Tweedle turning heads

At the beginning of his second season with McMaster’s track team, Jeff Tweedle taped a piece of paper with the time “2:29.99” scrawled across it to his wall. It was the time he hoped to achieve in the 1k by the season’s end.

“After running 2:38 in the 1k last year, my goal this season was just to break 2:30. That would have been an indication that I was progressing to where I wanted to be.”

To his own astonishment, the second-year Civil Engineering student has already managed to surpass that goal.

The nineteen year-old went to high school at Stoney Creek’s Cardinal Newman where he played volleyball and badminton in addition to cross-country and track. Though he went on to win cross-country and track MVP in his final two years, Tweedle wasn’t immediately sure that running was his primary sport.

“I didn’t really consider it to be my main focus for most of high school, but I started to consider it as such during my senior year when my times started to pick up.”

The catalyst for his improvement appeared at the 2011 GHAC track championships. After a tough 3000m race in which he fought through an illness to place sixth, Tweedle was approached by Patti Moore of Hamilton Olympic Track Club to see if he was interested in joining the team.

Moore had been carefully watching his steady progress and thought he could benefit from a more intensive regime.

“Although track is an individual sport, I think almost all high school runners want to run with a group. And there are huge early benefits from organized training and running alongside other kids who run well,” said Moore.

Moore added that although training with the likes of Guelph’s Adam Rowles, Conestoga College’s Liam Smith, and McMaster’s own Paul Kolb was beneficial, Tweedle’s “successes are his own and well-earned.”

After a good preseason with HOC, 2012 was Tweedle’s best year yet. He coasted to the OFSAA cross-country finals in Ottawa and ran personal bests in the 1500 and 800 at South Regionals.

Coming to the end of his second-year at McMaster, Tweedle has been through his fair share of adversity while retaining the same work ethic he had in high school. Despite a solid tryout in 2012, Tweedle fell just short of meeting the cross-country team standard 6-kilometer time, but was allowed to train with them. Instead of wallowing in disappointment or joining in the Welcome Week debauchery, Tweedle dusted himself off and ran his way onto the track team just a few days later.

That kind of resiliency has come to define Tweedle’s athletic career, with his ability to seize opportunities quickly becoming apparent.

This year, Tweedle has been able to balance rigorous academic obligations with a busy training and racing schedule to sublime results. But Tweedle says he wouldn’t be able to keep it up without the support that his teammates and coaches offer him in maintaining a balance.

“They’re really good with working around my schedule to help me with my training. I owe a lot of credit to the other guys who have been able to push me in workouts which has been a big reason why I’ve improved quite a bit.”

Tweedle started the year off with a bang at Windsor’s Can-Am meet, running a 2:35.19 in his first 1000m race of the season on Jan 10. For some perspective, that was a three-second improvement on his previous personal best of 2:38.55.

Things only went up from there. He posted a 2:31.71 in the same distance at Western’s Don Wright meet only a week later.

Tweedle ran yet another personal best at the McGill Team Challenge the following week, almost breaking the four-minute barrier in the 1500m with a time of 4:01.71.

With the times he had been logging, Tweedle was a virtual shoo-in on the trip to Boston for the highly-competitive Valentine Invitational. With the perfect storm of a fast heat and a loud crowd, Tweedle was able to harness the adrenaline and absolutely shatter his personal best with a time of 2:27.71.

With that time putting him at second on McMaster’s all-time list and propelling him to 11 in the provincial rankings, Tweedle appeared to be on the verge of making a splash at the OUA’s at York University on Feb 21.

But being unknowingly placed into the second heat proved to fluster Tweedle. Although the group was littered with speed demons like Windsor’s Alex Ullman and Guelph’s Yves Sikubwabo, the race was a slow — by their lofty standards — tactical affair that was controlled by a large pack.

As most of the runners had already achieved the CIS standard of 2:24.99 earlier in the season, they were reluctant to risk injury.

Unable to circumvent the large throng, Tweedle attempted to bide his time at the back of the pack but unfortunately did not have the legs to make a big kick during the bell lap.

That said, his time of 2:31.14 proved to be McMaster’s best that day.

Although disappointed at being unable to improve upon his Boston time, Tweedle is looking forward to what the outdoor summer season brings as well as time to read John L. Parker’s Again To Carthage, the sequel to the cult classic Once A Runner — he had been bringing the latter to meets for good luck.

His goal for his third season at McMaster is to achieve the CIS standard time for the 1K.