Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Remember

To all those who gave their lives for our Country, we will always remember.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

In the last few months i have been running faster than ever before. Unfortunately a month ago I severly hurt my back in a cross country race and it has never recovered. After a convincing win at our regional championships i was convinced that i would be at 100 percent at ofsaa. Unfortunately I was mistaken and about 1km into the race my back completely seized up.

Leading up to ofsaa I was in high spirits as I had a chance at medaling, as well as our team. We travelled down to Sarnia the day before to do a walk through to familarize ourselves with what would be most of our last cross country race as high school students. Everything went well and we headed back to our hotel to get some rest. We had a little nascar tournament and then packed it in for the night.

The next morning I did my pre-race ritual that included pancakes, shaving down and I was ready to rock. The day started out well with our midget boy placing in the top 60, and Kirsten placing in the top 50. Then it was time for the big boys. I did my warm up and everything felt great. After stretching I made my way down to the start line to do my strides.

The race started and everything was going to plan. I got into the top 10 and stayed there. Moe came by me at about the 500m mark and kept the pace high. I felt as though I was sprinting for the first km. Moe and the three our four that tried to go with him must have gone through that first km in about 2:45 with me trailing by about 5 seconds. About 100m after that point my back seized while climbing a small hill and it did not release. From that point on I was in survival mode. I ended up finishing 29, but more importantly our team was third, 10 points up of fourth. So although i didnt perform to my expectations, our team did exceptional in such a strong field.

After the race i could barely move. My back was in so much pain. I was walking around like Frankenstein and i am sure that it would have been qiute the site watching me walk around. This isnt even the most amount of pain that my back caused me, the day after I could barely get out of bed. It took a few more days before I had my mobility back, and now a week later, my back is still sore.

Some interesting news, Last tuesday I was watching T.V. when the doorbell rang. I answered it and they asked me if i was Connor Hammond. I said ya, they they told me that they were from the CCES and they were here to drug test me. I was taken back because I never thought that they would come test me, but I guess that means that they are serious about their testing.

So until later,

CH