Holding Camp Jeju, Korea
Spent the last 2 weeks in Jeju Island with the rest of Team Canada Athletics putting finishing touches to training.
Weather was pretty good overall and meant some good training sessions. Managed to spend some down time exploring the area and of course found a ubiquitous Starbucks Coffee shop!!
Kim and I......practising out camera pose!
Beijing Babes - Nicole Sassine, Shaina Harrison, Aiyanna, Audrey Baptiste, Ice and me at the local coffee shop
Also managed to spend some downtime at the beach relaxing which was fun…
Next stop Beijing and the Birds Nest Stadium where I ran my personal best at the 2008 Olympics…..nervous but excited to be going back!
World Championships, Beijing
The Birds Nest Stadium….what an incredible place!
Walking in again brought back lots of memories of the 2008 Olympics. Nine years ago this group of athletes were together at the World Juniors also held in Beijng......, now with the same group of athletes at the World Championships!!
World Juniors in Beijing 2006...looking a lot younger!!!
I finally got to catch up with Coach Nick and chat about race plans which meant starting to think about my races and so start to get nervous.
Most people seem to think that as athletes we get to travel the world and see places…which to a degree is true. I’ve been blessed to visit some amazing countries and meet wonderful people. Down side is that athletics, for most of us, isn’t a career job, we do it because we love to compete and push ourselves to see how good we are. We flew into Beijing 3 days before I competed, and left the day after the relay finals….the only morning off was spent going to the Silk Market for 2 hours with a few of the athletes to look for clothes. I wish I had had more time to spend there and go visit more of the cultural sites in China rather than hotel room, hotel dining room, bus, warm track, Stadium, return bus, hotel room…repeat for ten days!!! Becomes a little like Ground Hog day!
My races were probably the best I could have expected given my season. A knee injury at the start that prevented me running until March. Mixed success at the Toronto training group especially up to the World Relay Championships and then seeking help to better prepare for the World Championships and slowly returning to my best shape. After contemplating giving up New Year 2015 but being persuaded not too by close friends and family, a semi final place in the individual 400m and 15/100s off my PB from 2008 at the same stadium wasn’t too shoddy. A place in the relay final and again running sub 51.5s lead legs has been a strong end to my season.
World Championships Relay finalists - Stage, Nicole, Aiyanna and I
Most importantly when I started this journey in the New Year my plan was the run the Olympic Qualifying standards for Rio 2016, try and qualify for the World Championships in my individual event and stay injury free. In truth, I did all that plus helped Athletics Canada qualify for the 4x400m Womens Relay in Rio 2016 and narrowly missed out on a PB, proving lots of people wrong about my career being finished.
There are too many people to thank here and many of the them I have thanked in person….and if I haven’t I promise Ill get around to it!
his coach helped turn the end of my season into a success and Im hoping he can get me into 50s shape for next year…52s isn’t gong to cut it and 51s may only get into a semi final…Next time I want to be in that final in Rio.
I also need to thank @AthleticsCanada for their support this year. I hope I have shown I can help my country get to finals and with the group of girls we now have in the 400m, if we can all step up next year there is no reason why we cant get to the finals next year and match the boys successes in the relays!!
Thanks to everyone who has supported me this year…without you I couldn’t have got here….now time to work hard for that Olympic final.