Journal #26- Unexpected Turn

I time in my life that an event turned out differently than I thought it would was this past year's cross- country season.  I came into the season in the best off-season shape I have ever been in.  I was hitting my paces and keeping up with our number one runner.  The first week of practice went great.  I had high hopes for myself and the team in making it to state.  The previous cross- country season I was number two in the conference, only behind my teammate.  We were the fastest in the area and we both had brothers that are currently freshman.  After the first week of the season I began to have tendon pain in my Achilles tendon.  After a few days of practice it did not go away so I visited the doctor.  They told me that I had developed Achilles tendinitis.  It was not yet severe, so I would only need to take two weeks off of running.  I took those two weeks off, but was falling behind in my conditioning.  I made it back in time for the first meet, but I was out of shape so I did not finish well.  About a week later I was having trouble breathing.  I thought it was just because I was out of shape so I ran through it.  Soon even the easiest workouts would bring me to exhaustion.  Finally I went to the allergist and found out I had running induced asthma.  I had also developed an iron deficiency during this time.  When I started taking an inhaler and iron supplements, I began to feel a little better.  This was one week before regionals. I trained hard the next three weeks and was able to recover enough to run well in sectionals. My breakthrough along with my teammates successes brought us to the state meet.  At the state meet I ran within eight seconds of my sophomore best time so I managed to overcome opposition and finish strong.  I was happy that I chose to push through the pain instead of give up.