It has been a while since my last blog, in fact it was just after I raced in Canberra where I did a personal best and second fastest time in the 100m ever that I last wrote a blog, obviously I need to catch you all up on what has been happening.
The rest of the Australian season had its ups and downs and a lot of frustration. A few weeks after racing in Canberra I headed over seas for a sponsorship appearance and unfortunately ended up with food poisoning. I recovered quickly from it, but was scheduled to race in Brisbane the day after I arrived back which wasn’t the most ideal circumstances but I had already committed to racing there that I couldn’t really back out. I ended up winning the race with a pretty reasonable time of 12.74, I believe that I was in better shape than that but with everything that I had been through that week I couldn’t really complain.
Because I got food poisoning and also travelling around the world meant that I missed training all that week, so I found myself having to catch up the week after which also included a race in Sydney in the 200m scheduled in that Saturday. Training wasn’t great that week, I felt sore all through my body as I was still recovering from being sick and by the time I got to Sydney I was only just starting to feel a little on the “normal” side again, but for us athletes, normal isn’t good enough, we need to feel electric, with that meant I didn’t race to my best and ended up coming 3rd and running 23.44, I was slightly disappointed but again I had put things into perspective and realize I am getting better each day.
After Sydney came another week of training and another week of “money in the bank” so to speak. I had another race in Melbourne the weekend after Sydney and this time I was racing in the hurdles, back to where I “belong”. I warmed up really well before Melbourne and was starting to feel like an elite athlete again which is hard to explain unless you have felt that feeling, unfortunately the race didn’t go to plan, I still won the race in 12.9 but problems that were completely out of my control didn’t allow me to be at my best which I was really disappointed about and hopefully these problems will never arise again!!!
Nationals was a week after the Melbourne track classic, I was feeling nervous because of the preparation that I had leading into it. I hadn’t trained well I hadn’t been competing well and I was starting to doubt myself, even though I couldn’t control what happened to me during the preparation and during those races leading up to nationals I was still doubting my ability.
I was due to race in the 100m and the 100m hurdles. I turned up to the 100m heat feeling really good and excited to run, the wind was really swirly and with that came huge head winds which can make sprinting quite difficult, I won my heat in a terrible time for me 11.63 I was devastated I couldn’t believe I was seeing that time come up!! Then the doubts really set in I felt so down and out!! I didn’t sleep well that night but surprisingly when I did get to sleep it was sound and I woke in quite good spirits. I turned up to the warm up track feeling good and again just wanted to get out there and race. I ran well and won my semi final in 11.28 but, while I was racing I felt tightness in my hamstring and when I crossed the finish line I told myself that it wouldn’t be smart to run the final. I have way to much experience with hamstring injuries in the past that this time I was going to be smart and not race the final that was about 2 hours after the semi. I was so proud of myself for listening to my body and making sure I would be ok for the hurdles that I had the next day.
Sunday, the last day of the national championships and I was racing in an event that I have dedicated my life to and haven’t perfected yet! The 100m hurdles.. I couldn’t wait to get this race underway; I had had a really good week of training and was really starting to feel that “electric” feel again. I raced through the heats quite easy with a 12.71 which was a meet record into a head wind of -0.7 I was looking forward to racing the final which was just under 2 hours away, I knew I was going to run faster in the final and I wanted to make sure that everything was going to well…this for me means stepping up my game and becoming the fierce competitor that I am. I was ready for that final, I was ready to run fast and I wasn’t letting anyone stop me. I won the final in 12.59 when I heard the time called out I yelled out a huge scream and quite a few fist pumps, I was celebrating like I had just won the world championships but for anyone that knows me knows that when I feel I have run a good race no matter how big the competition is I celebrate well, Also it was really satisfying knowing that I got through all the interrupted preparation and came out on top. I have had a few interrupted preparations in the last few years and every time I feel like giving up and not facing it but then I think about it and tell myself “you can do this”. I must admit it is very hard to get up everyday and do what I do but to have those rewards after a lot of hard work to get there is so rewarding and I wouldn’t change it for the world!!
It has now been two weeks since that race, I had a very deserving 5 days off and came back to 3x300ms with grass hills in between and a 40minute circuit afterwards, welcome back to training!!! I have been training now for 2 weeks, it is heavy training but it wont be long until it comes down in volume to get ready to head over seas to race against the best hurdlers in the world.
I am now building up towards the European season and the World Championships in Beijing in August. My first stop is in Kawasaki in Japan on the 10th May then straight on to Doha for the first stop on the diamond league schedule on 15th May. I am really looking forward to this season and see what I can produce. Every year I look forward to something special and every year never disappoints, I hope that feeling continues for the rest of my career.
Love,
Sally Pearson
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