London 2012 Olympic Games...I'm an Olympian!

Where do I even begin. Well..lets start with the "Olympian" part. Last Saturday on June 30th, I qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games in the 800m. All I needed was a top 3 finish at our National Championships and I would earn my spot on the Olympic team with 25 other track and field athletes.

Leading up to that week, I travelled to Vancouver for the Harry Jerome track classic where I ran a good race, finished 3rd overall in 2:00.45. From there I went to Victoria for the Victoria International and won the race in 2:01.00. By that point, I was tired. I was really craving some training and some down time from travelling. In that past month of May and a little bit into June I had been racing lots and travelling even more. Luckily I made plans to head straight to Calgary after Victoria to stay with my cousin Jenny. The purpose of this trip was to get acclimatized to Calgary weather and just get some good training in with lots of down time. And I did exactly that. Jenny, D'Arcy, and Aja were such gracious hosts I felt like I was at home the moment I walked in the door. Jenny and I got some much needed time to catch up on everything as I stayed there for almost 2 weeks before the trials began. While visiting and relaxing, I did get some very good workouts in. A former Lancer athlete and friend of mine, Matt Sinclair, came out to take over as the "coach" for most of my track workouts. It was nice not doing the workouts alone.

On Wednesday, June 27 I moved into a hotel to prep for the Olympic Trials. My family also arrived that night and I was over the moon excited to see them. My brother Jonathan came out to surprise me, but it was a little to late for his liking when I saw him so he was a tad on the grumpy side. Never the less, I was ecstatic to see him and him to see me.

The track and field meet started on Wednesday, but my heats of the 800m didn't go until Friday evening. I was very nervous. I can't tell you why as I already had my A Standard and I was sitting in a good position for the finals. There's just something about running heats and the little unexpected things that might happen to throw you out of contention. Fortunately, I ran a smart race and won my heat and got a big Q to qualify for the final the next day. Big Q's mean that the first two women in each heat automatically "qualify" for the final, little q's mean the next two fastest times are the ones who get to enter the final. Once the heat was over I felt so much better, I was much more relaxed and felt good going into the next day. However, that changed VERY quickly once I woke up the next morning. Here I was facing the most important race in my career so far, the race that my entire season has been built up to...and I had to run it in almost 2 hours. When I say nervous- I mean very nervous. I was shaky, I couldn't eat, and I had a hard time smiling. Which usually isn't the case before any race. Sure, I get nervous- but I can usually get my lunch down and smile and laugh.

I saw my parents before the race and they both reminded me that I needed to have fun. That has been my motto for the entire year, why would it be any different know. And they were right, there's no reason that I couldn't make this fun as well (regardless of the fact that my Olympic berth was waiting on this one and ONLY race). My coach Dennis also offered some good advice. He said no matter what the outcome of this race, you cannot be upset with your season. You are the 3rd woman EVER to go under 2:00 minutes in Canada and you ran an outstanding personal best of 1:59.82. He was also correct, I couldn't be upset with that. But here I am thinking- if just the littlest of things go wrong I will have thrown away a dream of mine that I've had since I started running. Let me tell you- that was not going to happen. I quickly gathered myself together and by the time I was at the start line doing a few strides I was ready to go. I had calmed down about 10 folds and I was excited to run. Looking back on my nerves, I can see how quickly your mind can get in the way and potentially ruin everything. A lot of this is mental at this point and thankfully I was able to overcome it. I was reading an article about Jessica Zelinka, and her coach reffered to an article about a tennis player who was asked about the fifth set and how much of it is mental, and the tennis player (Ivan Lendl) replied with "No, if I'm fit, it's not mental". In other words, it's a lot easier to be mentally strong when your fit  and you're ready to shine. I'm the fittest I've been in my track career, so I think back to when I was nervous before my race, I put all my eggs into one basket to quickly. I needed to separate those eggs and look at the bigger picture and realise that this was all in my favour. I had the Olympic A+ standard, I'm fit, and I just need a top 3 finish- not even win, just top 3.

Lets get to the juicy part now. The race! Dennis and I talked before the race and he had prepared me to be ready for anything. A fast race and a slow one. There were currently 2 other women in the race who hadn't achieved the A Standard yet but were very close. They each had their B Standards respectively. Keeping that in mind, if they wanted an Olympic berth they would both have to run A Standard in this final to be selected. The thinking was that the pace was going to be fast and the girls were going to go after it. Well..it did the exact opposite. When the gun went off I was in lane 6. I had two women on my outside, so I couldn't really judge the pace until I got around the corner. We got to 200m in about 30 sec. and I knew then that this was going to be a sit and kick race. I was sitting in about 6th or 7th coming around to 400m. I was near the back of the pack, but had tucked in enough so that I wasn't running in lane 2 for the entire race. We split in 67-68 seconds, about 10 seconds slower than what we would normally split, and stayed in the same pack till about 250m to go. The pace wasn't really moving all that fast yet, but with 250m to go I knew I needed to make my move then... or forever hold my peace. Thank-fully I moved when I did, because all the other women decided to move as well. I surged to the front and challenged the leader, Lem-Lem, for first. We held our positions to the finish line, Lem- Lem with the gold, my-self with the silver, and Jessica (the other 800m Olympian joining me) with the bronze. It was a very tight race, 10th's of seconds separated us. But again, we did what we needed to do.

It was pure relief and elation once I finished that race. I'M GOING TO THE OLYMPICS is all that was running through my head. I hugged up Jessica as we had both realised our dreams in a mere 2minutes and 7 seconds. I could hear my family screaming (well my Mom and Auntie Donna, the boys (Dad and Jono) were too emotional to scream). I am so thankful that my family was there to share that with me. I even had some extended family from Calgary there as well, and of course my Lancer family. It was tears and hugs and celebrating for a good 15 minutes. I can't put into words this feeling, and it has yet to sink in that my dreams have come true. A lot of sacrifices have been made and there has been lots of hard work put into this dream by everyone involved.

While my family and I were celebrating in Calgary, the entire Valley (from what I've heard) was celebrating at home. My cousin, Emily Bishop, along with many good friends of ours planned a "Run for Melissa" in support of my training and realising my dreams. It was a HUGE, and I mean huge, success. Over 300 + runners came to participate and lots of volunteers involved. On top of that, the Trivia night that Stefanie Valiquette, Linda Roy, and Ben Phillion all started was another major event. Again, the entire Valley seemed to come together again and support my dreams. Raffle prize's, volunteers, the kinds words in emails, facebook messages, and texts... I've heard so many wonderful things from home and it's just been a constant support system for me. I cannot express in words how much I appreciate the support that everyone has been offering. Thank-you from the bottom of my heart to everyone involved, the event planners, the volunteers, the donations, to those who participated, and those who support me...THANK-YOU! I am amazed and to be honest, un-aware until about 2 months ago, the support I had at home. The Valley and surrounding area has offered me a support system that I didn't know could grow so large and that I would be so endlessly thankful for. I can't wait to see everyone when I get home :)

I'll be leaving for Europe in a few weeks. We have a raced planned in Dublin, Ireland and from there we will head over to London and Germany for a training camp before competition. My first round of 800's will be on August 8th! I've attached the race below for your viewing.

'Til next time,

Melissa
Canadian Olympic Trials- 800m