Lazy Post

I hope everyone had a fun and productive weekend. I figured that I would pull myself away from the ‘idiot box’ to update this blog.

I pretty much have had a ho hum weekend – nothing too exciting. I did a quick tapering run of 7 miles on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was kind of warm outside, so I had to do the run indoors on the treadmill. I am hoping that the weather in Montreal will not be so damn hot.

This weekend, I received some information from the organizers of the Montreal Half-Marathon. I figure that I would post this runner’s course review and see if I will have a similar race experience. The underlined text is what I am looking forward to and the bold text is what I am not looking forward to in this course.

• The race starts on the Pont Jacques-Cartier Bridge, but the name of the bridge isn’t important.  What IS important is the fact that it’s nearly as breathtaking as the iconic Verrazano Bridge in NYC and, even better than NYC, you’re running down this one instead of up.
• And what cooler venue to enter into after coming off a bridge than…an amusement park.  Yup, you will have the outskirts of an amusement park all to yourself.  Roller coasters, a Ferris wheel and a monorail guiding you along your first 5k.
• Unfortunately, as cool as these rides are, what’s not so cool is the fact that you’re basically running on a path that can fit an SUV and a Smart Car.  It’s really tight. If you had hoped to have a ton of room to pass other runners early on, I’d have to say to you, “au contraire, mon frère,” because that’s not happening.
• Once you exit the footbridge from the amusement park though, you will enter into…a Formula One race course. This part of the course is the “crème de la crème.” I doubt you’ll ever run on a road that’s designed for speedy cars again so I encourage you to yell “Vroom vroom” if you’re passing a runner on the left instead of the ‘ol “On your left.”
• After you unstrap your race helmet, you run onto yet another bridge that overlooks Montreal.  You’ll still have open space to run here as you turn onto a straight away with a shipyard to your right.
• Then, out of nowhere, you’ll feel like you’re running on the streets of Paris in the early 1900’s. Café’s to your left and an old road with a bunch of people speaking French.
• You turn off this magnificent street and hit your first hill (pictured) which is fairly steep. Get over the hill and you can start your kick; just know that there’s another doozy of an incline waiting for you at the 19k mark. So maybe save your kick for the final 1k. Your call.

 

Like I mentioned,  a lazy blog today.