Sports were always a part of my life since I was first enrolled into soccer like many young kids are. Except I didn’t play much soccer, rather stood in around somewhere on the field daydreaming while the other kids swarmed around the ball like bumblebees. Wasn’t until I was about grade 2 when I saw all the older grades going outside for what the school called “Track Attack”. I asked my teacher what it was and I was enthralled with the idea of what eventually became one of the biggest parts of my life.
I first started by beating the other kids in my elementary school racing across a gravel field. I guess my parents enjoyed me finally engaging in a sport with success and enthusiasm, my mother suggested I join club track at the local “Coquitlam Cheetahs.” I did really well my first few years, got a reputation at school as being “that fast kid”, which actually I enjoyed at first. What I didn’t realize was how much I was beginning to define myself with my sport.
The big issue with being defined by your sport is once you stop succeeding at that sport and/or it stops becoming fun. That happened to me around the age 13-16. The other kids developed while I didn’t, wasn’t able to move my boyish body fast enough to keep pace with those other guys who already had the body of a man. Those years I just sort of went through the motions, showed up to practice, trained with little effort, occasionally raced at track meets but with no pleasure doing so, often embarrassed at how poorly I was ranking among my peers. I was actually ready to quit. The only thing that kept me in was that the track was where the majority of my friends were and that social aspect had my hold on just a bit longer for things to go right again.
I remember a defining moment where I broke out back into the realm of my peers. I was discouraged to race locally knowing that I couldn’t win a race here, back when winning meant far more to me than it does now. So I asked my mom for a favor, to take me out to Victoria where I didn’t know anyone I was racing and could just race with a free mind. That’s where I ran times that put me on even footing with the other guys back home and gave me a huge surge of confidence I desperately needed. That’s the year I started to climb the ranks in British Columbia for my age group. Ranking second in the province for the 16/17 year olds and finally motivating me to continue the upwards trend. The next year I traveled to Las Vegas for a training camp where I broke the big milestone of 11 seconds, winning a track meet there in 10.97s. Unfortunately that was the fastest I was going to run for my grade 12 year.
I began to lose speed rapidly, I was fatigued easily, and losing everything I had gained the last year and a half. I was frustrated and confused, no one knew what was wrong with me.
Turns out I was an undiagnosed type 1 diabetic. Which means my body was basically starving itself not allowing nutrients to be broken down without insulin. I had lost almost 15lbs, and was already quite skinny before that. I learned the ropes of how to treat my diabetes and started the path of getting back to where I was. Although I was underweight, weak, and frail. I battled back hard. I was able to almost reclaim where I was in Vegas and therefore capture the BC high-school provincial championship gold medal in the 100m. I gained a scholarship to Trinity Western University and life in sport was good again.
Not a lot of dramatics occurred over the next few years while attending university. Some high moments such as making team Canada for the NACAC U23 4x100m, winning a few university regional and national medals, as well as a CanWest regionals team win in my last year. That last university year was actually going to be my last track season ever too.
After graduation my plan was simple: finish my last outdoor season and have fun doing it. It wasn’t that I didn’t love track and want to continue. I had plateaued a bit in my development running the same approximate times over three years and was just ready to move on and start a career instead. Although my supposedly last season became my best and turned my plans around.
I had some breakout performances early in the season where I crushed my old best times. Although it was really nice to finally do, it wasn’t enough to keep me around another year.
Retirement was still very much my plan.
As the season went on I started really climbing the ranks in national standings, beating a few Olympians head to head, running times ranking me up in the top few in Canada, and even a showdown against Olympic Silver medalist Andre De Grasse on my home turf. National Championships came around where I placed 4th in the 200m only losing to Canada’s three fastest men of all time in that event.
This put me on a spot for Team Canada heading out to Taipei, Taiwan for FISU World University Games. This ultimately became the deciding factor whether I was going to continue the sport or not.
Despite being ranked at that meet probably somewhere between 15-18th, I set a goal for myself to sneak into the finals at FISU just to see if I could prove to myself that I belonged at that caliber of competition.
It was my first ever international competition (my first Team Canada being hosted in Kamloops, BC). The giant track stadium was sold out with thousands of screaming fans. It was surreal, but I managed to not crack with nerves; I stayed focused and determined.
Then I made my goal, I qualified for the finals.
They were just two hours after the Semis which meant I had just an hour to re prep for it before reporting to check in. I was just happy to be there, which excitement seemed to overpower my tiredness from having just raced.
The finals started and after the corner I could see from my lane 1 that I was dead last. However I started surging in that straight away and entered the mix. We crossed the line in a very rare blanket finish and I had no idea what place I finished in.
Suddenly my name popped up on the jumbotron in second place, my heart just skipped,
It was the perfect way to cap off such an amazing season.
I look back now and view my career as a whole. I realize just how far I’ve come, and how much I’ve grown through this sport. It’s given me friends, education, worth ethic, and confidence. This season helped me realize just how true that all is. With overwhelming support of family, coaches, friends, teammates, competitors, and even random people sending me messages; I’ve decided I have to keep going. This sport has given me almost everything, so I just feel I need to give everything I have left back to it. I was happy with my career before this season. Now I’m thrilled with it.
Whether I go to the Olympic Games or never see the same level of success again, it doesn’t matter. I take in every moment I get and enjoy every step.
James Linde, Canadian Sprinter.
Anyone in sports and fitness who would like to share their voice, please submit to hank@hankfittraining.com.