Time for an update.
Well, well, highschool cross country season has sadly come to an end.
Here I am, seriously procrastinating on catching up on the homewrok I missed after two days of school forever lost. Oh well.
The cross country season started out slow, I only did the cross country races needed to qualify for OFSAA, as well as one race that I did in Sherbrooke, QC, for Asics.
The Asics race was a great experience in a beautiful park, Parc Lafontaine, and they were the Quebec Junior Road Racing Championships. I definitely think that I was a dark horse, as i am not from Quebec, but it was more of a race just for fun and I took it that way the entire way through.
As for school cross country, I did the NCSSAA west conference and city championships, doing only what I needed to qualify. We had one warm race and one cold race at the Walter Baker Park in Kanata, which I believe is a potential site for OFSAA next year. Samantha Klus, a midget girl who is also a member of the Storm, did amazingly well in all of her races and won both times for west conference and cities!!
Then, on friday, we were off to OFSAA, in Vaughan at the Boyd Conservation Area. I ran the course nice and slowly to get my footing a bit once we arrived after our 5 hour trip, and discovered the amazingly steep "Mammoth Hill" that I would have to run the next day. After some technical talk & thoughts we settled into our all inclusive resort....
The next morning it was up and away to the course, I had my usual breakfast, but upon failing to bring my own milk I ended up paying $2.00 for less than one cup of milk at the restaurant next door. So much for continental breakfast!! Oh well, guess I can't have eveerything....
We piled on to the buses and arrived in a timely manner, I had over four hours to relax and take in some races before the start. I got to catch up with some great people, girls that I had raced against before, old friends, and so on. I was very happy to see Craig T and his absolutely gorgeous daughter Kate...after helping to push his stroller I was mistaken for his wife (I guess they didn't quite catch the braces) but it was all in good fun :)
Coach Greg came out to catch the excitement, once he arrived I truly began to feel confident and relaxed. We discussed a couple approaches and easily came to an agreement on the best one, and soon enough it was time to watch Samantha race in the midget girls!
Sam had an amazing first race at OFSAA, I can remember my first provincials back in Thunderbay...25 hour bus ride, snow, freezzing cold, sleeping giant, not knowing what to expect...it is all about gaining experience!! She did a great job in staying strong and placed an impressive 16th, better look out for this girl!
Some eventful occurences happened throughout the day, but most notably was the deer collision during one of the races. This deer did not collide with a car, but rather a poor girl. There were rumors that she now has a broken collarbone...my coach and I joked of images of a dear emerging from the forest with a jersey around one antler and a shoe hanging off the other...poor girl....
As it happens when time passes, it was eventually time for me to warm up and get to the starting line. I had some interesting experiences in trying to locate a washroom without a one billion person line up, which, if anyone is wondering, is the only hint that I will give if they are questioning the reason why there were numerous burs stuck to my hair and clothing... :P I was placed in box #1 with the rest of the girls from the NCSSAA region, and we were the very furthest to the left. This was a slight concern since the first turn was a sharp right after the initial sprint, but it worked out just fine in the end. I was happier that we got to avoid the gargantuan mud pit in the centre of the field.
The initial sprint....my least favorite part....
But guess what? It went amazingly well. I think I learnt my lesson after having to run up to the front from more than 100 back last year at OFSAA. I was told that most people would be looking out for me, so there was no point in holding anything back. I quickly made it the rest of the way up to the front and held a steady pace. I wanted to may anyone who wanted to stick with me work hard, and was very conscious of getting into the forest section in the lead pack, where opportunities for passing were very limited. All of my worries kind of evaporated once I got out there and started running - it was all I had to do, just run.
With some focus and great cheering from some good friends and family, I build up a pretty solid gap and glided into a pace. I believe I finished with a 25 second lead on second place, although Ian Donald was quite disappointed that I didn't have a victory dance planned. Next time....
Overall it was a fantastic day, beautiful weather, great course, with some triathletes from the Bytown Storm, Tristan Woodfine, Domi Jamnicky and I, coming out on top of the Senior division. Tristan had a breathtaking race, dominating from the start, but it wasn't much of a suprise. I think he was greatly inspired by my performance and decided that he had to do just as well :) He knows I would have teased him forever if his result was any different. :P Domi Jamnicky also had a stupefying race...she had an unbelievable sprint finish at the end and really put everything out there, as she does with every race. Her effort was truly evident to everyone watching. Woohoo everyone.
I couldn't have done it without everyone there, thanks to my coaches, parents, sister, aunt, friends, and one particular white haired gentleman in particular. (no Craig, you are never to tell Greg about his IDENTICAL twin :)
Well the month of November still hold some myseries, including OTFA provincials and Nationals in Guelph...as well as my birthday!
See you at the races!
(I wanted to be as cliché as possible)
Full Results
http://www.trackdatabase.com/viewmeet.php?current_meet=zzzz_db258
Pictures soon to come!!!
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