards at Chelsea's. If you're the slightest bit interested, then pls send me an e-mail, and I'll fill you in avec les details.

Congrats to all those that raced at the Canadian this weekend. Outstanding.

Skater Feedback

From Philip Lee:

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest thanks to you and to all the other event organizers and volunteers for their tremendous efforts in putting together this wonderful event. The course was absolutely immaculate and the weather could not have been any better. My three daughters and I had a fabulous time and (if we are able to do so) will very much look forward to coming to Ottawa to participate in the 2008 festival. Who knows, I may even have learnt how to inline skate by then!

Thank you again.

From Dan Thompson:

You folks organized a great event. Everything was well marked and easy to navigate and the water stations did a great job. Job very well done. The new pavement made it the smoothest course I've ever been on. Sad that its all over and we have to wait another full year.

From Eric Gee:

I was really impressed with the quality of the event. Especially the little details like the smaller water bottles and the way the volunteers handed them out in the palm of their hand. Very effective and they fit nicely in a skin suit.

From John and Pam Stevens

Just like to say how impressed we were with the organisation of the event. We are very envious of that super smooth skating surface which I tried out on my old blades. I see that you have next years event already in the diary and I am thinking of getting myself some large 4 wheel racing skates and having a go. In the meantime I look forward to the newsletter and will continue to spread the word and promote your wonderful event.

From Sergio Almeralla, Ursula Hendel and Stephane Tremblay - Il Peloton:

We wanted to thank all of the organizers for a phenomenal Festival. The event went off beautifully and it was loads of fun from the set up right through the after-party.