Forbes earns cross-country bronze at provincials

When Zoe Forbes toed the line at the provincial high school cross-country championship in Winnipeg last week, her mind began to prepare for the work ahead.

Forbes, who doesn’t turn 14 until next month, is also an accomplished speed skater who is a Grade 9 student at Neelin.

“I have these motivational sayings that cycle through my brain,” Forbes said. “At the start, I always say ‘I can do this’ on repeat and it doesn’t matters what happens. After the gun goes off, I switch over to ‘I can do hard things’ and I do the math in my head, like ‘Oh, I’m halfway there and I have half to go.’ “In speed skating, I do the math of how many laps I’ve done but I try to motivate myself as much as possible.”

Forbes began competing in cross country in Grade 5 at New Era School. She is also in track, enjoying the longer 600-metre and 1,200-metre distances.

“I really like running, so basically there was a bunch of people running and that was very fun,” Forbes said. “It’s a space where I can just think about whatever I want,” she added. “I’m not really worried about anything.”

Forbes ran two cross-country races this year and has done more than 10 since she started in the sport.

Last week it was her first provincial championship, however, and with 246 athletes entered in the three-kilometre JV girls race, it was a big field. The event, which was held at Winnipeg’s Harbourview Golf Course, involved two loops on mostly single track, with the most significant geographic feature near the start.

That weighed into her strategy.

“I wanted to be close to the front off the bat,” Forbes said. “It was up a really steep hill and then it bottlenecked into single track. I really wanted to be at the front for most of it.”

She lined up on the far left side so that she wasn’t in the middle and wouldn’t get trampled, and also because the hill was not as steep there.

The strategy worked. By the time she got up the hill to the single track, she was in the top 25. “It was very pushy-shovey, like most cross-country, but then I picked up my pace a lot in the first half a kilometre so I could gap most of the people who would drop off in the end,” Forbes said. “I ended up with the people I would actually be competing against. The course has lots of hills, but they weren’t really steep hills, they were moderate hills.”

When she completed the first lap and got back to the base of the big hill, she was immediately behind one runner and had another girl trailing her. Although Forbes didn’t know it at the time, when she passed the runner as they made their way up the hill, she had pushed herself into third place.

The final 100 metres of the race involves descending a hill, making a turn and going up a hill. The finish line is around a bend, so you can’t see it in advance.

She knew she was being pursued closely as the race drew to a close.

“When we were on more packed ground, I could hear her feet,” Forbes said. “That really motivated me to keep going.”

Her rival never caught up.

Still, as Forbes rounded the final bend and hit the finish line, she had no idea how well she had doing.

“I wasn’t 100 per cent sure I had medalled because I didn’t know how many girls were in front of me,” Forbes said. “When people told me I medalled, I was very proud of myself.”

Forbes finished in exactly 14 minutes to win bronze, which was 10 seconds ahead of Zoe Krahn of Linden Christian.

Her personal best at 5K is 21:43.

“I don’t really run 3Ks,” Forbes said. “I’ve run 5Ks before but I don’t really know what my 3K time would be, so I was happy with any time.”

Ashley Song of Linden Christian School won the race in 13:00, while Lily Hemlow of Winnipeg’s Vincent Massey Collegiate was second in 13:31.

Forbes was thrilled to see her teammates and coaches after the event, in part because they were pumped that one of their own had bested the Winnipeg runners.

“It was really cool because I was the only one from Brandon who medalled, and I think it’s been a while since anyone from Brandon medalled,” Forbes said. “The Winnipeg sports schools always win so they were really happy for me.”

The next best Brandonite in the JV girls event was Soleil Kaktins of Vincent Massey, who was 58th in 16:37.

In the JV boys race, the top Brandon finisher was Henry McGill of Vincent Massey, who completed the race in 15:30, good for 20th place.

The top Brandonite in the longer varsity girls race was Kinsley Penner of Crocus Plains, who was 96th in 20:42, and the top varsity boy was Samuell Abedjde of Crocus Plains, who was 131st in 21:36.

Forbes, who would have been one of the youngest runners in the JV girls event, will have another crack at it next year, a thought she relishes.

“It’s pretty cool knowing what I can do because I was only in Grade 9 and it’s Grade 9 and 10 I was racing against,” Forbes said. “That gives me more to work with next year.”

That ended her cross-country season just as speed skating ramps up again. She skates three times a week and also does off-ice workouts to prepare for major competitions.

She has competed at national youth championships in both short and long track and is a member of the provincial team.

And now she can add a provincial high school running medal to that list of accomplishments.

“It gives me lots of confidence knowing I’m not just pretty good at speed skating, I’m also a decent runner,” Forbes said.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com