My name is Michel Parent, I am a 52 year old male who's still sweating profusely after completing a tough 60 minute battle against a not too friendly wind. I skated under a beautiful sunny sky, not a cloud in sight. The temperature was 8.5 Celcius with easterly winds at 35 km/h and gusts at 44 km/h.

I skated all alone with my son Yanick as a witness. Because of the strong wind, I slighly modified the course I had previously intended to follow. I skated 23.1 km along a country road that links the Canadian Air Force Base Bagotville to the Grande Anse harbor on the Saguenay River. As a reference, this is located about 200 km north of Quebec City and 465 km north/east of Montreal.

When I registered through Rod for the Skate Around the World event a few weeks ago, I was fairly confident that I could skate at least 25 km between 15:00 and 16:00, under normal conditions. I had completed the Montreal marathon in September at an average speed of 25 km. But right from the start today I knew it wasn't going to be easy. It was the kind of day when the wind always seems to be in your face, never pushing you. Wind or not, I wasn't going to give up. After all, I have skated 2000 km so far this year and I wasn't going to let the wind spoil my day.

It was tough at times but I was thinking of our local hero Pierre Lavoie who did the Ironman in Hawaii last Saturday and finished first in the 40-44 age group. Pierre was saying that at times the wind was so strong during the bike section of the race that he was only doing 14 km/h on the flat.

I enjoyed being part of this event and I would like to thank you Clemens for giving me this opportunity. I love inline skating and I think that Skate Around the World is a wonderful idea and a way to promote our sport and bring people together.

Regards,
Michel