Timan recounts state title campaign

A state gold medalist will return for the Panthers next year. For the past three seasons Anna Timan has been one of the state's rising track and field stars, winning a gold medal in the 300-meter hurdles this spring. Last week The Press published the first of a two-part interview with Timan, with Part II transcribed below lightly edited for clarity and length. How'd you get started running the 300 hurdles? How long have you been doing that now? That's a just-this-year thing. [Head coach Matt Harlfinger] had the bright idea to put me in it probably at the beginning of [the winter indoor season]. He wanted to start training me for the 300 hurdles, so I started out doing the 55 for indoor and we just progressed up into the 300. So you'd never done hurdles before this year, and you won a state title?Yes. That's pretty crazy. How did you do that?I have no clue. So what makes you so good at the 300?It's probably my best event, but I think it's just the amount of training I've had with sprinting; having that as a background has really helped me be good at the 300 hurdles. … I think mentality is a big thing; I like to visualize my races every single time. That's the biggest thing that helps me in the races, I guess – just visualizing or watching my previous races and seeing what I can learn from my past. And when you say visualize, what do you mean?This is going to sound really bad, but I like to think that I'm the fastest one there, and that kind of helps me be the fastest one there. Yeah, Matt told me that you came in laser-focused from day one this year.Yeah, he asked us at the beginning of the year what we wanted to get out of the season, or just the year as a whole, and I said I wanted to get married to track and field. I wanted that ring, and I was going to go through great lengths to get it. How did you know that you had a chance to win gold?I've always had people that supported me like my mom and dad, and obviously the coaching staff with Matt and [co-head coach Melissa Ward]. I honestly don't think I'd be here in the place that I am mentality-wise and everything if it wasn't for them, because I didn't know how much potential I had until they picked it out and told me about it. Did you want to win the 300 specifically, or would you have been happy with any gold?I would have been content with literally anything – relay-wise, team-wise, as long as I got my gold. So I think it was just a bonus to get it as an individual. So what made you want a gold medal so bad?I don't know; I just wanted the bragging rights. You mentioned watching film; what sorts of other things will you do outside practice to get that extra edge?Right when Matt told me that I was going to be doing hurdles, I was like, "Hurdles? I've never done hurdles in my entire life; how am I going to do that?" He was like, "Well, just look into it."I would pull up videos of how to get good hurdle technique and articles about what you should be doing. Something that really stuck out to me was to not jump the hurdle. You don't jump hurdles; you run through them. You try to go through hurdles as fast as possible, and if you're gaining airtime that's not as fast as if you're plowing through. So that kind of changed my whole perspective on it. You won the state final by more than a second; that's a lot in a hurdle race, right? How were you able to do that?Honestly, it was super-hot out and I was walking to the line to get set up, and I was literally like, "Oh dear God, just don't throw up," – I was so nauseous. I got set in the blocks, and I was like, "Just get out fast. As long as you get out fast, you can carry yourself through the rest of the race." The other girl [Lexi Tripp of Croatan] had run a faster time than me originally, but because of what she ran at regionals I was ranked higher than her for that race, even though she had run a faster time earlier in the season. I was super-nervous that she would catch me, so I was like, "Just get out fast," and ended up beating her previous fastest time. Was that a PR [personal record] for you?Yeah, I went from running 46s [times ranging from 46 to 47 seconds], skipped 45 and just went to 44. Was getting out fast something that you and Matt had talked about before the race?Yeah, he just kept telling me to focus on my race and my race only, and not worry about anybody else – don't think about anybody else; it's literally just you and you and the hurdles. What was your reaction when you crossed the finish line and realized you'd won? What was going through your head in that moment?I think it was right before going over the last hurdle, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I don't hear her; am I going to get it?" And then I crossed the line and I think you can see it in the video – I put my hands above my head, and I was just so amazed that I actually did it. Honestly, I had run four races before and I was super-tired, and I didn't expect at that point to win. After both 100 hurdle races [preliminaries and finals] we had like a little break, and then I had my two relays and those kind of made me a little bit upset. I thought we'd get placed higher so I was kind of discouraged, and then I was getting really tired with the sun and everything, so I was kind of just accepting defeat a little bit. I had to come to terms with myself that maybe I wasn't going to win. I was down in the deep [feeling] low, and I was like, "Well, I'm just going to run to the best of my ability, leave it all on the field and have no regrets."

Timan recounts state title campaign

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