“She is fixed on her split times and understands her pace,” “That’s rare for a kid of her age.”
McCulloch started running two years ago to help improve her soccer. She plays midfield for the Ottawa South United Force U13 girls’ team.
1,500m: 4:44
3,000m: 10:12
5,000m: 18:03
Wow, that is one very fast 13-year old.
From the
Ottawa Citizen today:
"Shona McCulloch may be small in stature, but she certainly knows how to stand out in a crowd.
The Grade 7 student-athlete at Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School, who is slightly under five feet tall and might weigh 85 pounds, gets your attention really fast. That’s because she’s really fast for a 13-year-old middle-distance runner.
The moment the girls’ bantam 1,500-metre race started Tuesday to open the Ottawa-Carleton Elementary Athletics Association board-wide track and field championships, a rain-soaked and chilly McCulloch shot off the start line and sprinted into the lead.
For four minutes, 52.39 seconds, she was the principal in a game of follow the leader. After the first 300 metres, she owned a seven-second advantage over the second-place runner and continued to lengthen it with each of her strong, fluid, effortless strides, until she crossed the finish with a 44.06-second victory.
Forty-four was a significant number for her last Thursday as well, when she broke the Ottawa-Carleton elementary
school record with a winning time of 4:44 (
1,500m!). That time also was two seconds better than the Athletics Ontario outdoor girls’ bantam U13 1,500-metre record of 4:46.26, which was set in 1997.
Then, two days later, McCulloch entered the Barrhaven Run for Roger’s House five-kilometre road race. Not only did she stay with the leaders, she emerged as the champion, beating 530 adult and youth runners.
By finishing in
18:03 (5Km), she scored a 15.5-second victory over Alexandria’s Eric Nielsen, who is in the men’s 20-29 age group.
She was understandably shocked when she crossed the finish line. “What am I doing? I didn’t know what was going on. I was kind of stunned,” she said, recalling her reaction to that win.
Tuesday’s inclement weather had a big impact on McCulloch, however, affecting her chances of going faster than 4:44 for 1,500 metres. “I’m freezing,” she said after she crossed the finish line, receiving her winner’s medal and congratulations from a few of her peers. As she quickly pulled away from the 20 other runners at the start, she focused on the task at hand, hoping her spikeless track shoes would give her sufficient grip for 3 3/4 laps around the track. Athletes weren’t allowed to wear spikes in their shoes to make it a level playing field for all athletes. “I went into my think zone,” she said about her race strategy. “My eyes became bigger and I said to myself: ‘keep running, keep running, someone is behind you, keep running.’”
McCulloch’s winning time of 4:52.39 also would have won the boys’ bantam and girls’ intermediate (Grade 8) 1,500-metre races at the board championships.
McCulloch has competed against high school runners in several invitational or open races this year and performed surprisingly well. She ran 10:12.15 to win a girls’ midget 3,000 metres by 44.03 seconds against runners two years older during a Dome High School series meet.
Unlike many top runners her age or older, she isn’t a member of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club. Instead, she trained three times a week since December with Longfields-Davidson Heights’ coach Clark Adams and with elementary track coach Travis Wing for the past month.
“My school has really helped me with training,” Shona added. “They let me train with the high school kids. A lot of teachers helped me. “I do a lot of running at school and a lot by myself. I go for a run (usually 5,000 metres before school) when I feel like it.”
Wing praised her for her work ethic and intellectual approach to her running.
She liked running so much she has adopted it as another sports activity.
But being fast on the track is only one of her attributes. She also is sincere, humble and thoughtful.
“I was hoping to get a better time than that, but that’s OK,” she said about her 1,500-metre time at the board championships.
“Everyone ran really well. It was a great honour to run against the fastest girls in the board.”
