I didn't plan to be gone for so long, it just happened. I won't bore you with where I've been and what I've done in the last 22 or so days.

Actually I will. Let's see...

After my race in Gateshead on August 31 I flew to Illinois, packed my car up and drove the 10 hours to Toronto. Bat outta hell sorta like.

Thessaloniki, Shanghai, Kawasaki!

It was the hardest thing to train when I got home, but I got it in. I had to get back to renew my passport and get my Chinese visa. And most importantly gorge myself on glucose before I hit the road for another two weeks. All new cities and all new opportunites for retail exploration!

World Athletics Final Thessaloniki September 12

Close race and had me feeling glum as this would be the last time in 7 editions that the GP final would be contested. It's a selective series as only the best 8 hurdlers in the world qualify based on a point system earned at specific races during the season. Excuse my boastiness (is that a word?) but I just realized I have qualified for every GP final since my first season as a pro in 2004, except 2008 when I didn't compete all year. Umm...not too shabby a stat to have under ones name.

Fucci Done Got In The Way

Shanghai Golden Grandprix September 20

Ya...I don't wanna talk about it. But in the name of being consistent, suffice it to say that retail exploration and the acquisition of stuff, disallowed certain individual(s) to execute their purpose with fresh legs. All together now: "Frada is not your friend"!.

....Sounds like a good enough excuse a coach would buy? I think so too!

Chozen

That brings me to today where I am in wonderful Kawasaki, Japan, I race the super meet on Wednesday and can't wait. But for now there is nothing else to do but wait and watch videos of my new favorite on repeat: Click here to see. I discovered this phenomenon on Japanese TV in the wee hours of the morning as I came to the realization that the joyride of the 2009 season is one race from over. I do...but I don't.

Such is the life of a track bella, for another season to start one has to end.

P

One Down One to Go...Home!

Zurich was fun times, it was nice to compete without the heaviness of a major championship. I think all the athletes felt more relaxed, we were no longer holding our breathes and were free to exhale.

 

Zurich turned out to be a two woman race between Brigitte and Dawn. I managed to snag third place from lane 2 after a slow first three hurdles. I liked that I kept fighting and competing for a spot despite feeling out of it, though it's never good to be that far off the leaders. Still 12.61 is my third best time this season (I've had over 17 races this year) and I felt there was more left to give.



*Click it to View Zurich Results

I race Monday afternoon in Gateshead for the Aviva British Grandprix and then head home after 6 weeks in Europe. It's a short turnaround because I still have 3 more meets in Greece, China and Japan in mid September. But I'm so looking forward to seeing my peoples for the first time since June!

Thanks for the Birthday wishes,

Pdiddi

Happy Per-Day to Me

Yeee haw its my Champagne Birthday!!  

(Technically its 1:21am in Zurich on August 29 and still the 28th in Oshawa, ON where I was born. But Im gonna make my day 30 hours and not the customary 24, just to be clear).

I waited all my life to have this day and alas it's here, I'm praising God for that! And how lucky am I that I get to spend most of it traveling by charter to New Castle, England. How did I get so lucky?!

Being an August baby and having my job means I very rarely spend P-day in my home country or even with a loved one. Last year was rare in that I was injured and not racing for the first time in 12 years. So to take advantage I threw myself an all out "Perdita's Favorite Things" 28th party and partied like a track star (on pause)!

But somehow flying to the wet and rain of Northern England on my 29 birthday to race for mere seconds just feels like the way I was born to spend it. Here's to another 12 summers without one off!

Leaving you with my favorite and a most powerful quote. Have a blessed and wonderful 29th edition of P-day!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. 

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. 

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. 
-A brilliant mind...right?!

Weltklasse Zurich 2009

The biggest track meet on the annual circuit is upon us this Friday. Above is a shot from 2 years ago and the last time I was at this meet. I am glad to be back and looking forward to the stiff competition. Pop this hatch to visit the meet website. See below for the CBC schedule on TV and online. The hurdles will be run at 9:30pm local time, which is 3:30 in the afternoon in the T.dot.

Cheusse!

P

Zurich Golden League on CBC

Friday August 28 on cbcsports.ca

01:50 PM ET

CHAMPIONSHIP TRACK AND FIELD ON CBC: (Streaming) - Golden League Zurich Location: Zurich, Switzerland Live on CBCSports.ca 1

2 hours

Saturday August 29 on cbcsports.ca

01:50 PM ET

CHAMPIONSHIP TRACK AND FIELD ON CBC: (Streaming) - Golden League Zurich Location: Zurich, Switzerland Live on CBCSports.ca 1

1.5 hours

*Saturday August 29 on Television

02:00 PM ET

CHAMPIONSHIP TRACK AND FIELD ON CBC: Golden League Zurich Location: Zurich, Switzerland CBC Television

1.5 hours

*Repeated Monday August 31 @ 12:30am

Berlin First Round Shots

Un merci très spécial à Yannick pour m`avoir envoyé ces photos!

-P

And then there was one...

My crew is gone and I'm left to fend for myself. I was really sad to see them go after being together for so long. But there is lots of season left and some 5 to 7 more races that are still valuable parts of my journey back. With my personality I want instant results. Everything now, never tomorrow.  But the gospel according to the BF is I need to stop demanding it all in one day. It's a process and it takes time. It's good to be disappointed, this shows how well I expected to do. However to allow my experience in Berlin to tether my goals for this season or ambitions for my overall career is not gonna happen, at least not on his watch.

