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0 Catriona Bisset believes she could be on the verge of breaking her own Australian women’s 800-metre record on Saturday night, but the Melbourne-based athlete is primarily focused on “embracing discomfort”.
Bisset will take on a field that includes fellow Australian Olympian Linden Hall when she races over 800 metres at the Brisbane Track Classic.
“I’ll never say never,” Bisset told Wide World of Sports when asked if she could eclipse her own national record at Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.
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“But for me it’s more about trying to put myself out of my comfort zone, I think, on Saturday.
“My mantra last year with (coach) Ned (Brophy-Williams) was to ‘fully commit’ to whatever race plan that we were looking for, or just training in general. The word was ‘commitment’.
“And now this year the mantra is ’embracing discomfort’ … I’m committing and I’m also seeking that next thing and … the joy of finding out something that I didn’t think I could do before.
“If I get all of those things right then you never know (if the record can be broken).”
Bisset suffered a minor hamstring injury over summer but has regained promising form in time for the Brisbane Track Classic, producing strong performances on the World Indoor Tour in Europe and dazzling at Melbourne’s Box Hill Classic.
The 29-year-old, whose Australian record is 1:58.09, snuck under the two-minute barrier in Birmingham in February and again at the Box Hill Classic a couple of weeks ago.
The Brisbane Track Classic will be followed next week by the Australian track-and-field championships, where Bisset will aim to defend her national 800-metre title at the same venue.
She embodies the mantra “embracing discomfort” in a raft of ways, having fought a courageous battle against mental health and recovered from a nasty fall at last year’s world championships in Eugene.
Never one to shirk a challenge, she picked herself up, finished, lodged a successful appeal and gave her semi-final heat her best shot.
Neither 11 stiches in her right thigh, nor pain and swelling in her left knee, could defeat her.
“I guess it’s just like embracing that nothing is going to be what you think it’s going to be. You can’t control this sport. It is so random, the universe is random,” Bisset said.
“It’s just accepting that you have no control over all of that sort of stuff and you’ve just got to enjoy all the bad, as well, or kind of laugh at it, or see it as just another interesting story or another interesting experience.
“The perfect person who shows no vulnerability, who makes no mistakes — no one wants to be friends with them. They’re boring, they’re not inspiring, they don’t teach you anything. But if someone can be vulnerable … it makes people much more comfortable accepting themselves in their private lives.”
At the core of 800-metre running is discomfort.
“It’s very chaotic,” Bisset said.
“It’s that combination of the pain of a 400 metres because it’s like a long sprint, and you add the chaos of everyone being in different lanes at the start. So it is an extreme combination.”
At the Brisbane Track Classic on Saturday night, Bisset will race against fellow Australians Hall, Ellie Sanford, Emma Philippe and Sayla Donnelly, as well as New Zealand’s Jennifer Hauke and Japanese runners Yume Kitamura and Ayano Shiomi.
Not entered in the race is rising star Abbey Caldwell, who posted the second-fastest 800-metre time by an Australian woman in history at the Sydney Track Classic a fortnight ago, dominating the field with a 1:58.62.
But at Victoria’s Stawell Gift in April, Bisset, Hall and Caldwell will square off in what looms as a spectacular 1000-metre battle.
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