40.572

The World Record is 41.051 held by Korea's Si-Bak Sung.

This weekend I basically tied it in my Quarter final at Oktoberfest, I went 41.054. At the time I was pretty choked, as I've always wanted a time below the World Record (you know, somewhere in the 40 seconds). But needless to say, I was happy to finally have a 500 m time that is one of the fastest in the World.

I wasn't done there, later in my Semis I went 40.886!

This was exactly the type of time I wanted, unfortunately though, I realized that Cory Rasmussen (a teammate of mine in Calgary) holds the Canadian Record of 40.866... I joked with Cory after that race, he only had 0.02 seconds on me in the 500 m now, and that I was coming for him!

I was pretty tired at this point, we had skated two 1500 m's in the morning and two 500 m's (both World Record pace) prior to the Final - I was having trouble staying optimistic about getting another good time. A number of people approached me before my last race, and urged me to go for time, but I set it in my mind that I just wanted to win the race. Sorry, but this is how a real Short Tracker thinks!

From the start of the race Cory was putting a ton of pressure on me, I could feel him close behind me every corner. I managed to pull from start to finish though, with a new track I've been working on it allowed me to maintain my speed and defend at the same time (only set back, it's really, really tiring).

As I crossed the line, I was dead tired. I remember the corner after the line, how fast I was gliding around that corner. But, I thought the race had been pretty slow, it seemed to go on forever! I didn't think much of it at the time, but I sensed some stirring in the coaches box. All of a sudden there were screams from various parts of the rink. I was really tired and I didn't think it had anything to do with the race until I was called over by Jereon to the photo finish box, he had already run over to find the finishing time...

"New unofficial World Record time in the 500 m, 40.572!" - Announcer (teammate Tyler Derraugh)

Redemption.

I couldn't believe it. I almost burst out laughing! All I wanted was the win, but here I come out with the fastest time in the world in the 500 m.

After everything with Olympic Trials, it was good to bounce back with this. It's a little bittersweet, since it clearly means I deserve to be there at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Our group has been training really hard lately, a lot of laps and high intensity programs outside of ice. It's been really demanding physically as well as mentally!

So now I hold two Canadian Records, both leagues beyond what the World Records are (both the 1500 m and the 500 m).