The Nationals That Never Ends

I woke up on Sunday morning tired and exhausted after only four hours of sleep. A 15k elimination and the 500m heats+finals were on schedule so obviously I felt sufficiently not ready. The 15k elimination race happened first thing in the morning. My game plan was simple...sprint as fast as I possibly could to hang on to the pack and sprint as fast as I possibly could to delay elimination. Well, things worked according to plan though of course it was not a great feeling knowing that I was the first skater to get lapped out so quickly (and thus eliminated).

The rest of the day was just a waiting game. We ran a bunch of distance races before the spitting rain finally materialized into a downpour. With the track soaking wet, all the 500m races had to reschedule to the next day. Of course, typical of the way weather has been teasing us all weekend, by the time we all finished cleaning bearings, it was sunny outside and the track dried up.

We returned on Monday for the 500m heats and finals and the relays. Only half of the senior men showed up but for whatever strange reason, all the senior women were at the ready. I was in the first heat racing with SaH, LK, and ShH. Since the beginning of last season, my 500m time has somewhat plateaued at the one minute mark. Even at Provincials a month ago, I was not able to break one minute. Before coming to Nationals, I promised JaS that I will get to 59s at last so that thought was on my mind when I rolled to the start line. I was at the outside based on my placement in the 300TT so definitely was at a disadvantage.

Start of the senior women heat 1. Photo by Peter Doucet.

The start signal went off and I just ran like I have so many times at indoor practices. Before we hit the apex, I realized there were only blurs of blue in front of me...meaning I got in front of LK who was in her red and black skinsuit! How did that happen? Well, who cares! All that mattered was I stay ahead of her. I gave it all I could but she finally passed me in the last corner. As soon as I got off the track, PD told me in excitement "100m opener was about 13s, 300m was in the 33s, and the final time was 54.76!". OMG, could this really be true?! After the race, coach AH told me that the reason I lost to LK was because I got timid as she closed in on me with much shorter strides. This is one very important lesson to learn.

Start of the senior women B final. Photo by Peter Doucet.

In my 500m B final, I got the 3rd lane from the inside with LK and CP on my left and DL on my right. When I raced DL at Provincials, she was so much stronger than me that it was not even a race. However, I had a great start and got in third again. From then on, it was a matter of delaying her from getting in front of me. I tried to make it difficult for her to pass me especially in the corners but it finally happened with one lap to go. I was still very proud of my 55.35s finish time.

A very cool shot of me during the open women relay. Photo by Peter Doucet.

The weather was definitely joking with us because it rained again before relays. How frustrating! We had the medal ceremony and luckily the track dried up. I was on the Toronto Inline team with SaH and ShH. We were up against Team Canada with MC, ME, and CP....a very strong team. Our goal for the race was to stay on the same lap with them and just skate as hard as we could. And we did it. Team Canada posted a record time but unfortunately, due to an error with the lap counting (they made us skate one extra lap!), their time could not be counted for record. However, all of us were just so tired from this long weekend of racing that nobody wanted to race anymore. So the records that ShH, CP, and I posted at Provincials will stand for another year. Heh.

Team Toronto Inline. Photo by Peter Doucet.

My first year racing as Senior Women in the Nationals has been a very positive experiece overall. I posted some very significant personal best times but more importantly, I was out there racing. Before the weekend, I had a strong impression that I would be very out of place but turned out it was not the case. Sure I came in last in every distance (haahaa) but I was right there in the mix of things for the sprint races. More importantly, I learned to manage a more demanding racing schedule and how to warm up properly before each race. I see how my weaknesses are magnified in race situation and it motivates me to improve my track skating technique.