On the run
Posted By Heather Kendall
Posted 3 months ago
There have been a few ups and downs – literally – for Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards resident Lisa Cybulskie, who is on the Sir Sandford Fleming College cross country team. On the weekend, she qualified for the Cross Country Running National Championships, which will take place in Camrose, Alberta on Nov. 14. Cybulskie placed fifth out of 76 women, with a time of 19:56; the top seven finishers qualify for spots on Team Ontario for the national meet.
Cybulskie joined the Madawaska Valley District High School cross country team in Grade 10, but it was while she was attending school in Guelph that she got more serious about running.
"I discovered I'm good at it," she says.
Last May, with encouragement from her friend Devon Recoskie and Devon's mother Helen, she entered the Ottawa Half-Marathon, finishing with a time of 1:39:42 and earning third place in her category (female 19 and under).
"I did a lot better than I thought I would," she says. "I felt very good afterward."
She spent the summer training in the hills of Wilno, running five to six times a week for about an hour a day on pavement and through the bush. In the fall, she joined the cross country team at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough.
"We train twice a week as a team and then I train on my own," Cybulskie says.
At meets in London and Windsor, she placed fourth overall in the women's races. In October, she took part in the Fleming Invitational Cross Country meet and took first place. On Oct. 18, she ran the Toronto Half-Marathon, completing the run with a time of 1:23:58 and placing first in the women's 24 and under category, third in the women's overall category (missing out on second place by just one second) and 46th out of about 5,000 participants.
Last weekend, Cybulskie travelled to Windsor for the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association provincial meet. There, she came in fifth in the five-kilometre race, which qualified her for the Nationals in Alberta.
No matter what happens, Cybulskie says she will continue to run. Eventually, she'd like to compete in a marathon, too.
"I enjoy running," she says.
