Montreal Defi 2004

128km around the Island of Montreal in the cold and the wet. My first Ultra-Distance Marathon. The Defi was ultimately a very challenging and positive experience for me. It was the first time I skated an event in the rain. I actually wore that shell in the picture below for the entire race... not exactly the most aerodynamic setup. If my TISC teammates find all the gear I have strapped to me in races these days funny, they should have seen all the stuff I used to lug around with me back then.

I remember that many Toronto area skaters that had been planning on doing the event bailed when the rain reports came in and it was only Randy D, Paul Ho and myself the headed down to do it that year. I was hoping to skate with them, but in the darkness of the start line, they were no where to be found! Luckily as skidded our way through the darkness of the recreational trail, I managed to find a familiar face. Rod Willmot, a native of Montreal whom I had met and skated with earlier that year at the Toronto Inline Race Weekend.

You can read Rod Willmot's excellent report of the race at the Defi site. It was really nice of him to give me a shout out in there. I have not seen him in the past couple of years at races and wonder how he's doing.

Being completely unfamiliar with the course, particularly in the utter blackness and illuminated with the occassional road flare, Rod tucked in behind me and talked me through every obstacle that flew at me in the darkness. He knew that the wooden bridge would be slippery, where to avoid the crotch-level posts around La Chine, which turns to take. We skated into the brilliant sunrise. We slipped in and out of packs made up of various skaters up until the third section when disaster struck and a few skaters went down and Rod and I were seperated.

From there is was pretty lonely for me, and I even got lost at the far tip of the Island when I didn't turn where I should have! Luckily I ran into another duo, a man and a woman who only spoke french and were as lost as I was, and I followed them back onto the course. We picked up and lost the occassional skater, and in the final stretch from downtown onwards, only the french woman and I were left. She was incredibly strong for a small female and did the Lion's Share of the pulling in that tough back end into the wind. I later found out from the results her name was Laurence Leraitre from France, and if I ever run into her again, I owe her a drink.

I got my taste for the Ultra-Distance races at this point, and I am hoping to get back there this year after missing the 2006 Defi. Although it looks like support for these kind of events is dwindling as fewer people register in them. I have been hoping to eventually be able to get the bragging rights to completing the triple-crown of the three major Fall Ultra-Distance events in one year... A2A, New York 100 and the Defi, but the logistics have thus far eluded me. Hopefully these events will continue long enough for me to accomplish that goal!

I believe the photo is courtesy of Peter once again.


I'm always amazed at how happy I look in pictures following Ultra Distance Inline Events. I wonder what I look like when I'm 3/4 of the way through them?