The 2021 season has been a shift into a new gear for Nicholas Pedersen. The 21-year speaks about a shift in his mentality – to running courageously. The shift continued to pay dividends Sunday morning in Toronto as he set a new lifetime best at the Canadian 10K Championships. Pedersen crossed the line in a time of 31 minutes and 45.0 seconds to place 41st.
“I am incredibly pleased with the result,” said Pedersen of his first Canadian senior championship performance. “Given the fitness going into it, I knew that sub 32:00 was ambitious yet within range of possibility.”
Sunday’s performance was just the latest in a line of what seem to be continually improving performances for Pedersen. The early season saw him set back-to-back bests over 5,000 metres on the track – taking nearly 15 seconds of his previous best. He then followed that up with gold in the 3,000 metre steeplechase at the Ontario Open Championships. “The more I run courageously the more that I realize it is less about the courage and more so about the trust I put in my fitness and the training I have done which allows me to race the way I do,” Pedersen describes.
“I used to live near Lake Shore Boulevard near High Park and never raced any STWM weekend events, so this was really fun to do,” Cassidy told Athletics Canada following the race. “They just made this [wheelchair] event a couple of weeks ago, so it worked out with my schedule. It was a demonstration. Hopefully it is something to build on for the future with prize money and a bigger field. It’s funny, whenever I am driving roads, I am always eyeing them up for training. And on Lake Shore, you can never do that unless it’s shut. It was fun to get out there, a fun course.”