OLDER, WISER, FASTER
At 31, defending Sun Run champ Natasha Fraser is stronger than ever and eyeing an Olympic bid
Defending champion Natasha Fraser is only getting better at 31.
When we caught up with Natasha Fraser by phone on Monday, the 2012 Vancouver Sun winner had just finished getting a massage.
Uh- oh, an injury problem just days before this year’s race?
“No, no. My regular weekly massage,” she said with a little laugh. “I feel great.” So great, in fact, that the 31- year- old from Port Moody flew to California this week to race in the prestigious Mount Sac Relays.
While still at home on Monday, she said she hadn’t decided yet whether to race the 3,000metre steeplechase, which goes today, or the 5,000 metres on Friday.
“I’m usually able to recover pretty quick and bounce back, so hopefully that’ll be the case for ( the Sun Run) Sunday and I can have a good run.”
She won last year’s women’s division in 34 minutes, 12.6 seconds, beating American Melissa Todd by 18 seconds.
“I’d like to run 33: 30, but really my goal isn’t in time. It looks like a strong field, so I’m going to go for at least the top three and try to defend my title, leaving nothing out there.”
An SFU grad who ran track for the Clan, Fraser is making a bit of a delayed start at an international running career.
“About four years ago, I began training more consistently ... and finding success on the road. In the last year, I just kind of surprised myself. I improved more than I thought I would, especially for me being 31. I had some really great ( personal bests) and I realized maybe I could be competing at the international level. I never thought before that I had the ability for anything like that,
In the last year, I just kind of surprised myself. I improved more than I thought I would, especially for me being 31.
NATASHA FRASER DEFENDING SUN RUN CHAMPION
trying to work and train full time.”
She made the Canadian team for the world cross- country championships in Poland on March 24 and wound up as the top Canadian woman in 24th place, a terrific result considering she had been sick with bronchitis for the month prior.
She had also, as she pointed out in a very entertaining entry on her blog, Life in the Tash Lane, been accidentally spiked on the ankle in the call tent just before the race by “some French chic.”
Temperatures were near freezing for the race and the partly snow- covered course had turned extremely muddy. When she came through the first of four two- kilometre loops, Fraser was shocked to find herself in 14th place.
After a second loop, “I was kinda in disbelief that I was still in the top 20,” she wrote on the blog. She wound up one place ahead of teammate Rachel Cliff.
“Holy s--- we were all kinds of happy, excited, shocked, overwhelmed. It was awesome! It was pretty cool to share that experience with Rachel as well — we both ran the race of our lives!”
Her coach has been encouraging her to return to the track. Last weekend, after just a couple of days of hurdle drills, she ran her first 3,000- metre steeplechase at the Emilie Mondor Invitational at SFU.
“It was hard — really, really tough,” said Fraser. “It put things in perspective. I’m going to need to do a lot more training, but I am going to try it again.”
She said it’s tough to look too far into the future, especially given that she’ll be 34 by 2016, but she admits that trying to qualify for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro is something she’s seriously considering.
“If I do try it, it might be in the marathon. I think that’s where I’ll end up going.”
In the short term, she’s got her sights set on trying to qualify for the IAAF world track and field championships in Moscow in August, either in the steeplechase, or the 5,000 or 10,000 metres.
“The thing is I’m feeling great right now. I’m so thankful and happy to be healthy. You really take your health for granted sometimes, then when you get really sick like I was for four weeks you think you’re never going to be healthy again.
“I’m ready to run fast Sunday. I’m really excited. I haven’t run a road race since January.”
Other elite women in the Sun Run field include Dayna Pidhoresky, of Tecumseh, Ont., the 2011 Canadian 10K champion; Toronto- based Kenyan Lucy Njeri, the 2011 Sun Run champion; Lindsey Scherf of Chapel Hill, N. C., the 2012 Ottawa 10K champion; and Leslie Sexton of London, Ont., who was second in the 2012 Canadian half marathon.