Well, Another season has come and gone. All in all, it's been a pretty darn good one. 4 personal bests in 3 events, lowering my own provincial record twice, a senior national team, Olympic trials final, travel from coast to coast of Canada, and most importantly, meeting and creating connections with some truly amazing people.
As I said in my last post, Nationals wasn't the most satisfying race of my life. I am content with my result, but obviously wanted and expected better. I am still young in the sport and am learning more and more each year the importance of patience in championship racing. I am certain in the years to come my placement at Nationals will be a lot for on par with my ranking going in.
After the trials I had a few days to decompress and then traveled out to Moncton for the first stop of the east coast part of the National Track League. Moncton was a slower more tactical race, in which I practiced my patience and ended up 6th in a close race where only 2 seconds separated 1st from 7th.
I then headed to Halifax for NTL #5, the Aileen Meagher Track Classic. This meet did a fantastic job of advertising and getting fans into the stands. Having two locals going to the 2012 Olympics probably didn't hurt. The meet organisers did a great job of creating a really fun, energetic environment. It showed in the results of the races. This race went a quicker and I ended up 4th in my second fastest time of my life.
I was pretty stoked on that result and went into the NTL finale in Toronto feeling really strong and confident. Nate Brannen came to Toronto to race and had Geoff Harris pace. Geoff, along with having a phenomenal season in his individual races, has gotten pretty good at pacing 1500m as well. I knew this was going to be a great race and I needed to take advantage of it. I immediately tucked in behind Nate and decided I was just going to stay there for as long as I could. Turns out, I was able to stay there for the entirety of the 1500m race. I finished second to Nate in a new personal best time of 3:40.15. I was really happy with my performance and very proud of my courage, I just really wish I had of dipped under that 3:40 barrier.
Since then I took two weeks off, during which I realised I must be maturing and growing up. I went back and read a post I put up in 2010 about my 2 week break, you can read it here. This year was significantly different. Instead of pulling all-nighters and drinking my face off, I focused on what this two weeks is actually about, recover. Don't get me wrong, I had a few good nights of going out and being a normal human, but certainly nothing like that of the legendary break of 2010.
I have gotten back to running now, and admittedly probably did a little too much too soon. Can't blame me though, how could I not with the Olympics going on! I have really toned it down and am being a lot more cautious. The season is long, I don't need to get fit in 2 weeks.
Speaking of running, I think I'm going to go for a run right now!
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