Friday August 9 - Disaster! And I'm not kidding! It's 10 pm, I'm home in my little corner of the world (Terrebonne). I'm packing, I'm tired, I really want to go sleep. I leave Charles and my mother to talk while I try to focus on not forgetting anything. I'm a very very very distracted person, the dreamy type, and those who know me can tell you it's pretty pathetic. After seriously asking myself if I've forgotten anything (I always forget something), I suddenly realize I don't have my skates! They're at work, in Ville St-Laurent. I don't have a key or a password for the security system, no way to get in. Worse, I don't even have the phone number of anyone from the office. Panic! I try 411, nothing. All the numbers of the people I work with are confidential. Charles gets an idea, try calling the security company for the place where I work. Smooth-talking charmer that we know him to be, he convinces the lady at the other end to give me the number of my boss. But first I have to say who I am, and wouldn't you know, my name's not in the computer! So the lady offers to call my boss for me and give him my telephone number. Of course I say yes! But it turns out that he can't come to open up for me, so he gives me the private number of the concierge. Imagine how awful I feel calling someone I barely know at 10:30 at night to ask him to do something like this for me. But it turns out great, he'll open the door for me next morning at 6.

Saturday August 10 - Oh joy! We get up at 5 in the morning, take off for Ville St-Laurent, and youppee, I've finally got my skates! I kiss the concierge, he deserves it! At last we can leave. We meet the others and leave around 7:30. The trip goes well, luckily we have air conditioning in the car because we're in a heat wave. After 7 and a half hours on the road, we finally reach the hotel. But there seems to have been a mistake with the reservations. Oh no! is everything going wrong again? But it turns out all right, the desk clerk is great and clears things up so we get an even nicer room. Together with Charles (the two of us hyperactive and impatient as always) and Dany, we go off to pick up our race kits, then put on our skates and away! Manhattan is ours. We skate the course around Central Park and I become jubilant. The surface is perfect, the park is so well maintained (compared to the rest of the city). Then we decide to take a chance in the famous NY traffic. Down from Central Park to Time Square, threading our way through the crowds at a sidewalk sale on Broadway, marvellous. Hunger came over us and S'Barros was the answer. Cafeteria-style with pastas and salads. Succulent. I would never have expected to find such good food in the States! But then the need to digest takes over, and back at the hotel we fall asleep around 9 pm. (Sidebar: I wake up, convinced it's 4 am and I have to get up -- what a great surprise to discover that it's still just 10:15!)

Sunday, August 11 - 4 am, that's early! Hard to get up, but all right. Small light breakfast, stretches, okay we're ready. We have to be at the start line by 5:30. It's dark out, nice and cool, super! 6 am, the first wave takes the start. I'm in the Advanced 10K, which starts next to last. For my first race, 10K is enough for me! All the others though are in the 40K Marathon. The park is huge, wooded, hilly. This means some slightly difficult uphills for a girl who's hardly trained, but it also means downhills. Oh-la-la! Some people would say I'm crazy about downhills, and it's true. They turn me on, adrenaline rushes through me, I eat it up! The slopes aren't steep but they're long and curvy. What more could you ask for? Unfortunately (or fortunately), I'm skating alone, because I can't find anyone going at my speed to tag up with. I end up in the middle, with a bunch ahead of me and a bunch behind. After 15 minutes my back starts to hurt. I forgot to stand up after the sprint from the start (Ha! the things I forget!), but I'm concentrating on my technique. About 3/4 of the way around I slow down because I'm hurting. I look around, try to enjoy everything going on around me. Time stops, the knot in my stomach finally lets go after being there all week, now everything's perfect. I pick up again and Rod comes along with several other skaters, I tag up behind them. We're coming towards the longest, twistiest downhill on the course. I can't believe my eyes, we're going so fast it's crazy! I feel like laughing, shouting, I love it. We get to the bottom and a gap opens up between me and the pack, I'm not heavy enough to coast along behind. But now the finish line is ahead and I'm going to cross it alone. Who cares, I'm used to skating solo. Finally I cross the line, hurray! I go back to the hotel to get my camera so I can catch the others when they finish. Back at the course I rehydrate and wait for them. I think everyone was pleased with their marathon. Just before the medal ceremony, our trio (Charles, Dany and I) left to freshen up at the hotel, then off we went to take NY by storm. We got on the subway, went down to see the empty space that used to be the World Trade Center, then came back to get ready to head home to Montreal.

Endless gags and giddiness on the return trip (Martine is a real jokester you know!). This was my first ever skating trip, so I remember every detail. And sharing it with people who were so encouraging has made it UNFORGETTABLE. Wow! Thanks to Charles for helping me get my skates back, to Dany for the use of his car, to everyone, Rod, Bernard, Martine, Pan, for encouraging me. (And Pan, I hope your injuries are better!)

Annie Pazzi