Pierre Elliott Trudeau 24 HOUR RACE
Dows Lake, Ottawa, Canada 
7-8 October 2000 

Pierre Elliott Trudeau / Last Minute 24-hr 
by Ryne Melcher                               John Remington's report                      results

Here are the official results and split times from this weekend's 24-hr race at Dows Lake Pavillion in Ottawa Ontario.

The course was 500 meters out and back along the Dows Lake and the Rideau Canal.  Scenery was excellent however the temperature and 180 degree turns were not.  The start saw a temperature of -1 degree Celsius and the day time high was only 7 degrees which felt more like 2 or 3 with the wind.  Night time low was -2 degrees.  The rain / snow did hold off which made things somewhat tolerable.

Congratulations to all runners on braving the temperatures and running well.  Special congratulations to this year's winners Steve Govier and Brenda Hann.  They covered 180k and 129k respectively.

The volunteers deserve a big thanks as well because they were all found on 4 days notice.  The folks who volunteered were:

John Cookson, Barbara Gehl, Maureen Dick, Frank Melcher, Craig Melcher, Laura Melcher, Virginia Govier, Gaeten Portelance, Terry Gehl, Michel Gouin's girlfriend, David Niemi for getting supplies from the Running Room, Tony Martin for the screen tent, tables, coleman stoves and signs,  John Remington and Leslie Nigh for supplying draw prizes, Runners Choice in Waterloo for draw prizes, the National Capital Commission and the City of Ottawa, Marc Graveline from the NCC who put a permit together for me that normally takes 2 months in 3 days, Al Ferguson who got me all the numbers to contact as well as measuring the course.

Suppose They Cancelled A Race and Everyone Turned Up!
by John Remington

The 20th edition of the Sri Chinmoy 24 hour race in Ottawa was cancelled a week prior to the race date due to construction at the track. Enter Ryne Melcher and Jennifer Dick. Within the week they had organized a replacement event and got 29 runners to run it. Considering they were in Waterloo (500 km from Ottawa) until the day before the race, the organizational effort was amazing. Literally the whole race needed to be rebooked down to every detail except for the entry form. 

The course was suggested to us by Al Ferguson but Ryne still had to measure it with him on Friday night using a 15 metre steel tape.

The Pavilion allowed us to us its facilities all night for the same cost as the Terry Fox track-$850! Still Ryne and Jen kept the cost down to the original $75. Medals will be sent soon and we already have our certificates. 

Brenda Hann was most grateful for Ryne's efforts as her airline ticket couldn't be exchanged after she heard the race was off. To celebrate this Brenda swept past a sleeping Leslie Nigh in the early hours to place first woman with 129k. Leslie was woken up and told her lead had slipped to 4k but
she was happy to have second place sealed up with 122k and a personal best distance for her. Now if Joe Cleary had been entertaining Leslie instead of Brenda she may have won! Aimee Runge ran a great 116K to get third despite back pain and a touch of the Pittsburghs (diarrhoea) during the whole race. 

The course was changed at the last minute to put the turnaround closer to the toilets. The 180 degree turns slowed us all but didn't really cause much discomfort. The 90 degree bend however did cause almost the entire field problems including myself. The camber was steep and soon my injuries were screaming.

Winner Steve Govier (180k) went the distance at a sensible pace to secure both his first ever race victory and the Male under 50 division of the OUS. On this course this was a massive effort. Poor Steve almost lost his race when he took a Gravol tablet for acute nausea and fell asleep while walking. Virginia Govier should get a special mention for going beyond the marathon distance as Steve's crew. Virginia also crewed myself and others extremely well.

Guy Lambert ran brilliantly for second place in 172k. He PB'd at the 100k mark by 27 minutes! More amazingly was his good humour the whole time even as his initial 100k PB effort came home to roost during the night. 

Rolly Portelance took third with 164k and put on a display of how to run these things. As the rest of us shivered and whined about the cold and the course Rolly kept running in his shorts and T-shirt! 

Another notable performance was Marion Landry running 100k to secure the 50 and over Female OUS division. Marion ran most of the race with her husband Don. 

Ryne got us all to carry flags on our 100 kilometre lap which was fun. Leslie and I ran ours as Ron Gehl did his but I don't think he was feeling too good! Jess Heroux did his 50k in only 13:19 and looked great as he ran his last kilometre carrying a large Canadian flag. Brenda and Joe also ran their 100 kilometre lap together. This truly was a couples ultra as Ryne ran a few laps with Jenn. Guy Lambert's girlfriend Lucie Henault walked laps with him as she power walked to 67k!

Thanks to Ryne's Dad, brother Craig, and sister Laurie we had lap counters to replace the Sri Chinmoy lap counters who were unfortunately in New York. How well they did was summed up by Peter Suomela (150.7k) who said they were the best counters he'd ever had. Rolly also had kind words to say about them.

During the night the OUS 2000 Male 50 and over winner Ron Gehl (100k) retired from the race to the Pavilion (yes, the course was that tough!). A wedding reception was going on and a couple of the female guests asked Ron if he was homeless. Ron laughed and said yes. He then laughed again and asked them if they had a home! Unfortunately for Ron they didn't take him home with them.