Jessica Groeneveld sat in her kayak atop the 2013 Pan American Canoe Slalom Championships finals slalom racecourse in Tula, Mexico focusing her mind on the very first gate.
“OK, this is going to hurt,” the former Innisfail resident thought. “I am going to pull as hard as I can all the way down the course.”
The technical paddler generally goes for a smoother flow, but this time she didn't want to take any chances. Having won the race in 2009-11 the title had been stolen from her in 2012 during an Olympic qualifier by Brazilian teen Ana Satila.
“It's something that I've worked through,” Groeneveld said. “Losing that Olympic spot was huge.”
This year during the March 2-3 event Satila had already been dominating. She had inched into the top spot during Saturday action over Groeneveld by half a second. She had also won a separate event early in the day Sunday and beat Groeneveld in the semifinals.
“I've got to get my title back,” Groeneveld thought, explaining, “It's ingrained in my mind how I want to do it.”
Groeneveld, a former member of the Cottonwood Kayak Club, grew up in a family that wasn't afraid of outside pursuits.
“I've always been an outdoorsy person,” she said. “My parents have been very supportive in sports.”
She recalls trips to Kananaskis and Chilliwack with her dad where she would train passionately. One fond memory is of a Thanksgiving trip to B.C. where they cooked chili and burnt it.
Since she had been back at school this year, studying kinesiology at Mount Royal University, nearly all of her training took place indoors.
“I was curious to see how effective my training was this winter,” she said.
But Groeneveld was confident all the puzzle pieces would fall into place.
“I'm going to have the best race that I can have and I'm going to be happy,” she thought. “Before the finals run I knew I could win it.”
Having sat down with her coaches to go over semifinal video footage and the game plan for the final she took a breather.
“I just sat in the shade out of the sun and ate a bunch of food to get my energy up,” she said.
And then the race began.
“I pulled as hard as I possibly could,” she said. “It wasn't a perfect run.”
Results were not available for about 10 minutes after her race. But as she toted her kayak alongside her teammates, Groeneveld looked up to see her coach fist pumping. She'd won the gold.
“It was more of a relief than anything,” she said. “I guess that was kinda the big thing. Canada hadn't won an event yet. That was the last event.”
She's thankful for the help she's received along the way from a huge swath of supporters and now has her sights set, once again, on reaching the Olympics.
“I'm definitely giving it another shot for Rio,” she said. “I'll train for the next three years.”
