On the right track
New Glasgow teenager named bantam female athlete of the year by Athletics Nova Scotia
Cara MacDonald first started picking them up and laying them down for real when she was two years old.
That was at the Joe Earle Road Races, held each Victoria Day Monday in Trenton.
“I didn’t start running competitively until I was 10,” she says.
“My brother (Ethan) always did, so I was always kind of there and it just made sense for me to start running. And I kind of liked it.”
She credits Pictou County Athletics coaches Pat Carty, Heather Beaton and Dave MacLennan for contributing to her track and field success. 2018 was a recordsetting year for the 13-year-old track and field athlete, a student at New Glasgow Academy.
MacDonald broke five indoor provincial bantam records (300m, 400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m and one outdoor (400m). She will be formally recognized in the coming days as Athletics Nova Scotia’s (ANS) bantam female athlete of the year.
“I was really please with that. And I’m really thankful for all the coaching I’ve had.”
When she isn’t competing at track meets, she does core exercises at home, skipping, or running on a treadmill at the local YMCA.
“I usually run outside, but I haven’t lately,” she said this week. “It’s been kind of cold.”
MacDonald said her coaches work with her in setting both short- and long-term goals.
A tall, long strider, MacDonald hopes to attend legion nationals for the second straight year next summer, and down the road, wants to compete at the 2021 Canada Games.
“She’s got loads of ability,” says Carty, who sees MacDonald’s accomplishments on the track as spurring her on even more – success validating the hard work she puts into it.
“I think that inspires her to work hard. She’s at that age that she’s pretty focused, and it doesn’t seem like she lets other life distractions get in her way.”