Demons

Monday made me realize how lucky I am just to be able to run even if it is in Grand Forks. As I was leaving the locker room I saw one of the girls on the team reading a piece of paper. She didn't really say anything to me so I asked her what was wrong. She started crying and said they won't let her run anymore.

You don't need to talk to Renee Aune about running to know she is passionate about it; all you need to do is watch her run. Unfortunatley for Renee she has been plagued with injuries throughout college: anemia fall of freshman year, stress fracture in lower leg winter freshman year, stress fracture in femur spring freshman year, stress fracture in other femur summer between freshman and sophmore year, fractured heal spring sophmore year and another lower leg stress fracture this fall. Despite all of this Renee has been able to post times of 11:06 in the steeple chase and around 5:00 for the mile indoors. Needless to say she is the most talented runner I have ran with in college. It sucks when someone as talented as Renee is no longer is able to run, but it is much worse when someone as passionate as her is unable.

The picture above is Renee running just in front of the NCC cross country champ at the pre-regional meet this year in Wayne, NE.

Update:

I wrote this post about a week ago but have not had the opportunity to talk with Renee. I do know that coach working with the people in the training room to find a way for her to run. There are many quotes related to running, some I like and some I don't. In this situation, Steve Prefontaine puts it best: "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift." The gift is simply being able to run. I have seen Renee Aune run enough times to know that she never 'sacrificed the gift'.