Montreal Inline Marathon (Festival de la Sante) 2004

The Montreal Inline Marathon was part of the larger Festival de la Sante Montreal Marathon event at the beginning of September that is geared mostly for runners, but also included cyclists and an inline race. The course was simply wild. Starting on the bridge overlooking the Expo site, down hairpin off-ramps and on-ramps, taking us around the Formula 1 track, over the bridge, along the shore and all around Montreal, including the old city where we skated over cobblestones at one point. For an experienced street skater like me on my old Nike 78mm rec skates, it was a blast.

They cancelled the inline portion of the Festival de la Sante in 2006, which was dissappointing given the fact that this had become my second favourite race after the NCM which kicked off inline season in Ottawa (the NCM cancelled their inline race in 2007). The good news is that this year they are holding an inline race the same weekend out on the Formula 1 track on the same course where Nationals were held last year. Jen and I have tentative plans for her to be running the same time I am skating.




My race finished much earlier than Jen's, so I jumped on coarse to run her in as she approached the end. The photos below are pretty funny because it looks like I am running in the Marathon in my flip flops carrying a huge knapsack containing all my skate gear. I got some strange looks from the folks on the sidelines cheering people into the finish.




Jen and I turned this into an active vacation by bringing our bikes and cycling around Montreal a couple of days later, before heading for Vermont for some hardcore hiking in the mountains. We then returned to Montreal the following weekend to participate in her Uncle Danny's Montreal Triathlon.