Jeux FADOQ Final 2018

          Jeux FADOQ Provincial Finals

The provincial finals of the FADOQ games happened in the city of St. Jerome, a small city 60 km to the north of Montreal.

The athletic events (running and march) happened in the St. Jerome Polyvalent School. On a gravel track, not the best surface for speed.

Arriving there I noticed a problem with the organization: we were around one hundred participants, and there was one, one port-a-potty. The day would be long...

5K run

The day started with the prediction march, team event. The running happened right after that. The 5K and the 10K were run at the same time on the 400m track. There was no chip available to calculate our time, they had volunteers checking how many laps each athlete did.

The 10K people would do 25 laps, we of the 5K would do 12.5 laps. Because of that we started at opposing sides of the track.

Alain Vincent, who had won in Montreal in May, started at an impossible pace, I didn't even try to follow him, I could only hope he would slow down at the end (spoiler: he didn't...).

I started in a small group with two other runners who for the first lap or two were going at the same pace. Then one of the guys could not keep the pace and it was me and Mr. Daoudi Daoudi, who in Montreal in May had finished second. We were together for another two laps, but then he could not keep the pace either and I left him behind.

While all this was going on, some of the runners of the 10K caught up with us and left us behind. There were some insanely fast runners in the 10K.

I kept my pace around 4'30'' approximately, which was absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately, because of the many people that I had to pass, I ended up running quite a bit more than 5K, 5.33K to be more precise. My final time was 23'55'' (4'24'', 4'33'', 4'21', 4'33'', 4'36'', 1'29''). If we were to count just the 5K, I would have finished in 22'36'', a personal best by more than a minute.

I walked one lap talking with Mr. Vincent. His Garmin indicated that he had run 5.17K. His pace by km was 4'31'', mine was 4'29''. In that sense, I beat him...

We talked to one of his friends and he told us that his chronometer indicated 5.25K. So it is safe to say that we ran at least 200m more than we should have.

After the race it was almost lunch time, so we went to the lunch area nearby, where other events were happening. There I found toilets, real ones, not port-a-potty. I can truly say "What a relief!" :-)

3K rapid walk

Soon after 3pm we were called for the 3K rapid walking event. M. Robert Marchand and his wife were there, so I knew it would be a tough race. But this time I did better than in Montreal, when I tried to follow her. Now I knew I would not be able to keep her pace, so I decided to follow Mr. Marchand instead.

During the first lap we had a surprise, there were two other walkers, one from Montreal and one from some other area of the province that took the lead of the men's group. But that did not last long. Before the end of the first lap Mr. Marchand and I passed them and then it was just the two of us.

I did not try to pass him for most of the race, but I was close behind him all the time. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep him at bay for a long time if I passed him too early, so my goal was to heel him most of the time and only "attack" in the last round, when then I might have a chance to keep the front.

So the race was a bit funny, we were both going at the same pace, a very strong pace, at least for me. I was just hoping that he was not playing with me and would in the last lap "kick in" and beat me by a lot. But I saw that during the race he tried a few times to shake me off, but I would always keep with him.

Then came the final lap. On the other side of the track I tried to attack, but I was not able to pass him, so for the final oval I went behind him again. In the final straight I tried once more, but he kicked in a late spur and beat me by two seconds. What a race!

I ended up marching 3.23K in a time of 20'17''. Worse than in Montreal, but the sun was in full force, so it was understandable. My interval times per km were 6'20'', 6'24'', 6'15'' and 1'18''. Quite good.

Medal ceremony

During the medal ceremony they announced the times of all participants in the 5K and 10K. All three medallists of the 10K had times below 47'. I was quite happy I didn't participate in that one! I would have had to fight to finish 5th place! Wow! The group is too strong now...

Next year we meet again in Trois-Rivières!