I am in a
frustrating and uncertain place in my life.
I’m injured, and I was told this week I will not have a contract with
Brooks next year. I am feeling betrayed,
frustrated, anxious, and irate, so I’ve avoided writing anything on my
blog. However, my wise high school
coach, Zhao, has encouraged me to keep a record of my recovery, so my goal is
to try and do a better job of processing this journey, regardless of how much
of a drag it may be to read.
Recovery from
hip surgery is still going well. I’m
able to walk around, bike, do few pull-ups, and PT exercises. I want to be very cautious in the healing
process, but I am aching to physically challenge my body. When I feel something in my hip, I am always
asking myself, “is this soreness of pain? Is this helping my body or hurting my
healing?” Sometimes it’s really hard to tell, so I’ve just been stopping when I’m
not sure. I ignored pain for way too long
this year, and ended up wasting a year of competition.
In terms of
the future of my running career, I want to keep training for at least two more
years. If I heal, work hard, and have
some luck, I will have a shot at making the Olympic team in 2016. A lot of steeple women had awesome PR’s this
year, but I believe I can compete with them.
How am I
going to get access to the resources I need to for training? It sounds like Brooks may create an un-paid
position on the Beast team for me. I
could move again. I could support myself in Seattle or Minneapolis. I do not know what the best possible
combination of support and resources is at the moment, but I am searching for something
that will give me a real opportunity at making the Olympics.
I got to go to lots of weddings this summer...
I went to a cool Chihuly exhibit.
And my mom sends me cute pictures of her pug.