It all boils down to two minutes

by Susan Holloway

It’s 3:30 p.m., August 18, and nine girls from nine countries are circling around the 500-metre mark in Duisburg, West Germany. It’s the third day of competition at the World Canoe Championships, but it’s the first ladies’ final.

We each have a set routine for our warmup developed over years of racing. Sprints, starts, accelerations. Everyone eyes everyone else and tries very hard to relax. I make a conscious effort to suppress my nervousness and self-doubt, replacing them with determination and confidence.

The starter calls three minutes to the start in four languages and everyone begins to line up and drift towards the starting line. I’m in lane one and as I look over the eight others I think to myself, “This is silly! I’ve spent over half my life training and it comes down to the next two minutes. A bunch of people all racing in fragile little boats with a long stick to propel themselves! But, no time to get philosophical — this is the world championships. Concentrate!”

Two minutes after the starter’s gun the race is over and we sit at the end of the course, momentarily exhausted, awaiting the results. That feeling of relief sweeps over me — I gave it all, I placed well, and it is over. Everything that seemed so foolish a few minutes ago comes back into perspective. I realize that all that training is worth the few minutes of exhilarating competition where you are racing against the very best in the world and pushing yourself beyond the limits that your mind has placed on your physical capabilities. My immediate thoughts turn to next year. What can I do to pare those few seconds, to be in the medals? The feeling that they are within striking distance gives me the encouragement I’ll need during the long winter training ahead.

Before the 1976 Olympics my off-season training was non- existent because I was racing cross country skiing all winter and paddling all summer. The rest of the time I was in training camps! Although I made both Olympic teams, I felt that in order to excel I would have to specialize. I chose kayaking and decided that Burnaby would be the best place to train. I have never regretted that decision. Simon Fraser University’s proximity to Burnaby Lake allows me to train and study with minimal traveling. SFU has a very active kinesiology department and good facilities for training, such as diving and swimming pools, Olympic and universal weight rooms, squash, raquetball, and tennis courts, and a brand new all-weather track. The school is situated on a mountain and the trails that wind through the surrounding park provide many challenging runs. There are many carded athletes training on campus as well as varsity teams and some professional athletes, all of which produces a good training atmosphere.

Our dryland training utilizes most of these facilities, but in order to be in peak condition for the Olympics in mid-July we will be starting our on-water training earlier than usual. The best location we’ve found has been Florida, so we’ll move there in early February. Avoiding alligators and water snakes beats dodging chunks of ice any day. When conditions in Canada are suitable, we will return to Ottawa to continue training. Our competitive season begins in May and many of our races before the Olympics will be in Europe.

It’s amazing how quickly four years go by. It seems like only yesterday that we walked so proudly into the Olympic Stadium in Montreal and now it’s less than a year until we do it again in Moscow. We will be back in the limelight for a while with all the accompanying pressure and speculation. But regardless of the press’s and public’s feelings it is our own desire and drive that will get us through the next difficult months to the podium in Moscow.

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