Gras ready for track and field season
Candelaria Gras is serving notice she will be a force to reckoned with this spring at upcoming high school track and field meets.
Competing at the High Octane track and field meet Friday at the Niagara Olympic Club, the Grade 9 student at Denis Morris lapped all but two members of the field in winning the combined novice/junior girls 3,000-metre event.
“My goals are to hopefully get to OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) and I think that is everyone’s goal but I also want to PB (personal best) in my 3K,” she said. “I am really focusing on doing well in the 3K.”
The Edge Sports member will also be competing in the 1,500 metres and she is hoping to break the five-minute mark in the event. In the 3,000 metres, she went under 11 minutes Friday and would love to get under 10:50 by the end of the season.
To prepare for the spring season, she trained all winter running indoors and outdoors.
“A big part of my training is I do triathlon and the biking and swimming really helps with my stamina and preparing me for these longer races,” said the third-place finisher in age 14-15 girls division at last summer’s Ontario triathlon championships.
She feels the next step in her progression as a distance runner will be figuring out how to not get mentally blocked.
“It’s learning how to run with other people, learning from my mistakes and trying to be the best every time that I run.”
She appreciated being able to compete in Friday’s meet in preparation for next Wednesday’s Niagara Catholic Athletic Association championships at the Niagara Olympic Club.
“At these invitationals. it helps me to run against other people that I don’t know. It is good experience.”
Last fall, Gras won the NCAA and Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association novice girls cross country titles and ending up placing 47th in her first appearance at OFSAA.
“At OFSAA, I had never raced against a big group of girls. I had been running alone the whole season and having someone beside me during the race kind of threw me off.”
It was an experience which will help her in this fall’s cross country season. The lesson learned was a simple one.
“I have to always look forward and if someone passes me, I just need to have a good race myself rather than focus on my placing.”
