The Starting Line
The Fitness World has brought me through so many opportunities and has led me through many obstacles, but also many rewards.
It all started when I was in third grade. I had just heard that my school was opening up cross country as a sport at my school. At the time, I was playing basketball, but I was too small, so my mom encouraged me to join the cross-country team. To everyone’s surprise, I was running with the upper classmen in my school. I was the fastest girl on the team, despite my size, so my coach had me run with the boys. Fast forward a few years, I am a 6th grader, and I am winning medals in races left and right, regular meets, championships, everything. I was so happy to have finally found a sport I was good at. I loved everything about it: the people, the atmosphere, the intensity.
A Change in Pace
Everything was going great for me, and I couldn’t have been happier, until one race in October of my 6th grade year. I was almost to the finish line, and I was about to make the top ten finishers, until I collapsed – my knees gave out completely. I was in such unbearable pain that it physically hurt to try to get myself up off the wet pavement, covered in leaves. Luckily, my best friend came running up the hill to where I was, and instead of finishing her race, she sacrificed her place in the race to stay back and help me. She picked me up and helped carry me to the finish line alongside her.
The next day, my parents booked an appointment at the doctors to see what was wrong with me. After extensive testing and waiting and then some more waiting, my results came back positive for one thing: Lyme Disease, stage 3 to be exact. The doctors couldn’t believe how late they caught it. It was a miracle that I wasn’t sicker than I was. I was prescribed multiple antibiotics and medications to take, which made me feel even worse. I stayed home from school for two months while going through this “treatment” phase. It was the toughest battle I’ve ever had to fight – constantly feeling sick and weak. I had to quit all sports for the rest of that year. I was devastated.
Adapting and Changing
It was never the same. Once I got to high school, I never reached my full ability in cross country. Lyme Disease prevented me from that. Even though I had these setbacks, I continued my career in running those next four years. I did track as well and discovered I was pretty good at sprinting. I ran the 400m, 4×4 relay, and the 200m. This was way more enjoyable than long distance running, and I was becoming really good in it, too. Soon enough, my 4×4 team was making it to championships and WPIALS. The girls team won all of those 3 years in a row.
As much as I loved the sport of running, post-graduation, I shifted my focus to weightlifting. I had weightlifted before, but that was for running and what I wanted to do was quite different. I am now on year 3 of consistently weight training. My body and mind have never felt better ever since I switched to this lifestyle.
The Finish Line
Through this journey of ups and downs, twists and turns, and lots of tears shed, I have been living my life dedicated to strengthening my body and mind. Weight training along with focusing on nutrition has given me just that. The many years of cross country/track practices and meets, medals, weightlifting, has inspired me to build a life/career dedicated to fitness and health. From the past 3 years I have spent weight training, I have gained so much knowledge in the fitness world that I want to incorporate into my future, especially for others.