Follow Greely senior Matt Woolverton this fall as he talks about his struggles with injuries, and his battle to overcome them for one healthy season
Why do I run? I have no clue.
Year after year I seem to run into people asking me why I continue to run, whether its because of injury or not I always seem to be asked each year I have ran.
I started to appreciate the importance of being able to run. I started to use running as my own way to clear my head. However as injuries came and went I learned that running is a privilege. It can be taken away from us at any given moment.
I ran my first “full” practice of the entire season the other day and I couldn't be happier. I felt great finally being able to lace up the running shoes and go out with the team.
I have been biking throughout my injury in order to attempt to keep up cardio and be prepared for when I do in fact race. Coach Dowling always says you have to bike three times the amount you run in order to get the same workout you get from running. I say you need to do more than just biking if you expect to be prepared.
I said in my last post that though injured I tend to run through the pain. A younger athlete on my team this week asked Coach whether or not it’d be alright to try to run injured. It’s not. I’ve talked a lot about running through pain but that’s just because I’ve lost a lot if not all of my potential simply because of my injuries.
At this point I run for fun, not success. Younger athletes with potential to do well in their high school and potentially collegiate careers should not run injured, it causes more problems than you could expect.
For me running injured at this point in my career is a last ditch effort to get some sort of satisfaction from a sport that requires so much work. That being said in the earlier seasons of my career the first few injuries I had actually kept me from running for most of the season. Coach Dowling and any of the upperclassmen can vouch for me when I say I rarely ran. It got to the point where I would walk up to coaches Dowling or Folan and they would just know I wasn’t running that week. Along with that I’ve benched myself for a majority of the XC season in the hopes of being able to have a successful indoor season. Its all about managing your priorities.
I say this because many people won’t sustain injures with the frequency that I do. Many will have one or two serious injuries a career and move on from there. One or two injuries is not worth running through. It will cause more injuries in the long run (pun intended).
I see a lot while injured. I’ve been able to see JV athletes step up and make big leaps. I’ve seen teammates do just the opposite. If theres one thing that I’ve seen that goes directly into the ability of an athlete its attitude.
I know, it sounds foolish. I’m completely serious though, teammates of mine who actually want to step up do, and those who don’t see themselves stepping up fall through the cracks. “can’t” really irritates me. It’s not about if you can or can’t its if you want to or not. I think I would’ve had a good shot at being Varsity had I been smarter my freshman year. However, I’ve passed that point in my life and now I need to deal with the choices I made.
I want to say thank you to all of the people who have supported me to this point. People are the reason I’m able to keep running. Seeing my teammates kick into that last gear at the end of a tough workout makes me want to go out and do it for myself. I don't know whether it's obvious or not but I feed of Greely's success, it's selfish. Without you all I wouldn’t be where I am today, so thank you.
Finally I’ve determined I want my big comeback race to be Manchester if not that, the conference meet at St. Joes. I hope to beat you all.
No Regrets,
-Matt Woolverton