About to start her second workout of the day, Megan Brown takes a glance out the window. It’s middle of January and the snow has picked up. She can see the north wind tunnelling through the city, and a quick check of the weather shows it’s a frigid -15 C (-25 C with windchill). Holed up in the Athletic Centre, she already has her tights on and is strapping her running shoes to her feet. She tops off with her hat and gloves before someone interrupts her routine.
“You’re going back out again?”
She’s already run eight miles, but Brown smiles, nods, and starts out the door. As she pushes through into the elements, she peeks over at the U of T’s Olympian board.
“Before I head out, sometimes I stop and look over the names, and I envision mine there,” Brown said. “It’s an inspiration to keep going. Perspective is huge, because your day-to-day motivation will falter. But I always have what I want to do this season, this year, and where I see myself in 10
years.”
The 21-year-old second-year student has positioned herself to become the first U of T female track athlete to win an Olympic medal since Joanne Bouw took three bronzes in 1992.
Born and raised in Guelph and in the midst of her first year of Physical Education and Health, Brown is the best collegiate runner in Canada, having won every race she’s been in this year.
She kept up the streak at the Canadian Intersport University Track and Field Championships last weekend in Montreal’s McGill Fieldhouse, taking home three gold.
In the 1500 metre, Brown broke a nine-year Fieldhouse record with a time of 4:18.75. Her second win came in the 3000 m, where her 9:21.46 was a full 28 seconds faster than the silver medallist. Then, as the anchor in the 4 x 800 m relay, Brown came from behind to defeat Windsor as she and her U of T colleagues Mary Hein, Liane Heale and Laura Elmhirst set another Fieldhouse Record at 8:56.63.
“It was two days of bliss,” recalls Brown. “Everything I wanted to accomplish, I did, which is a pretty amazing feeling-especially compared to last year.”
In an awe-inspiring example of mind over matter, Brown ran at the 2005-2006 CIS Championships with mononucleosis. While the fever-inducing, severely-weakening disease incapacitates most, Brown still won three golds medals and was named the Women’s Athlete of the Meet. But the consequences of her performance were immediate.
“[The 2006 CIS meet] really set me back. I was in bed for a month afterward and felt terrible.”
Since the start of 2005, Brown and her coach, Hugh Cameron, had been on a three-year plan to make a run at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. If Brown could shave five seconds off her time every year, she would be able to run the 1500 m at 4:05, or the 5000 m at 15:10, which would qualify her.
Once she had regained some semblance of her health, Brown went back to training in an attempt to make Canada’s Athlete Assistance Program. The AAP is how Canada funds their best amateur and professional athletes, and in the attempt to make time requirements for financial assistance, Brown trudged through what she called her “summer of struggle.”
“I was chasing after my health, and all I did was run and sleep, collapsing at the end of every day.”
That August at the Canadian Nationals, Brown finished fourth in the 1500 m, behind three Olympians, with a time of 4:17, and was pinpointed as an Olympic hopeful.
After all the adversity, Brown came in to September renewed and ready.
“I learned to respect my body, working past the invincibility factor,” she said. “I looked into how best to serve my health, and since then my fitness has taken off.”
Brown ran in the Blues’ Cross-Country team and had a flawless season, winning the Ontario University Athletic Championship and the CIS in the five-kilometre. Her success in Cross-Country has helped her in her track goals, as she compares the two types of running as “building a cake.”
“You need the base work of cross-country,” she said. “The mileage, the tempo, the aerobic work-all of it comes from running through mud and slop and up hills. No one really understands the four-kilometre burn, when you ask yourself ‘Why am I doing this?’ It’s much tougher mentally. By the time I’m done, I’m exhausted and sore, but you need it for the “icing.”
“Indoor Track is much more attractive-it’s where all the fame and glory are. You combat opponents rather than the elements and the course. It’s more strategic, as you have to scout the opposition, think about making moves, and save energy for the finishing kick.”
With all her training and all her success, Brown has seen a dramatic improvement to her personal times, keeping her Olympic goals clear and in focus.
“Because last year was such a write-off, my coach [Cameron] and I laugh about it because the sky’s the limit. I’ve got so much room to grow-most long distance runners hit their peak when they’re 28-that the ceiling effect, what’s considered your max, isn’t really an issue. Now if I state a time, I usually achieve it. I can potentially take 10 seconds off a time in a year, and my goal is to run 66 seconds for every 400 metre lap.”
While her passion is unbridled, Brown also has other desires for herself off the track. She wants to write a book about her experiences, and as another long-term goal she wants to work with young girls in order to boost their confidence.
“I use the Olympic dream as fulfillment of other aspirations,” she said. “I think many of us are afraid to think big and to risk failure. If I fall short, so be it. But I want to enjoy the journey. I never second-guess myself. The fear of the dream not coming true should never take away from the journey.
“I still hope to make the 2008 games, but a more realistic goal would be to make the 2009 World’s,” she said, before adding coyly, “As for the 2012 games in London, I’ve already booked my ticket.”
