Mariane Pominville, a distance runner with the McGill University cross-country and track teams, just completed her third year in Bioresource Engineering. The program is an intensive one that has allowed Pominville to discover her passion.
"Last semester I took an extremely interesting class, my favourite to date," she said. "It is Industrial Ecology and Systems. I am inspired by ecosystems, by nature and this course fits so seamlessly into my passions. I took my second internship in the industry, and as I get close to graduation it's definitely an area I am interested in pursuing."
With her studies finished for the semester and the cross-country season scheduled to resume in September, the native of Oka, Que., is now in Sherbrooke for the summer. She trains on her own during the off-season. The 2022 tryouts for the varsity team begin in late summer, and Pominville is preparing for that and looking to peak during the cross-country season.
"I need to be in great shape come the end of summer. I'll be using time trials to try to steadily improve my time over the next few months. I'm really privileged to live in Sherbrooke, it's an ideal setting for getting into great shape with so many awesome trails in the surrounding area."
Pominville and her teammates have become a tight-knit group, with their own traditions. There is one in particular she is hoping continues.
"We created a program in 2020 where everyone on the women's team writes a card to someone else and we exchange them before races for motivation and support. It really helped me get pumped to run and is a nice small way of showing just how behind one another we are."
Another cool team-building initiative has begun, as over the summer every Thursday, a special guest speaker is invited to chat with all team members over Zoom.
"Last Thursday we had our first speaker, Aida Valevicius, who is a PhD student at McGill and our assistant coach. The first seminar was on running biomechanics and self-therapy. Next week we have a sports psychologist coming in. It is a great idea because these speakers are all advantageous in different facets of our running career while also letting us stay closer as a team when we are not all physically on campus. It's done virtually and to this point the speakers have been excellent and beneficial for us as a group."
As Pominville continues to prepare for the upcoming season and school year, she has much to look forward to, as well as a set of teammates eager to establish themselves against Canada's best. A productive summer will go a long way toward those goals.
SOURCE:
Zachary McRae
Communications Officer
McGill Athletics & Recreation
514.616.5573 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
zachary.mcrae@mcgill.ca
