Canadian Season Has Begun!

It has again been a while since I have posted. Things have been pretty busy and interesting for the past few weeks. One of my goals for this year was to be able to participate in a series of races in the National Track League in Canada, which is a high performance race circuit which hosts athletes from countries all around the world. As part of my season, I start racing in Canada after the NCAA season ends and the NTL would fit perfectly.

I was not sure if I would be invited to such a race circuit but I decided to try to contact the athlete coordinators. I received an email back saying I could race. A few days later I received another email from the second meet saying they wanted me to race there too. Exciting for me for sure.

I spent a lot of time trying to plan all my Canadian trips. Most athletes at my level have someone to do things like this for them. I take care of all aspects of my running career except for the coaching (nowadays).

First race on the Canadian tour was in Windsor. I started my Canadian racing in here last year and it was a great place to race, along with having great people to get to know. I was looking forward to this race because I didn’t race the weekend before, so my goals were set high. My heats round was a 14.25, my personal best for a heats round, and also my second best career time. In the finals I was able to improve slightly to 14.22 to take 2nd place. Although these were my second and third fastest career times, they were not the times I was looking for. More work to be done.

Next stop in Canada was the NTL #1 meet in Guelph Ontario. Because I was trying to keep my spending down, I decided to drive Saturday morning to Guelph, which is a 4.5 hr drive. A few hours later I was racing, and then I drove home through the night getting home around 3am. My race result was my second fastest career time at 14.16 to finish 4th and had basically no wind. I was a little happier but still not the result I was looking for. The goal this season is to start running in the 13 second range. For my first NTL meet I can’t complain with a 4th place finish in a group of hurdlers which included at least 1 or 2 Olympians.

NTL #2 - After recovering for a day at the Avondale High School Track along with going back to work on Monday, I was on a plane at 5am Tuesday to Halifax Nova Scotia. When I arrived, the man who drove me to the residence hall mentioned I was the last to arrive. It is not normal at this level to arrive by plane and race the same day. It takes a lot out of a person to travel but having a full time job I have some limitations. The weather in Halifax was not good. Race time temp was about 3-​​4 degrees (37 F) with constant down pouring rain. These conditions were by far the worst I have ever raced in and I was glad to get away without injury. I was able to finish 4th again, just outside of paying position.

For my first two NTL meets I can’t complain. There were some things that didn’t go well and I didn’t quite hit my goals but I can check off a goal of mine for the year.

I will now train for 2 weeks and then race again in Canada on the 19th and 20th of June in Ottawa. More crazy travel to come! Just this time I am hoping to see a 13 as the first number on the result sheet.