A former Sundre student now pursuing post-secondary education at Red Deer College recently competed in a national cross-country competition, bringing back with her a bronze medal.
Deshann Valentine was in Toronto earlier this month with the Red Deer Queens cross-country team for the 2018 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association’s Cross Country Championships, hosted by Seneca College on Nov. 10.
“Considering that at the beginning of the season I didn’t even know if I would be competing in races, I really can’t express how honoured I am,” wrote the 18-year-old Sundre High School graduate by email in response to a number of questions.
“To make it to nationals in my first year was amazing enough, and to bring home women’s team bronze just made it that much better,” she said, also praising and expressing pride in her team’s overall effort.
“It comes down to each and every one of us running our very best out there that day, we really earned it. I owe it all to my team, coaches, and supporters — including all of my past coaches — for pushing me to do my very best out there every day and leading me to be the runner I am now.”
Being an athlete on a post-secondary team has been among her goals. Qualifying to run with the Queens, as well as securing a spot on the national stage, was thrilling, she said.
“I was ecstatic and so grateful. Honestly, I never thought I would be running until I got a letter asking to be a part of a team after ASAA (Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association) provincials last year.”
Being a nationally ranked athlete is “unbelievable,” she added.
The Queens have been amazing, she said, and the team of seven females and eight males is among the main reasons she has enjoyed college.
“The team makes me feel at home and are some of the most supportive people I know,” she said.
“We aren’t a team that just sees each other at practice, we are constantly planning things to do outside of our regular training schedule…they pretty much are my second family now as I have never been a part of such a close team before.”
Among her favourite aspects of cross-country is finding “the grit and determination to get through every aspect of the competition, it shows how much each individual athlete wants it. I love how this sport has both the team and individual aspects — you have to compete with yourself and your mind as well as everyone else around you, yet it also has that team atmosphere to help us drive each other towards the finish line.”
The team had the opportunity to tour Toronto in the days leading up to the run, also offering the chance to acclimatize to different conditions, she said. The weather come race day was not much different or worse than some of the adverse conditions such as snow, wind and cold that she had endured in past races, she said.
“It rained the full day before the race, which lead to the course being extremely muddy and slippery,” she said, adding their cleats nevertheless made getting some traction possible.
The trails, which ran through trees and along the lakeside, were spectacular and made a great course, she said, adding only one major uphill portion had to be tackled twice since the race involved doing a three-kilometre loop twice.
“Ranking second in the nation leading up to this race we knew we had potential to land on the podium, so we gave it everything we had.”
Although her nerves were strained in the minutes before the start of the race, she found her focus and set a pace after the horn went off.
“It really is all just a blur and it felt like we were sprinting the whole six kilometres, honestly. Crossing that finish line, I had never been so exhausted, but that meant I left it all out there,” she said, glad to have earned her personal best time of 27:38 on a slow course.
Although Valentine said she would love to run with the Queens again next year, a planned transfer to the University of Lethbridge for the following four years to continue pursuing her degree in education and science means that will not be possible.
“I am hoping to still run and maybe race against them in some open races in the future,” she said.
“I really will miss them and am thankful for everything I have learned from them and about the sport and program.”
