OTTAWA — The perfect 100-metre race feels like poetry in motion to Aaron Brown, and 10 seconds can feel like a hundred.
The 26-year-old from Toronto has flirted with perfection more times this season than ever before, and will be a favourite to win Friday night’s 100 metres at the Canadian Track and Field Championships.
"When you’re running your fastest races, it kind of feels like time slows down," Brown described. "It’s kind of an oxymoron, but the more relaxed you are, the more easy the race feels. And you would think in a 100 metres you would want to muscle it out, and grit your teeth and go as fast as possible, when actually your best races feel slow."
"You feel your exact movements as if it’s slow motion. The race just comes easier … when you run your hardest and you’re really tired and maxed out at the end, that’s usually when you don’t run as fast."
Brown is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career, recently dipping under the 20-second mark for the first time in the 200 metres in Oslo. A few days later he beat reigning world champion Ramil Guliyev of Turkey to win the 200 at the Golden Spike meet in the Czech Republic.
Brown and Andre De Grasse are the only Canadians in history to run both sub-10 in the 100 metres, and sub-20 in the 200.
Sitting trackside at Terry Fox Stadium on Thursday, the cerebral six-foot sprinter said there’s no better feeling than when everything clicks in a race. Think more grace than brute strength: if sprinters were cars they’d be more Formula 1 than NASCAR.
"When everything clicks, it’s poetry in motion. It’s spectacle. You work so hard for such a short amount of time, and there are so many things that go wrong in that short amount of time, that when you actually finally get it right, it’s a beautiful thing," Brown said. "You’re able to appreciate that you were able to execute such a difficult movement in such a short amount of time."
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With De Grasse off to a slower start due to last summer’s hamstring injury, the spotlight has been on Brown. He won silver in the 200 at the Commonwealth Games in April and is currently the leader in the Diamond League standings in that event.
Brown admitted he sometimes feels hidden in the large shadow cast by De Grasse, a three-time Olympic medallist.
"The key is just to tell yourself that you have the talent and the ability to be up there in that position, and wholeheartedly believe it and then go out and try to show the world," Brown said. "And he’s earned what he’s garnered, so you don’t want to be jealous or resentful about that. You just want to use it as motivation and say this is a good thing for him, good for the sport and good for Canada, and I want to be up there trending as well."
Gavin Smellie boasts this season’s fastest Canadian 100 time of 10.01, while Brown has run 10.12, and De Grasse 10.15.
Brown has the fastest 200 time by almost half a second.
When he warms up Friday night, Brown will pop in his earbuds and play some classical music. His go-to song: Beethoven’s mournful "Moonlight Sonata."
"I like to listen to some songs that don’t have any words because it just kind of soothes my soul," Brown said. "It gives me calm before the race."
He also likes the moody ballad "My Immortal," by Evanescence.
Brown actually purchased a keyboard last year, and taught himself how to play it using the Thumbtack app on his phone, which basically matches customers with whatever type of professional they need.
"I was always jealous of people who could just sit down at the piano and play a bunch of songs. One day I just said, ‘I’m going to go and buy a keyboard, and I’m going to start piano lessons,"’ Brown said. "I started learning the basics and now I just go on YouTube and look up different songs I want to learn. It’s a fun pastime for me."
The most difficult song he’s mastered so far: "Moonlight Sonata."
"Just the first movement though, not the second and third," he said.
Brown’s solid season comes after some bad luck last summer.
He false started in the 100 at the Canadian championships, and so only qualified for the 200 at the world championships. Then he came down with the norovirus that swept through the Canadian team in London.
He recovered in time to race, and with a world medal seemingly within his grasp, he was disqualified in the heats for stepping on the lane marker.
This year’s Canadian championships will select the team for the NACAC championships in August in Toronto.
Brown, De Grasse & Co., will race the 200 on Saturday night in Ottawa.
