[Translated by Rod Willmot] As planned, we left Montreal Saturday morning around 7:30, 5 of us in one car: me, Pan, Fred, Bernard and Martine. Off to see our New-York friends and participate in the Central Park Marathon and Half-marathon. The trip went pretty quickly, and we were lucky to get through the Canada/US border without much of a delay. However, on arriving in New York we had a lovely surprise when we inspected our magnificent hotel room, which was stocked with a supply of free cockroaches!!! We went out to explore Central Park on our skates, partly to familiarize ourselves with the course but also because we had to get up to 49th Street to pick up our race-kits. On Sunday morning we got up really early (4 am!) in order to get to the race on time, since it started at 6. We were all kind of tense. Martine and I tried to relax by fooling around, but after a little craziness we had to head out to Central Park and that's when I began to feel the pressure. It was even worse at the start line. As I waited for my race to start I watched the Pro Men and Pro Women take off, and I felt completely alone, with no one around that I knew. But once we took the start everything went naturally and I didn't feel any stress at all anymore. My goal this time was to finish well, but above all to finish my race. Right from the start, I found myself a team-mate and skated with her for practically the whole 21K. I passed Bernard and suggested that he skate with us, but I guess he didn't want to....... About 15 minutes into the race, it started to rain, making the pavement and the course extremely slippery, especially the uphill towards the finish line. We also met up with Carolyn Gullo from Toronto, who linked up with us for a little while but broke off after the downhill, which really put a scare into all of us. All the rest of the race was in the rain. It was fun in a way but also quite dangerous, especially on one of the downhills. In fact Pan fell twice there!!! But Mister Pan is indestructible and each time he managed to get up and keep skating. The finish was really tough, since it came at the top of an uphill that was pretty hard to climb. Since I was doing the 21K, I had a chance to see Martine's finish; she stayed with the Pro Women all the way through the 42K and finished 4th. I also saw Pan and Fred cross the line. Pan finished 1st in Advanced, and Fred finished 28th in Pro Men. I don't know where Bernard finished, sorry..... After being out all morning in the rain, we just hoped none of us came down with a cold! The awards ceremony was one of the best parts of the day, because Martine, Pan and I all got prizes, including medals for Pan and me. But the day wasn't over yet, since we still had to head back to Montreal. We finally got home in the early evening, and believe me a good night's sleep was highly appreciated after such a full weekend. And next weekend we start it all over again... in Toronto, where I'll be skating my first full 42K. But I'll have to tell you that story later... Morgane Échardour