Stopping at NO Lengths (PB)

"I'm sorry but you can't finish your track season until you receive your surgery." "I'm sorry but your surgery didn't work and we are not sure that track would be the best thing for you." "Not only do we think that your heart will hold you back from running but we have found that we think there is something wrong with your lungs." My cardiologist Dr. Grace Smith had said all of this to me last year when I found out that I have Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome. Being one of the four people out of every one hundred thousand, I was a rare case, but nothing they had never seen before and after finding some issues with my heart while mapping it during surgery, four and a half hours later, they found out that I was one that they just couldn't fix. My extra blood vessel was too close to my main blood stream in my heart and to try to remove it could end up in my death, so here I am. They told me that I wouldn't be able to do track or any cardiovascular exercise for that matter to the extent that I needed to successfully compete in track. I may not be the BEST at track but it's something that I'm good at, something that I found myself looking forward to each year, something that I love, and the only thing that I can't do. But here I am, my fifth season of track starting and I'm leading the lines. 

After some heavy convincing to my doctor and parents, I convinced them that I know my limits and if I get close to reaching them, I will pull myself from what I'm doing. If I get light-headed, I need to sit down, if my heart pumps too fast, I need to sit down, if I feel like my lungs are working too hard, I need to sit down. How are you supposed to know if your heart is pumping too fast or you're just working hard? They told me of the precautions and how if I don't sit down, I have a chance that is too high of having a breathing attack, passing out, and even a heart attack. Sadly, that's how most athletes my age find out that they have the condition that I do. Luckily during my physical last year at my pediatric doctor, he happened to hear a "water sound" and sent me to get checked out. 

Even though I may not be able to go to the extents of the other runners, and this frustrates me because I try harder than most of them, I'm still running and I am so thankful that I'm allowed to do even that. Everyone doubted me. Everyone asked me why I even risk it or why track is so worth it. I hear everyone complain while running the mile in gym and trust me, with my condition, I contribute to the whining but track helps me in so many ways. I have made so many friends in track that I know I will keep for a while. Track keeps me in shape and helps me work out my heart. Track helps me relieve stress when I'm upset. I know that it may not be the best thing for me, with my heart condition still prevalent and not being cleared on my lungs yet, but I would much rather run and have to sit out every other sprint at practice than sit there like I did last year and watch as someone else runs the race that I should have been in.