You go, my St. Luke the second!

So i've had the blues and will feel disappointed because I know how hard we've worked. And how many had put their faith in me. Yet no one can deny me the truth that I was ready to compete, and face that moment head on. Nervous? yes, to not be meant I was dead. But fearfu?l no. So most of what I feel is my own personal blues that things were already over before they began, as I walked to the blocks like a lamb to the slaughter. 

When I started training in the winter I was told to keep my expectations in check. Dream some--but not big.  Many people never come back from Lisfranc fractures, so rare is this one that has its own name. I was told not to google it, but I did. And what I read made me cry and cry and cry.  There hadn't been a known case in a hurdler and this made things the more curious. I would land on that foot with great force every single run. I wore tiny shoes that offered little protection. I trained on a hard surface day after day, there was no turf to save me. My training was so finite that I couldn't compete at a lower capacity like some sports, I had to be near 100% even in training. And at any moment that crucial arch ligament that ruptured itself from the metatarsal in my foot and caused them to shift permanently, could do it again.

Pop.

If I had run 12.90 seconds this entire season, that would have been a huge victory. No one would have blamed me if I hadn't made the world championship team. And after 19 months couldn't produce a time that was in the top 10 in the world. This was ok. 

That was life after Lisfranc. Not your simple run of the mill overuse stress fracture, I gladly would have traded this for one of those. But instead one so obscure, unpredictable and straight up "nasty" that doctors prepared me to never to be amongst the worlds elite again.

So instead of dwelling on the curious case of cramping calves and making myself sick. I decide to focus on the great life God has blessed me with and how rich and indelible this season has already been. Medal or not. Some people only get to watch other people live their dreams, never passionate enough to have ones of their own. Or if they do, they can't find the nerve to pursue it. So glad I don't have that problem.

 

Berlin is over and unchangeable, no more looking back, next up is Zurich. The richest and most selective Golden League track meet on the tour and guess who has a lane?!

Thanks to all my wonderful mom, friends, family and supporters who have held me down as I build. And even though I never give up on myself, I know they don't either. As my BFF reminded me after the final, this time last year we were watching how other people's seasons unfolded, this time we get to watch mine!

You know who you are and how much I love you!!

P

More shots in Berlin: on the subway, @ Nike Hospitality and the Holocaust Memorial

My stay in Berlin has come to an end, I'm heading to Zurich on Monday to race there Friday night. When I am in a city for a major championship my feelings about that city are often hinged on my experience on the track, more than what that city has to offer or encounters with its inhabitants.


For Example:

Paris, France 2003-"Loving it, Loving it!"

Athens, Greece 2004-"Ugh, never going back there!"

Osaka, Japan 007-"Sake for everyone!"

That brings us to Berlin 009...


It's post my final and I've not run a PB (personal best) but a PW...never heard of it? Me neither til Wednesday night, really. Its a personal worst. I'm not dazed or confused, the moment is very clear to me. It's not the first time I've seen the field run away from me, but this time I had the capacity to give chase and if my legs let me I was going to cross this finish line.

Customarily everyone stood around to see where they finished, and usually I would too. But it made no sense to do this, I wasn't even in the frame for one. So I said a "Congrats Ladies" to the ones that seemed to be holding out the most hope. I'm certain their silence meant they didn't hear me. No doubt transfixed by the enormity of the moment. My words must have sounded like white noise, since I wasn't the jumbotron. I've been there, so I understood and just headed for the exit.

West Side!
There I saw that the BF was waiting for me behind the rail at the mix zone. Phew. A soft place to fall...terrible word choice...make that sniffle. A fellow competitor who also had a bad day at the office came up beside me. At first the presence of our loved one was met with resistance by the steward. How could Manfred be so mean right now, can't he see how hurt we look?!

Finally the camera man nearby had seen enough and physically gestured our men onto his platform to be able to get near to us and the railing. Frankly I had to laugh at the irony and note how much the present setting felt like a scene at the Berlin wall, circa 1986, maybe. Poor Manfred just stood there, looking dry.

Goooood, I thought amidst my melancholy. We're not trying to escape Manfred...durr...just pretend this is the wailing wall!

"Berlin is In"

So Berlin is cool with me, no ill will here. I think this is a sign of growing up and not taking my results so personal like in the past. My racing has no bearing on my worth, so why should it a cities. In fact I`m currently looking for places to go for my post season vacation and what do you know, a bella might hop a plane to Santorini!

But first things first, on to Zurich...living my dream!

P

Berlin Shots

I've lost the power source for my computer, so not sure how I am to survive with out it. I may have to go door to door begging fellow Mac owners to use theirs. Anyhoo that being said I'm going to post as many shots from Berlin as I can before this baby quits...which is soon. 

These ones are from practice and post practice in Berlin. I'd love to write some captions but time is of essence....ya dig!

P

August 19 2009-A Very Mixed Bag

World Championship Semi final

Three heats and only top two are guaranteed to the final and the next two fastest times. A much harder way to make the final, which is usually two heats and top four from each advance to the final. I am in heat two at about 2:20.

The Final

Track Side post Final w/ my favs Flotrack.org

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack