How I really feel about my summer season

My summer racing season officially ended with a win at the Canadian 5K Road Championships and I’m already a few days deep into a full rest period. Downtime, as it’s called by elites, is a great time to reflect on the season, relish in accomplishments and identify areas for improvement.

My season has left me simply satisfied. I ran a personal best in my main event, I made the IAAF World Championships team and then I went on to defend my 5,000m track and 5K road national titles. This year was a great continuation from last year, my breakthrough year, both in performance as well as experience. Overall, I’m proud of the things I was able to accomplish this year, but I aspire to run faster times and place higher at major championships in the future.

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What I value most in this sport is consistency. I admire athletes like Melissa Bishop and Mo Ahmed who year after year represent Canada and run world class times. This is something I strike for myself as an athlete. In pursuit of  this same consistency, I’m glad to add this year’s victories on top of last year’s. I’m most proud of proving to myself and others that last year was not a fluke. My Olympic year was not a once off. By running another nine seconds faster over 5,000m and competing at Worlds, I showed the type of consistency that I value most.

There’s no denying that World’s was a bit of a let down for me, but I’m gaining a greater understanding of what it takes to compete at the world class level. A large part of this is racing experience.

Last year, I was a complete rookie at the world class level. And it showed. This year, I was lucky enough to race in my first Diamond League in Rome and the KBC Night of Athletics in Heusden, Belgium which is consistently as competitive as a World Challenge. These two races gave me more experience racing at a world class level and gave me more practice at racing in unfamiliar situations. With that, I was able to go into these high-level events with confidence and calm.

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But not making the final is the one standout thing that highlights where my gaps were this year. I look forward to working to correct those for Worlds in 2019.

Regardless of the races, much of this season was simply a lot of fun. I got to escape the harsh Toronto winter with a training camp in San Diego. Shortly after, I trained at altitude in Flagstaff for a month. I got to race in my “home” country of Italy at my first Diamond League. After making worlds, I trained in one of the most beautiful places in the world in St. Moritz.

In all of these experiences, I got to train and travel with other Canadian athletes, including fellow Olympian and World Championships qualifier, Jessica O’Connell. All of these things are “extras” in the sport, but have really made me appreciate how many opportunities to see the world that it can open up.

As with anything, there were highs and lows this season, but ultimately this year was a step forward in my development to becoming the truly world class 5,000m runner that I believe I can become.