800-meter runner Addy Townsend might have had an Olympian (center distance runner Brit Townsend of Burnaby, B.C.) for a mother, however rising up, she didn’t assume she could be a runner. Now, she’s prepping for the subsequent Olympic Video games on the monitor… along with her mother as her coach. How did it occur, and the way did she discover the trail to working her means, and never in her mother’s shadow?
As she explains it, “I performed all sports activities rising up: basketball, soccer, volleyball–I did every little thing. I began to play soccer at a brilliant excessive stage, and I believed that was going to be my sport. I performed all the way in which till Grade 12. However I lastly had the thought: I believe I can do higher in working. And I began to search out that what I cherished about soccer was the health of it. Each time it got here to working, I discovered that half tremendous enjoyable, and everybody else dreaded it. I believe my mother had a secret plan all alongside: she’d maintain me in soccer, simply to maintain the working going. After which by the point Grade 12 got here, I made a decision after provincials that I used to be going to go to SFU to pursue working.”
Whereas she jokes about her mother having a grasp plan to make her a working professional, Townsend is fast to say that her mother has by no means pressured her to (actually) observe in her footsteps. “Individuals all the time say that, ‘Oh, she should have been getting you out working on a regular basis if you have been younger.’ It wasn’t actually like that. I loved working, and I’d do it after I needed to. However I didn’t really feel the stress, as a result of she knew if I actually needed to get into it, I’d discover my very own means there. She was all the time tremendous supportive of no matter I selected, whether or not it was a unique sport or no sports activities in any respect.”
Now, the 2 are capable of work collectively—and it’s understanding nice. “At first, I believed it was going to be so exhausting,” Townsend admits. “There have been occasions the place I used to be cussed, and we’d argue a bit. However I believe as I’ve gotten older and I’ve seen how a lot I’ve improved, it’s simply been so useful for me.”
At household dinners, Townsend says her dad and sister usually have to inform her and her mother to depart the monitor on the monitor. “We’ve set some boundaries, and I believe it really works properly,” she jokes.
Brit Townsend on constructing success at Simon Fraser College
Townsend doesn’t simply practice along with her mother; there’s a complete workforce she trains with on the monitor, and he or she’s sure that’s made her a greater athlete. “Monitor is a tough sport,” she says. “And it’s additionally a person sport. I attempt to make it rather less particular person by being round lots of people who prefer to have enjoyable. The runners at SFU are an excellent group of people that all love the monitor.”
“To me, Run Your Means means focusing in your potential, focusing in your targets and specializing in your self,” Townsend says. “I believe with monitor being a person sport, you actually should have these targets in your thoughts and attempt to simply actually concentrate on them. It’s really easy to get distracted and to check your self to totally different folks, but when I can concentrate on my coaching and my assist system, my targets and my day-to-day actions, then I can run my means.”
