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Hello Everyone,
Sorry I haven’t written in so long. To start off I would like to congratulate everyone who competed in the State meet this weekend!! I am very proud of my team for winning our 3rd straight State title!
This past month has been extremely busy, and also unexpectedly difficult for me. As many of you know I have been struggling with anemia, and have had many discouraging moments. My season started off very well, and I was feeling great! At the end of September I started feeling overly tired all the time, and had no energy during the day at school or at practice. Being a teenager my Dad just thought I was lacking sleep and was also stressed about school, college visits, and running. The first time it really hit me was at a meet in Windham, and I had no energy to finish and was unable to catch my breath. This was very abnormal, and I went to the ER that night for blood test. They found out my white blood count was extremely high and figured I was fighting some type of infection. The next day I went for more test, and my white blood count had gone down. They told me I should be feeling better in a day or two. As the days went on I still had no energy, and I was missing multiple classes because I didn’t feel well during school. I tried to stay positive and just rest up for the Manhattan Invitational race in New York. Our team had been looking forward to this race since preseason, and we had high hopes of performing well. This meet was a great chance for everyone of the fourteen girls on our team to compete in a out of state race, and have exposure to top runners. Unfortunately, I again was unable to finish the race and was taken off the course with no energy left in me to even hold myself up. These problems I had never experienced before were very scary to go through, and I had no idea what was going on. I am very proud of how the younger girls performed, and even though many of us didn’t do as well as we hoped it was a great experience. After this meet is when I realized something more serious was wrong. I went to have further test done, and had my iron tested which had not been done two weeks before. They figured out my ferritin level was severely low, and I instantly started taking supplements and introduced red meet back into my diet. At this time I had a week until Regionals. I was still struggling with my energy all day, and also was having a hard time practicing to my highest ability. I continued to stay positive and told myself that now l had an answer to the issue it would soon be fixed. At the day of Regionals I wasn’t nervous, but more scared of the unknown (meaning how I was going to feel racing). I tried to race as if I was at 100% and the outcome was not what I wanted. I am a highly impatient person, and thought that in a week I could be back to my normal self, and able to race full out..this is not the case with anemia.
Thanks everyone for all the support xoxo
Good luck to everyone competing in New Englands--GO MAINE!
10/31/11
Hello Everyone,
Sorry I haven’t written in so long. To start off I would like to congratulate everyone who competed in the State meet this weekend!! I am very proud of my team for winning our 3rd straight State title!
This past month has been extremely busy, and also unexpectedly difficult for me. As many of you know I have been struggling with anemia, and have had many discouraging moments. My season started off very well, and I was feeling great! At the end of September I started feeling overly tired all the time, and had no energy during the day at school or at practice. Being a teenager my Dad just thought I was lacking sleep and was also stressed about school, college visits, and running. The first time it really hit me was at a meet in Windham, and I had no energy to finish and was unable to catch my breath. This was very abnormal, and I went to the ER that night for blood test. They found out my white blood count was extremely high and figured I was fighting some type of infection. The next day I went for more test, and my white blood count had gone down. They told me I should be feeling better in a day or two. As the days went on I still had no energy, and I was missing multiple classes because I didn’t feel well during school. I tried to stay positive and just rest up for the Manhattan Invitational race in New York. Our team had been looking forward to this race since preseason, and we had high hopes of performing well. This meet was a great chance for everyone of the fourteen girls on our team to compete in a out of state race, and have exposure to top runners. Unfortunately, I again was unable to finish the race and was taken off the course with no energy left in me to even hold myself up. These problems I had never experienced before were very scary to go through, and I had no idea what was going on. I am very proud of how the younger girls performed, and even though many of us didn’t do as well as we hoped it was a great experience. After this meet is when I realized something more serious was wrong. I went to have further test done, and had my iron tested which had not been done two weeks before. They figured out my ferritin level was severely low, and I instantly started taking supplements and introduced red meet back into my diet. At this time I had a week until Regionals. I was still struggling with my energy all day, and also was having a hard time practicing to my highest ability. I continued to stay positive and told myself that now l had an answer to the issue it would soon be fixed. At the day of Regionals I wasn’t nervous, but more scared of the unknown (meaning how I was going to feel racing). I tried to race as if I was at 100% and the outcome was not what I wanted. I am a highly impatient person, and thought that in a week I could be back to my normal self, and able to race full out..this is not the case with anemia.
After that meet I was so upset with my health, and did not want to run at States. The next few days I thought about everything, and decided I was not going to give up on this. I realized that I would have to race differently, and not be able to run to my full capability but for my team. Going into the race I had no doubt that I was going to finish, because I had my teammates to pull me along. I had absolutely no expectations other than to finish the race and score high enough for us to win the State meet. I was able to run at a comfortable pace and stay relaxed. I was very pleased with my performance compared to the week before, and was immensely excited for the teams 3-peat win.
I am slowly feeling better, and very excited to get back training and to compete in New Englands in two weeks. This season has been a major challenge for me, and I could not have done it without everyone who has supported me. I have had several emails from runners wishing me a quick recovery, and everyone in the running community pulling me along through this hard time. I have learned a lot about myself. I still believe everything happens for a reason, and this challenging time in my running career will be a benefit.
I am slowly feeling better, and very excited to get back training and to compete in New Englands in two weeks. This season has been a major challenge for me, and I could not have done it without everyone who has supported me. I have had several emails from runners wishing me a quick recovery, and everyone in the running community pulling me along through this hard time. I have learned a lot about myself. I still believe everything happens for a reason, and this challenging time in my running career will be a benefit.
Thanks everyone for all the support xoxo
Good luck to everyone competing in New Englands--GO MAINE!
