2007 Outdoor

There's so much to write about my outdoor season in 2007. But first, in 2007 ODN was still in late may or early June that time frame. Well in the fall/winter of 2006-2007 I started skating a little bit of short track speed skating. Maybe three times a month I would practice for an hour on the ice. Well, on my birthday, April 16th 2007, we were skating really slow and the season was over (for ice) and like most clubs we didn't have pads around the entire track just on the turns to the blue line. We were doing a circle tech drill and I slipped and fell down going back first into the boards. I tried to shake it off but right away I knew something wasn't wrong, I had a stinger go straight down my left leg.

Two weeks later I still wasn't practicing but had already paid for a flight to the national team clinic, so I went and did what I could, which was much of nothing but luckily I still went because the the training room had me hooked up to stem and a few other things everyday which ended up helping me out alot. After the national team clinic I still couldn't skate much outdoor Straight away pushes were painful for me so I prepared for trials with little outdoor training in the last month and a half. I don't remember when the pain went away but I know I was fine at trials.

In the first race I had the mindset that I could win, the 300m TT I don't remember what happened but I ended up fourth I think.. the top five were all within .2 of a second. I was pretty disappointed with my 300m but I cam back pretty strong in the 1000m and ended up third. The points race was bad for me that year, and the elim was barely any better, I manged 7th or 8th in the elim which gave me some points but not much. The 500 was always a tough race and I remember coming out of the final turn I came underneath Colin Thomas and won out the hawk at the line for third place. In the 200m I ended up in 3rd, didn't do much of anything in either long race on road and then it was the 500m. I didn't mention it to anyone at the time but running through my head was flashbacks of 2006. In the final race I had not yet secured a spot on the world team, but I was still in the hunt for the last spot. Jeff had to leave ODN early that year for work, I remember calling him before the 500m I explained the points to him and I remember telling him, Jeff if I win I'm in.

I remembered him telling me in 2006 win and you're in. Those words stuck with me and I thought it was a fitting time to repeat it back to him.

My semi was very interesting, it was myself, Colin Thomas, Moe Hall, Greg Gorman. The thing was that Colin was already on the team, Moe, Greg, and I were all fighting to be the second sprinter on the team. The course had a slight down hill and a slight up hill. I remember Moe won the start and then Colin then me. Colin went to the front and I remember going inside of Moe in the turn after the downhill. The uphill straight I went by Colin and sprinted to the line. I won the semi and Colin made it behind me. We watched the other semi skate and once Chad Horne and Kimani Griffin advanced to the final I took a pause and then realized I just made the world team. Whether I won or lost the A final as long as I skated and finished I made the team. I remember shortly after that being called to the officials tent and I was super nervous, I didn't understand I skated a clean race and nothing was questionable I couldn't be disqualified. When I got the tent the announcer was announcing my name, apparently I had just broken the 500m road record for Jr. Men. I was pretty stoked. I remember calling Jeff and telling him the news I felt terrific, in the final I remember coming off the line pretty easy because I didn't want to risk anything and end up with a DQ.. I took 4th in the final and officially made the world team.

After I got back from trials I remember Jeff sat me down and told me it was time to take it to the next level. He told me we had trained hard the past two years to get to this point but if I was going to skate at the World Championships we would need to take it up a lot higher then we already were. I remember he told me I would have to do a lot of it on my own because he still would have to work so everyday I would have to skate without him there to coach me in the mornings but at night we always had a 1-2 more practices that he would be there for. I remember in the mornings a lot of times it would be me and the watch. Intervals, sprints, intervals, sprints I think that's all I did day after day, morning after morning. Then I would gear up and do whatever Jeff thought up for the evening practices. The training paid off, I won indoor nationals which was in my previous blog.

When I got to residency I didn't know how good or bad I would be. I remember everyone expected me to be purely sprints but after a few days they realized I could do the distance drills, too. I ended up splitting my time between sprints and distance. Every 300m we did Chad, Kevin Quandt, and I were all basically within a couple of tenths.. every single time. Residency could basically be a wash between most of us, we were all strong that year.

Worlds was different.. as soon as we got to Cali I peaked or something.. Everything started to fall in place. On the second night a bunch of sprinters were at the track to work on opening 100's.. I remember I ran my first full 100 and everyone told me how good it was and they told me it was 9.6 and I said what does that mean, Joey was the only one that beat me that night for an opener.

I remember being so nervous the day of the 300m.. the first race at worlds and my first worlds. I didn't really know what to expect. I remember qualifying for the final which was cool and then I got 8th which I was proud of I guess. In the 1000m semi at worlds we thought it would be fast from the gun and it wasn't we crawled the first lap so knowing it went by time except the winner and that we had the 300m champion in our semi I took off with 4 to go. Coming out of the last turn Colin passed me and then him, me, and the 300m champion hawked at the line. Colin made the 1000m final.. he was the only one in our semi to make it.

The relay on track is probably the most interesting part. We made it out of the heat easily. In the final we had decided to make our tags low so we had inside position heading into the turn. To that point I had never ran that hard in my life, the track was huge and parabolic so sprinting through the turn was an option. We led from the gun every exchange the whole time. On the last cycle I remember Italy coming along side of us before the tag then we had a poor exchange that left me twisted down the straightaway but I/we recovered and maintained position finishing with second place and a medal at my first world championships.

Funny story, after my 300m heat a US parent/coach came up to me and told me I never belonged on that world team. I was offended, I still think I might be. I didn't really understand, I went to trials and beat out everyone else and earned my spot fair and square, and I had an injury going into trials but I didn't use it as an excuse. Needless to say, they stood in front of me and said I didn't believe you deserved a spot on this team. I thought you were the 6th and final person and that you wouldn't be on the same level anyway. They paused and then continued to say that I 'proved them wrong' and they weren't sure how I did it but I was very good here at the world championships. I didn't know how to respond and I if it happened today I still don't know what I would say.

If the 2007 World Championships did anything for me it showed me how close I was and it made me want it more than ever.