Please allow me to introduce myself…

Since this is  my introductory blog here at RunningMagazine.ca I’ll give you a quick overview of my running career so far and what I’m up to these days.

I’ve been running cross-country ever since the sixth grade and I haven’t missed a single season, although I’ve had to call two seasons short due to injury.  So yeah, I enjoy running, especially on the trails.  At the beginning of high school (Westdale S.S. Hamilton, ON) I didn’t quite make the top 5 on my team but I eventually clawed my way up to top runner by my final year.

Trinity, Port Hope.  Sept 1994. Afro power!

This cycle started all over again in University (U of Guelph) when I was the alternate for the provincial and national championships in my freshman year.  Once again I worked my way up to top runner and even got a Canadian University gold medal in the 3000m by my fifth year.

CIS XC champs.  Nov 2002.

For the past six years I’ve been trying to climb my way up through the professional ranks where this past summer I placed 25th at the World Championships marathon in Berlin.  For those who like the numbers here are my PB’s; 1500m 3:40.  3000m 7:53.  5000m 13:21.  10 000m 27:56.  Marathon 2:16:53.

World Championship marathon.  Aug 2009.

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Right now training is going really well.  I just finished my highest mileage week ever with 194km (120 miles) and my leg speed for the 5km and 10km seem to slowly be coming around after a summer of running marathons.  The club I train with (Speed River) in Guelph is awesome and it’s led by our coach Dave Scott-Thomas who also coaches the University of Guelph running teams.  There are four other athletes in the group who have competed in recent World Championships or the Beijing Olympics and a slew of other talented and motivated runners.  I do the majority of my mileage in Hamilton while doing two or three key workouts in Guelph each week.  Also, my main sponsors are New Balance and PowerBar as I try to make it possible to train full-time in a tough sport.

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My last race was the Canadian 10km Championships at the Zoo Run where I finished second to Simon Bairu.  That silver medal was my 10th national medal in the past 13 National Championships I’ve run (7 gold).  That performance also qualified me for the Chiba Ekiden (Japan) on November 23rd.  The race in Chiba is a mere five days before the National Cross Country Championships in Guelph on November 28th.  It’s going to be a crazy week, two 10km races and a trans-Pacific flight thrown in the mix!  It’s not ideal but I’m sure it will be a good experience… or at least a learning experience.

Zoo Run/Canadian 10km Champs.  Oct 2009.

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I did a talk earlier this week for a XC team at an elementaryschool where the kids basically bombarded me with questions, (it’s always fun to do Q&A withkids).  The best question I was asked was “what was your most memorable race?”  My most memorable race was in 2005 at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey.  I had just come off a 13:23 5000m a month earlier.  But, I was also coming off a poor showing at the World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki a week earlier.  So there I was, about to race a 5000m against a stacked field in 28C heat and having mixed emotions about my fitness.

Throughout the first half of the race I was back in the pack and out of the top 10 when something clicked and I ‘got after it’.  I slowly made my way past the other competitors and found myself in first place with one lap remaining.  I raced a Ugandan athlete back and forth on the backstretch to end up in second place (13:38).  To get a medal on the world stage was simply amazing and to come back after a poor showing the week prior washed away the bad taste I had from the World Championship race.  It was also cool that my coach Dave was there and I had a great time celebrating with friends that night.

World University Games 5000m.  Aug 2005.

I hope this review helps you understand where I’m coming from and what the heck I’m doing with running.  Thanks for reading this far and healthy running to all!