Kate O’Neill: Keep On Digging
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #2)
Posted February 4th, 2008 at 5:00 PM by Kate O'Neill
Section: News & Results, Elite Athlete Blogs, Kate O'Neill
Hi, this is my blog in TFS’s Elite Athlete Blog Series. Bookmark http://kateoneill.thefinalsprint.com/ and check back every other Monday for my latest entry as I strive for the 2008 Summer Olympics!
My coach Terrence Mahon loves to psychoanalyze his athletes. He wants to find out what inspires us, what gives us confidence, and what events have made us into the people that we are today. I thought he had me completely figured out, but today he surprised me with another insight.
Anyone who has spent any time around me quickly learns that I often launch into random stories during long car trips or recovery runs. (Ian Dobson and Mike McKeeman accuse me of making most of the stories up, or grossly exaggerating them, but I swear that 99.999% of everything is true.)
We’ve had a lot of snow in Mammoth this year (19 feet, 7 inches to be exact, which is already 4 inches more than the 2006-2007 season) so we have had to drive down the mountain about a half hour every day to escape the conditions.
(This is one of the many amazing things about Mammoth. We can be in the middle of a blizzard, take a short car trip down to a lower elevation, and voila! The sun is shining and we can run in shorts and t-shirts. We get the best of both worlds – the altitude boost along with accessibility to better running weather.)
On today’s drive, I was sharing the story of my birth… Warning: this story might be a little graphic.
My twin sister and I were born by caesarian and my Dad claims that the obstetrician who was performing the procedure delivered my sister and then said he could not find the second baby (me). To my Dad’s dismay, the doctor then took out a small shovel and scooped me out. I have no idea how accurate this story is (my Dad almost passed out so his memory of the event might be a little hazy). I do not think delivery wards of hospitals usually have shovels lying around for the occasional situation when a doctor might not be able to find a baby. Unfortunately, I don’t know any obstetricians that can verify whether or not such a tool exists.
Anyway, Terrence heard this story and exclaimed, “This explains so much about you!” I thought he was kidding at first. It was just a random story (a story that might have been severely exaggerated over the last 27 years.) What kind of insight could this lend into my psyche?
Terrence went on to say that I’d had to dig myself out of a series of holes throughout my whole life, starting at birth. The most recent (and significant) hole was the series of injuries that started after the 2004 Olympics. A pulled hamstring turned into a hip alignment problem, which led to a stress fracture in my pelvis, which led to some back problems…. When I finally returned to racing, it took awhile to overcome the fear of competition. Entering a competition and knowing that I was not yet back at the same level was a challenge. I had always gotten nervous before races, but before being injured I had always been able to turn that emotion into excitement and energy. After being injured, those nerves grew into doubts that followed me all the way to the starting line of every race. This inevitably led to poor performances, which buried me further in anxiety for subsequent races.
Almost any athlete who has ever been injured has a similar story. We rush back too quickly from the initial injury and cause another problem. When we finally return to racing, we have to convince ourselves that we are still the same competitors, even if we feel as though we may have lost something. Injuries can set us back both physically and mentally. Those setbacks can leave us stuck in a deep hole of self-doubt.
It took awhile, but with A TON of help, I finally dug myself out of that hole last fall. Terrence kept working with me to improve my form; my teammates still cheered for me even when I felt like I didn’t deserve to be around people who were performing at such a high level; my family continued saying that the Olympics were a possibility even when I placed dead last a in 3k race and got the “pity clap;” and my boyfriend was so eager to help pace me on workouts when I was struggling that he rushed back from his own injuries too quickly and re-injured his Achilles. I guess that means that they were all playing the role of that doctor who scooped me out with a shovel.
So there you have one of my random stories…if Mike and Ian read this, I’m sure they will roll their eyes and groan about all the rambling they have to listen to. Even if this delivery room story never happened, it has a moral (I think?). In running, as in life, it’s valuable to have a team to provide support and encouragement, to overcome challenges, and to celebrate the victories that may come.
- Kate
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Tags: elite athlete, elite athlete blog series, elite runner, kate oneil, kate oneill, Mammoth Lakes, marathon, olympic hopeful, Olympic Trials, summer olympics, team running usa, Terrence Mahon, tfs elite athlete blog series, the final sprint elite athlete blog series, thefinalsprint.com elite athlete blog series, track and field, u.s. olympic track & field trials, u.s. olympic womens marathon trials
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