Day 33 June 8, 2011 Riviere Verte to Dejelis 46km

8 Jun

Time zones, physio, hailstorms, Quebec, 1,000km

As seems to be a recurring pattern, the morning after I run 60km I am slow to wake up, slow to get ready, and my pace is much slower. These mornings it feels like the last thing that I want to do is go for a run.

I had a physio appointment in Edmunston at around 11:30-12pm and so I started running until my appointment. It was hot outside and I was running slowly so I only managed to get 23km done, but by that time I was almost through the town of Edmunston.

I met Bertrand Belanger at Clinique de Physiotherapie d’Edmunston, and thanks to someone else not showing up he stretched me out for over an hour and a half. He showed me a number of new stretches, let me take a shower, and gave me some 2^nd skin, tape, and cold packs. When I tried to pay for the appointment he wouldn’t let me. He was really interested in helping me raise money and awareness too and said he was going to call some of his friends to get the word out. He also said he wanted to run with me on Friday when I entered Riviere-de-Loup.

About halfway through my physio a reporter from the local newspaper showed up, Bert having called him, and interviewed me while Bert stretched my legs. While I’d like to take credit for the multi-tasking, it was all Bert.

We also met Genevieve Levasseur, a physio student from Dejelis QC who was doing an internship over the summer at Bert’s clinic. She told us that she left for work at 7am and arrived at work at 8:30am and that when she went home she left work at 5pm and got home from work at 4:30pm. This was the first time we realised we were approaching our new time zone! Either that or she’s a time traveller.

Genevieve is very cute, a fact that did not escape Mike, and the two of them chatted a bit while I stretched. My French isn’t great but I think she might have been laughing a little too hard at his jokes…or maybe he’s just funnier in French? …

After physio I set off running again, with a plan to run another 30km to total 53km for the day. I still felt exhausted and my marathon physio session only served to relax me and make me want to sleep.

After almost exactly 10km I passed into Quebec at km 33. We took some pictures at the Quebec sign and spoke to some of the truckers at the nearby truck stop. I was now thoroughly exhausted and didn’t feel like running much further but I had a sandwich and some chocolate milk while Majid kept shoving fruit at me. As Mike and I started running again huge black clouds formed overhead. We started off on the trans-Canada Trail, which ran parallel to the highway. The humidity soon turned to drizzle, then rain, then, and I’m not exaggerating, the heaviest downpour I’ve ever seen. Within a minute there were rivers of water on the sides of the trail and we couldn’t see the highway anymore so, after passing through a tunnel that provided momentary relief and a cool video opportunity we ran back up the embankment to the highway. It wasn’t much better on the road; there were still literally rivers of water on both sides. All the trucks were driving slowly with their hazard lights on. We continued for a while before we decided that despite the better footing, the visibility was terrible and with big trailers passing us and spraying walls of water on us the trail would be safer.

It lasted much longer than I thought it could at that intensity but eventually slowed. So now not only was I exhausted but everything was soaked, including my shoes. Needless to say my pace was not awe-inspiring. By 46km I entered the town of Dejelis and decided that was far enough. I stopped at Hotel 1212, which was where we had been recommended to go for dinner and to watch the game.

I got to use the outdoor shower on the RV for the first time, thanks to being covered in mud, and got a few odd looks as I was washed my legs off in the parking lot.

At dinner that night at Hotel 1212, the ribs were great but the Canucks were not. Genevieve had been driving home when she spotted our RV in the parking lot and so stopped by. The second she sat down Majid started trying to set her and Mike up, and if you’ve ever met Majid, he was not subtle. I only wish the conversation was in English so I could have enjoyed it more.

By the time the second period was over, I could barely keep my eyes open and the Canucks weren’t doing anything to encourage my staying up. It also looked like Mike and Genevieve could use some time alone after all our heckling (read: Majid’s heckling! I can’t heckle effectively in French)

So Majid and I left them alone and drove to the nearby Esso parking lot. As for what happened with the two of them…who knows, I fell quickly asleep.

Lost in all the madness of the day is that fact that somewhere along the run today, I reached 1,000km total!