Cade Lizotte Is Finding The Balance

My 400m PR is 49.54, and my 100m PR is 11.1. I unfortunately don't remember my 200m PR because it has been a while since I have ran it. I ran in State as a sophomore in 2017 running the 400m dash. I finished 7th place overall.

I have run track since sixth grade in middle school because I loved to run and wanted to see if I enjoyed running competitively. I first got involved in high school track to try and stay in shape for the other sports that I played. One of my coaches asked me to join track, so I did. I have played many sports throughout my life. I have competitively played/ran track and field, cross country, soccer, basketball, football, and tennis. Tennis and cross country I have not done for the high school. I am now only competing in track and field, and soccer.

A standout memory that I had from track was when I first came in as a freshman and I started running varsity. I was relatively shy at the time and I wasn't sure what to expect, but the seniors and varsity runners welcomed me with open arms and treated me like family. After about a week of running with them they gave me my own warm up line to lead and named a few dynamic stretches after me. A couple of these were "karao-Cades" instead of karaokes and "Cade" skips instead of a thing we called C-skips.

Some of my favorite athletes to compete with are high school teammates like Ty Schneider and Sydney Bosire. Others from my summer team are Ethan Peal, and Jaylen champion.

My parents have been a great help to me throughout my entire track career. They have always been willing to help me from things like my diet, extra practice, or to help my psychologically get ready. A coach who greatly helped me even though I've known her for less than a year is my coach from my summer track team, Track Minnesota Elite, Dawn Johnson. She was always there for me and all her other athletes, ready to help however she could. She would always psychologically helped me when I wasn't feeling good about a race. She was always kind, funny, and always said the right thing to me even if I didn't think I needed it. She gave me a lot of helpful constructive criticism, and was strict when she needed to be.

You will often find some family cheering for me. My dad Steven, my mother Amy, my step-mother Kourtney Kemp, big brother Ethan, and also my two baby brothers Elliot and Graham. 

My biggest challenge as an athlete has been choosing the sport/sports I wanted to pursue further. When I was younger I played many sports, and as I got older, especially into high school, I had to choose which sports I had to stop playing even if I loved them. Whenever I was faced with that choice, I  thought about it for a very long time, looked at the pros and cons, and I often made uncertain/ hard decisions that to this day I still question sometimes. I am still overcoming those decisions I have had to make, and I do have some regrets, but to help me get over it I often try to realize that there is no going back, so I need to live with the choices I have made and have fun playing the sports I do now, which I do very much still enjoy.

My main goals this year are to have as much fun as possible while working as hard as I can, and make it as far into/close to the State Meet in as many events  as I can.

We are mostly looking forward to spending this last year we have running track together.

I wouldn't exactly call it a superstition, but I always keep a baton in my school backpack the whole year.

When I'm not doing track I am often playing soccer or doing homework. On the weekends when I typically have more free time, I am hanging out with friends or my two baby brothers.

To the younger athletes I would say to try and find a good balance between hard work and fun in sports. Many times people get way too nervous or are way too hard on themselves when it comes to track. I myself have experienced the nerves of running track, but it's important to remember that sports are for fun, and if you don't get that time or jump in that race or jump, it's ok. That one run or jump will not effect your entire life, so there's no point in spending to much time being nervous before, or being regretful after. All you need to do is the best you can do, the rest will follow.

Form is more important than you think. When your form is good when you are sprinting, you should look like you aren't running "very fast" (that is, putting in much effort), but really you are running fast.

I am ambidextrous so I can come off the blocks pretty equally with either foot forwards.