My injury started out as a stress fracture. In early September I began having pain in the lower part of my right leg. At first, I thought nothing of it, but it began to get worse. I went to see the trainers and they told me to stop running for a few days.

I went to see the doctor because they suspected a stress fracture. When I got there, the X-ray came back clean, but he said an X-ray usually won’t pick up such a small hair line crack. He said we needed to do a bone scan to be completely sure. We did the bone-scan and waited a couple of days for the results and they came back clean. The doctor said it was probably a tendon that was strained, but I was ok to start running again.

Well I ran for a few days and then raced at [Oklahoma State University]. My leg felt great. It was much better than it was a week before. I thought it was gone. Then about a week and a half later it began to come back. Over the next six weeks, it steadily got worse.

After the Conference Championships, it hurt really bad and after the regional championships it was even worse, but I, and my team had bigger goals than those meets.

At nationals I felt great. I was running faster through each mile mark than I ever had in my life and I was feeling great doing it. Then came the Pain.

At four miles my leg started to hurt badly. Then just past the five-mile mark, with 3/4 of a mile to go I felt the worse pop of my life. As soon as it happened I knew it was broke.

I didn’t know how I would finish, but I just putting one foot in front of the other. Knowing with each step I was closer to the goal I had for so long worked toward.

I ended up finishing in 23rd. I was happy to only lose 4 spots since I ran the last 3?4 of a mile with a broken fibula. Even though at times I didn’t know how I would do it, I knew I would finish. If there is one thing we do here at Southern it is make kids tough. I knew that I had worked harder than most kids out there and because of it I could finish even if my leg was broke.

I went to the hospital after the race and saw that indeed my fibula had broken in two. It turns out I had that stress fracture all season long. I had surgery this past week because as I continued to run on the broken leg the upper part of my fibula was smashing into the lower part of my fibula. As a result, the upper part spit down the center.

The doctor put a plate in my leg to speed up the healing process. He said I will be running again in mid January. It should heal quickly. I will miss indoor track, but will be strong as ever for outdoor season. I plan to be at outdoor Nationals. I will just let this leg heal and then be a national contender once more.

As for how hardcore I am, I will let you be the judge of that. I have been told by many people that they would have just quit as soon as it broke, but those people don’t know how hard I have worked. They don’t understand the freezing mornings with ice in my hair.

They don’t understand the workouts that push my body to the limit again and again. They don’t understand what we do at Southern. We make boys into men. We win with what we have. We win with heart.