St. Timothy's Sophia Nowicki raced her way into a silver finish.

Nowicki was one of 900 athletes competing at the ASAA Cross Country Provincial Championships on October 15.

Although she ran strong, Nowicki says, it wasn't as smooth as she would have liked.

"I really had to push it to get the place I did, where the race we did at the Summer Games that went really well, I ran strongly and smooth. This one could have been smoother."

Nowicki couldn't pin point why this race was more challenging.

"It didn't fall together like the way the race in summer did, the very end, the last 40 metres were definitely a real push for me. Nothing specific, I don't know how else to say except it wasn't as smooth, sometimes they just come together and this one didn't."

Nowicki may take it slightly slower this week, but lands right back into training mode for Nationals in November.

"I am not expecting to do well at it, I am looking at it more from an experience perspective, because I am definitely going to be running post-secondary nationally. I think it will be a really good experience to have and apply that to post-secondary education."

This was Nowicki's last provincial race at the high school level.