Middle Distance Runner
I grew up as a child athlete competing on club teams. I first started swimming at the age of three and raced in the pool from ages five to nine. At ten, I had begun to run. My last track race was when I was seventeen.
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I moved on to college, where I majored in television and film. When I was four years old, I was fascinated by people on the TV screen. These stories in motion played out within a box fascinated me. I dreamed of one day making that happen, and this vision manifested after college working on TV commercials. In this position, I was working 14 to 18 hours a day as a Production Manager. I traveled to many beautiful places working on location, and I worked on hundreds of commercials.
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All of this time at my dream job I had taken 13 years off from running, and I didn’t run a single track race in my twenties. At the age of thirty, I started to train again. I began to workout with Merle McGee. In my first week of training, I ran 55 miles. After a few months, he ramped up my mileage dramatically to 90 miles a week, pulling doubles. He told me how fast I could run in the 800m, but I was really a 5000m runner. I was excited by the 800m time and wanted to race.
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I ran my first race without tapering off and did pretty well. The next race Merle tapered me off, and during the race, my legs became extremely heavy and swollen. He and I pondered about what could have caused this reaction after tapering for a race. He suggested it was a circulation issue, and he sent me to many different specialized doctors. I also searched out esteemed doctors that were specialized in the field, but between all of these appointments we could not figure out what was happening with my legs.
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During this time, I met someone who was training with Laszlo Tabori, and he convinced me to give him a shot. Even though I liked Merle's training and the group I was in, I thought I would talk with Laszlo and see if he had a solution to my medical issues. He had some immediate ideas on how to potentially help me. After a few months of training with Laszlo, he told me what time I could run in the 800m and 1500m. I was thrilled by the times; the 800m time was the same as what Merle had said. I was in a state of euphoria, thinking that this was the resolution to my issues. Laszlo asked me to train with him for one year before I raced to work on three things, which happened to be the same things Merle had told me I needed to adjust. I was eager to race, but I waited patiently. After the year, Laszlo tapered me off for the race, and the same thing happened. There was obviously something medically wrong with my legs. I knew I needed to stop racing until I figured out what was going on.
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After I stopped racing, I received an opportunity to work on a film production as a Line Producer. I did several jobs living out of hotels and working long hours. I needed to do some soul-searching. While production is my dream job, that joy was overshadowed by the fact that I couldn’t have the lifestyle I wanted where I could compete.
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Over the years, I have been trying to get back into racing shape. Due to my health issues, racing had been delayed because of all of my setbacks.
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In 2010 I noticed that my health was deteriorating quickly. My eyelashes were falling out, and my eyebrows were disappearing. My weight was fluctuating, I noticed weird spots on my skin, and I could not sleep. After years of searching, the eleventh doctor I visited diagnosed me with an autoimmune disease. It took four years for me to rebuild my health. After partially recovering, I needed surgery to help prevent cancer. Five weeks after the operation, I was hit with an infection and was in the hospital for eight days and left with a catheter. Running with a catheter was not pleasant, but did it anyway. After the removal of my catheter, I started to run well. Then after two months, I got blindsided by Ecoli and had to take my running easy again.
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After my full recovery, I was doing 200m with a new training partner. After the third rep, he took off and ran fast. I ran with him and injured my knee, which put me out for five months. My knee is still wonky, but I able to run. After running for a few months again, my dad got sick, and I wanted to help him recover. I was driving 2-3 hours back and forth to help him. Thankfully, he is now back in excellent health.
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In November of 2019, I started to train with the Trojan Masters TC. In the first two months my knee would give out, and I was unable to get consistent training. My coach, Eugene Driver, had a massage gun at practice. I started to use it, and I was able to get from one workout to the next. I bought a massage gun for myself, and with my regular chiropractor and acupuncture visits, I was finally feeling able to train.
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After eight weeks of consistent speed work, I competed in my first race in February 2020.
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When I was competing in the 1990s, many people approached me at track meets wanting to know why I stopped running when I was a kid. At first, I was surprised by this and I did not want to throw anyone under the bus, so I told everyone I had just gotten burnt out.
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This past year, I have been getting requests to share more about my story. I will write about my youth days as an athlete and share my experiences on how being a young athlete helped me and shaped me throughout my life.
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