I was having the best tumbling practice of my life. I was working on fulls and variations of standing backs in order to tryout for Baylor’s All-Girl cheer squad when I started college in the fall. Everything seemed in place that day. I was performing well and getting more confident in my skills. After 7 years of competitive gymnastics at my town’s rec center, I switched to cheerleading at my K-12 private school in 2001. 

My gymnastics coach was a witty, loving and encouraging older man who had some stories to tell. :) I liked to think of myself as his favorite. He liked to get in your face if you were having a hard workout/meet but he never yelled. Just spoke softly and made the problems go away. As long as I and my family knew him, he suffered from kidney problems and had dialysis 3 times a week, leaving gymnastics practices only possible on T, Th, Sat. After I quit gymnastics I only saw him two or three times. 

Back at 9 pm on December 6th, I had decided to try one more tumbling pass before going home. I ran down the floor, did my starting front flip, and BAM. I landed with my leg completely straight and my knee far past normal extension, tearing my PCL and bruising my knee almost to the point of breaking. Fortunately, I did not have to have surgery and had a relatively quick recovery. 

One week after my injury, I found out that my gymnastics coach had died on that exact day. December 6, 2006— I had never been injured before that day. 

A few months later in the summer I got back into tumbling, working more and more several times a week to get ready for tryouts. 8 months after my PCL injury, I ruptured my Achilles tendon on the final round of tryouts. If it wasn’t clear before, it was clear now that my gymnastics and cheerleading days were over. 

6 months later and not yet fully recovered, I ran for the first time since high school and I didn’t hate it. I started run-walking my university’s 2.5 mile trail around campus. Before long I could do the whole thing without walking.

5ks, 10ks, trails. Mountain biking, rock climbing, kayaking. I’ve learned to love it all. I’ve since done 4 half marathons and am training for a 25 and 30k in April. Who knows what else I will do! For a while, I fought the signs to move on. But I’m not fighting the passion for gymnastics & cheerleading in elementary, middle, high school that has transferred to all of the outdoor adventure I love in college and beyond. 

I miss you, Coach. Thank you for taking a tiny, average gymnast and making her feel like an Olympian.