Time to kick some French-Canadian butt...

Okay... I kid, I kid... :)

Seriously though... "Le Defi" is coming up and I'm seriously thinking about going up there for it, as I've mentioned before. It's a 128km (~79 mile) tour around the island. (You did know Montreal was an island, right?) It is timed, so some choose to see how fast they can do it. But it is a very scenic route, and would be very cool to just skate at a leisurely pace too. If you finish in under 12 hours, you get a bronze medal. Under 10 hours - silver. Under 8 hours - gold. (Course record is just over 5 hours...)

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"Le Defi" is always the 3rd Saturday of October, which is the 21st this year. I've checked airfare from RDU ($380) and JFK ($245), which isn't too bad. There's plenty of time to recover after A2A...

Here's my writeup on the event from last year:

http://marksibert.dyndns.org/skating/Defi2005/

And here is the website for the event:

http://www.defimontreal.com/indexe.htm

Next to A2A, this is the longest inline skate event that I'm aware of. I've certainly enjoyed it both times I've done it. Basically, it's a flatter, more 'urban' course than A2A. If you haven't done it yet, you should definitely consider it...

If anyone is thinking of going and wants to share a hotel room, let me know...

- SM -