I went back to work this past weekend, skating in the first of 4 competitions used to qualify spots for the national development team for next year. This is known as the Canada Cup Circuit. The 4 competitons are Canada Cups 1, 2 and 3, and the North American Championships.
This weekend went well and I got some good points. My placings were:
1000m #1 - 2nd
1500m - 3rd
1000m #2 - 2nd
The times I skated were solid, but nothing really incredible. Having said so, I did what I needed to.
A quick explanation on how the CCs work. It is a circuit, just like F1 racing where you get points for every competition. At Olympic trials there were 2x500m, 1x1000m and 1x1500m. At every Canada Cup there are 2x500m, 2x1000m and 1x1500m. So over 4 Canada Cups and Trials there are a total of 10x500m, 9x1000m and 5x1500m.
The points earned are as follows:
1st place = 100 pts
2nd place = 80 pts
3rd place = 70 pts
4th place = 60 pts and so on.
Our final point totals for the year will be taken by adding up our best results, but we can drop a one or two of our worst results based on placings. I cant remember exactly how many we keep, I'd have to reread the rules. Times are nice, but what counts is the placing. Being second by 0.01 seconds or 1 sec still gets me 80 pts.
1000m: add up the best 7 or 8 of 9
1500m: add up the best 3 or 4 of 5
To qualify a spot for next year, the only guarantee is to win the distance overall..so being on the podium is nice....but realistically to qualify a spot, I'll need some wins.
Currently I'm in 2nd place in the 1000m and 3rd in the 1500m. This weekend I got some good points but I have lots of work to do yet.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
My Olympic journey is done...
That's it. My journey to qualify for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver is over and the ending was incredibly anti climatic. I don't know what to think or how I feel right now. I'm disappointed because I didn't qualify for the games but more so because my showing at Trials was poor at best.
Odds are that I wasn't going to qualify given how some others skated, and that's ok. I have no trouble being beaten if someone is just better than I am on that day. The catch was that I was in a great position with one lap to go, but my last lap was awful. I would have needed a great last lap to qualify but I do know that I would have gone much faster if I had just trusted myself to skate instead of scurrying through the last lap.
In the end, does it matter if I finished 4th or 8th? No. I would have liked to have a great race and be beaten, but going to the Olympics just wasn't in the cards for me for whatever reason.
I really believe that everything happens for a reason, even if that reason isn't initially apparent. Right now I'm not sure why I didn't qualify but in time i will find out. I do know that the reason wasn't for a lack of effort or care because I wanted to qualify so badly so that I could be apart of it all. Just thinking about the reality that I'm not going to the Games has brought me to tears at times.
This whole experience has made me ask some tough questions because I now feel a void inside me. I've worked so hard over the last few years to try and achieve this goal and it was over before I knew it.
Am I good enough?
Did I do everything I could?
Will I improve or have I hit a plateau? Will I ever be one of the best in the world?
Will I ever have as great of a race as the 1500m at Fall Trials in Richmond?
.....Was this whole process worth it?
This whole process started on an artificial turf field at UNLV in Las Vegas in May 2008 when my coach Marcel gave us a little speech about what we wanted to achieve with us leading up to the games: For us to have the race of our lives at Trials and let the cards fall where they may.
Since then, I have learned so much about myself as a skater, but most importantly, as a person.
I have been all over the world to places that most people would kill to go to:
Las Vegas, NV and Moab, UT
Richmond, BC on several occasions
Bend, OR on 2 occasions
Santa Cruz, CA
Berlin
Hereenveen
Salt Lake City, UT
During these trips and during training I shared some of the best times with my teammates and coach (see all my previous posts from the summer for the stories). We laughed, hurt and probably even cried together at some point along the way. I wouldn`t trade that for anything.
The journey was the only guarantee that I would get out of this experience and I loved every minute even though there were highs and some even greater lows. I got to experience something that most of the world will never even understand, never mind actually get to experience.
Thank you to everyone for being behind me along the way. I couldn`t have done it without you.
Thanks to the guys (and Nez) for being the best teammates that I could ever ask for. We pushed each other to the limit to be as ready as we could be, and had a blast along the way. We are all responsible for getting each other to where we are, and for us who didn`t qualify, when our teammates win medals at the Olympics, we`ll know that we were apart of it.
Thanks to Marcel for being quite possibly the best coach on the planet. For believing in me and doing everything he could to have me ready for Trials. There is really nothing more to say because that last line says it all.
Finally, thanks to my dad and Luc for supporting and pushing me to be my best.
It was a hell of a ride. This journey has now ended, but the next one has just begun.
Odds are that I wasn't going to qualify given how some others skated, and that's ok. I have no trouble being beaten if someone is just better than I am on that day. The catch was that I was in a great position with one lap to go, but my last lap was awful. I would have needed a great last lap to qualify but I do know that I would have gone much faster if I had just trusted myself to skate instead of scurrying through the last lap.
In the end, does it matter if I finished 4th or 8th? No. I would have liked to have a great race and be beaten, but going to the Olympics just wasn't in the cards for me for whatever reason.
I really believe that everything happens for a reason, even if that reason isn't initially apparent. Right now I'm not sure why I didn't qualify but in time i will find out. I do know that the reason wasn't for a lack of effort or care because I wanted to qualify so badly so that I could be apart of it all. Just thinking about the reality that I'm not going to the Games has brought me to tears at times.
This whole experience has made me ask some tough questions because I now feel a void inside me. I've worked so hard over the last few years to try and achieve this goal and it was over before I knew it.
Am I good enough?
Did I do everything I could?
Will I improve or have I hit a plateau? Will I ever be one of the best in the world?
Will I ever have as great of a race as the 1500m at Fall Trials in Richmond?
.....Was this whole process worth it?
This whole process started on an artificial turf field at UNLV in Las Vegas in May 2008 when my coach Marcel gave us a little speech about what we wanted to achieve with us leading up to the games: For us to have the race of our lives at Trials and let the cards fall where they may.
Since then, I have learned so much about myself as a skater, but most importantly, as a person.
I have been all over the world to places that most people would kill to go to:
Las Vegas, NV and Moab, UT
Richmond, BC on several occasions
Bend, OR on 2 occasions
Santa Cruz, CA
Berlin
Hereenveen
Salt Lake City, UT
During these trips and during training I shared some of the best times with my teammates and coach (see all my previous posts from the summer for the stories). We laughed, hurt and probably even cried together at some point along the way. I wouldn`t trade that for anything.
The journey was the only guarantee that I would get out of this experience and I loved every minute even though there were highs and some even greater lows. I got to experience something that most of the world will never even understand, never mind actually get to experience.
Thank you to everyone for being behind me along the way. I couldn`t have done it without you.
Thanks to the guys (and Nez) for being the best teammates that I could ever ask for. We pushed each other to the limit to be as ready as we could be, and had a blast along the way. We are all responsible for getting each other to where we are, and for us who didn`t qualify, when our teammates win medals at the Olympics, we`ll know that we were apart of it.
Thanks to Marcel for being quite possibly the best coach on the planet. For believing in me and doing everything he could to have me ready for Trials. There is really nothing more to say because that last line says it all.
Finally, thanks to my dad and Luc for supporting and pushing me to be my best.
It was a hell of a ride. This journey has now ended, but the next one has just begun.
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