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Note from Hilary...

May 12, 2013 - Chipping Away

1500m opener at Payton Jordan

After a great 800m to start off the season, I followed that up with a good 1500m opener at the Payton Jordan Invitation running 4:09.02. That was just off the World Championship “B” standard, which would have been nice to run, but I’m not too concerned as my focus is on running the “A” standard (4:05.50) and feel I’m on track to do that before July 29. This 1500m time is about as fast or a bit faster than I opened last year in my first mile of the season.

My next race in San Diego last weekend was unfortunately not quite as good a the week before. Over the last few years I’ve had increasing struggles with allergies, which tends to affect my asthma and breathing at certain times of the year or even particular days. With the help of some great doctors, I’ve been able to keep things under control and reduce major breathing episodes, but for some reason last Sunday in San Diego was a bad day for me in that I got ½ way through the mile and was having major breathing issues. I ended up a disappointing 6th place in 4:33, definitely not showing my current fitness. I’ve been feeling progressively better since the race so I’m looking forward to getting back out on the track to race next weekend.

I’m heading to L.A. for another 1500m on Friday (Oxy), which looks like a great field of US and Canadian athletes going for fast times. Following Oxy I’ll be running another 1500m on May 25 at the NYC Diamond League, which is the highest non-championship level of races so should be another great opportunity to run fast!

I’m also looking forward to spending a couple weeks in Guelph training with my Speed River teammates and running my first race on the new world-class track in Guelph, the Speed River Inferno on May 28. It should be a good few weeks!