I'm still going.

I'm not your typical success story. I was never a great runner. Average at best, really. But it was all I knew. I started running in the third grade. Started track and field in fourth grade. Did my first 5k in fifth grade. The other girls had volleyball or cheerleading, but running was my sport.

I was so excited for cross country by the time I got to high school. I loved sports, still do, and to have an actual team to run with was incredible. It was so much more than my one person junior high cross country team at my tiny private school. It was even bigger than the junior high track team- guys and girls. Yes, a whole 35 people were on the cross country team my freshman year, and I was possibly the most average runner you could find. I had fun, pasta parties and PRs and all that, until I felt a weird pain across my shin one day. I mentioned it to my coach, he told me to go to the trainer, and we moved on. Or at least, I tried to, but my leg kept hurting everytime I pushed off. My times got worse and worse and coach had me sit out a few meets at the end of the year. No big deal. 

Except...

I came back to train for the league meet. I wasn't missing that for anything. So when it still hurt, I stayed silent. I didn't want to complain, so I gritted my teeth and limped my way through those last three weeks to a bad time at the league meet, but I didn't care, because I did it. But it kept hurting and I finally went to the doctor and got an x-ray.

That's when I found out that I had been running on a stress fracture in my tibia for a month. 

I had healed enough to not have to use crutches, but I couldn't run for a good month after that. I got reprimanded of course, "you should have seen the doctor sooner," but I didn't really care. That was a once in a lifetime thing, right?

Ha. I was wrong.

Flash to the next cross country season. I had been running good times, a good minute better than my previous year when I start feeling a sharp pain in my foot every time I pushed off. I was stubborn, of course, and ran through it until one of our home meets. We had gotten through a mile and a half when I stepped just the wrong way and my foot exploded in pain. 

I didn't finish that race. I stopped and sat on a tree and bawled my eyes out because it hurt to walk, let alone run and finish the race. My incredible coach helped me limp over to the tent and ice my foot to Antarctica and back. I tried to run again the next day. Bad idea. I went to the doctor the day after that.

Suprise, suprise. Another stress fracture, this one bigger. In my third metacarpal, they said. All I could think of was that I had to be in a boot for two months. I missed the end of the season. Again. I couldn't run the league meet, but I was the best timer they ever had.

Here comes junior year. I was running great that year. I actually had a shot to at least be a varsity alternate- meaning that I got to tag along to Districts and Regionals and maybe even State, which was all new to me. So of course, something has to go wrong. 

My hip starts hurting. I first think that it was muscle problem. It was in the right place for a hip flexor strain, and who breaks their hip anyway? I was no old woman. So I kept running. The trainer told me that a hip flexor starin took a while to heal. So I kept running. My times got worse and my hip did too, so I finally broke down and asked coach if I could be out for the next two meets, because I could not run anymore. So, I missed the end of the season again. Against advice, I ran the league meet. Since I couldn't make varsity that year, I wanted to at least go out strong.

I finished that d*mn meet. I was nearly dead last and nearly fell over when I was done, but I finished. That. Meet. and I was incredibly proud of myself. 

Reminder: I still thought this was a muscle problem.

I end up limping around school for the next three months because I am stubborn and desperately clung to the thought that it was just my hip flexor because I didn't want to face another break. 

I finally broke down as it began to feel better and went to the doctor in January. There it was- a stress fracture in the femoral neck. I broke my femur, somehow. That was crutches for two months, just in time for track season- or at least I thought so. My doctor sat me down and told me that I should seriously think about not running for my senior year. I told the doc that I'd sleep on it, and got in the car and promised to my mom that I would make it through my whole senior year with no injuries.

Guess what? I did. 

My hip still hurt for the next year. My times were down and I was no longer competing for varsity, but I didn't care. I was able to do what I loved, finally. 

I got to finish out the last two meets for the first time in my high school career. I ran the league meet on fresh legs and ran my best time of the year. I went out with a smile on my face and lifting a sixth straight conference championship trophy that I had absolutely no part in winning. I looked pretty good in the picture though.

What's the lesson here? Push yourself to your limits. I will hurt, holy cow it will be painful, but it will be worth it. Don't take no for an answer. You can run that half. You can make that time.

Who cares what other people's times are? That's not your goal. Your goal is to be the best that you can be- whether you contribute to varsity or come in last in the open race, you are running for yourself. Don't give in to limits.

Oh, and about that half? I did that this summer, two years after I graduated high school. And I absolutely crushed it.

- Anonymous