‘UGH LAUREN, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?’

Matt and I are very much numbers people. We talk numbers a lot of the time. People look at us a bit strangely but we know what we’re talking about.

I’d been noticing some patterns. A few times, the number 54 has popped up, whether it was on a bus or on a plane. I hadn’t seen any other numbers that really registered. And I kept on seeing 54.

I’m not an arrogant person, naturally, but I just felt so confident in my training and everything that Matt and I had done leading into the Nationals.

It had absolutely poured right before my heat. It’s tricky getting through rounds because you want to conserve as much energy as you can, so I ran a more conservative pattern. When I crossed the line, I felt like it was about a 58 and pretty conservative.

The time popped up and it was 56.5 and I immediately thought, ‘Ugh, Lauren what have you done? You’ve run too fast.’ It felt cruisey.

Some seasons I’d really struggled to run a 56.5. So, that confirmed to me that I was in good shape.

On the Sunday, the weather was lovely; it was nice and warm. I didn’t want to worry about my rivals and I just had this feeling that I just wanted to get out there and run.

I just knew that if I could execute every single step that I would be on to something good. 

I was thinking ‘get to the line’. When you can execute your race plan, or your competition plan, then your results come. 

One of the last things Matt said to me was, ‘Loz , don’t put limit on what you can run today. You can run anything.  Don’t celebrate, but get every stride that you need to. Run as hard as you can for that time, and look at the clock’.

That’s exactly what I did. The clock showed 54.87. I’m not usually very emotional, or I don’t really show a lot, after my races. This was different and I was overcome with emotion.

So, it was a strange feeling. I had run my fastest time in opening a season ever. And I had just qualified for the World Championships. But I was no longer the fastest in Australia.

First it was relief, to be honest. I had finally done what I knew I could but had never managed. And I was so happy to win.

I was about to talk to an interviewer when I could hear someone calling my name and I knew that it was Matt, rushing all the way from the back straight because he was as far away from me as he could possibly be.

When he saw me cross the line, he didn’t know what the time was, but as soon as he saw my reaction he knew it. He started running so that he could come down to the finish line.

He was calling out my name, so I was able to just go and give him a hug. He was quite emotional, too. Matt is usually a pretty chilled guy.

He knows what it’s like to be an athlete at the top of their sport, having been recruited to the AIS when he was young. I think having that experience is valuable because he is able to change athletes’ futures and careers based off what he did, but also what he wasn’t able to do.

WHAT KEPT US TOGETHER

There have been plenty of tears in our time together. But I think that’s just because we’re both perfectionists.

Over the years, he’s helped build up my resilience and make me a confident athlete. He’s always been super honest, so he’s not going to tell you that you’re in great shape if you’re not. But he’s just so passionate about the sport.

He’ll go down to the track on a Sunday and come up with some new drills to show us on a Monday. Or he’ll watch some videos and send them to the group and tell us to look at certain parts of people’s techniques. I think he’s always been prepared to experiment.

We’ve been so open and honest and we could always communicate. I think that’s what kept us working together for so long. I never thought about leaving.

There were some opportunities that popped up a few years ago to go to college in America, but it was never a thought that crossed my mind because we’ve got such great facilities here in Canberra.

From the personal side, from the outset, he encouraged me to pursue a Uni degree and encouraged me to finish it even when I didn’t really enjoy it.

You can’t rely on athletics to be an income forever. To have that encouragement and support was important because it helped me keep a very balanced life.

He takes the time to get to know his athletes, individually. He doesn’t lump us all together and treat us like we’re all the same.

He’s taken me from a 14-year-old girl to a 30-year-old woman. There’s obviously a lot of changes that go on in that time.

‘IT’S NOT OFF THE TABLE’

I’m not sure what I’d write down on that whiteboard today.

Before Christmas, before I had run a qualifier, Matt and I were talking about World Champs and Tokyo.

After the Commonwealth Games I thought Tokyo’s so far away. He said to me, ‘Imagine if you pushed, qualified, and you could run faster than you are now. If you could qualify for Tokyo and become a triple Olympian, while you were doing fulltime work. That would be an amazing experience. It would give you a different purpose. You would be able to enjoy it for what it is and the way you actually got there.’

All I said to him was, ‘It’s not off the table.’

SUPPORT AND UNWAVERING LOVE

I know my Nan Joyce and Pop Kevin would love to see me carry on to a third Olympics. They’ve been the biggest supporters.

I know every day my Pop looks at the paper and hopes to see an article or a photo of me in there. He gets a real kick out of seeing me do well.

My Nan keeps everything. When I qualified for the Commonwealth Games there was a newsagent’s poster of me from The Canberra Times that they still have. They’ll tell anyone who will listen about what I’ve been up to lately, so everyone in their close circle knows exactly what I’m up to.

My parents, Kerry and Neil and my brother Steven travelled to nearly every competition I’ve done overseas. They genuinely love it and they love the sport.

My parents were both officials at the Commonwealth Games last year. They have been refining their craft, that’s been the same throughout my brother’s and my life.

At Little Athletics, we were always there first helping set up and last there packing up. They were always involved in the club and that hasn’t stopped. It was the same whatever sport we wanted to try.

I was never pushed to do anything. My brother and I were always able to figure out what we wanted to do through trying a lot of different sports. 

I did heaps of sports but looking back athletics is one that I always did. The others kind of came and went. 

To just have that support and that unwavering love, it’s just really nice to know there’s always people up in the stands that have got your back and are just so happy with your result, no matter what.