A D1 Athlete’s Journey to Finding Hope and Strength Coming Back from Injury (Again and Again)

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In May 2023, during a track season where I broke numerous personal bests and school records, and had some of my highest placings in State championship meets, I tore my labrum in my hip. I didn’t immediately address it, thinking the pain would go away after the post-season. I started to rehab it in September 2023 and was diagnosed with a labral tear in November. However, I kept working with PT and we were able to see significant improvement through conservative treatment without surgery.

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Numerous injuries have prevented me from doing the thing I love most: running.

After coming back from this injury and competing through the 2024 indoor and outdoor season, I sustained a stress reaction in my shin. This injury prevented me from partaking in fall training much of my first semester at UMass, starting in October 2024. I redshirted my indoor 2025 season to take that time to do PT and rebuild. 

I returned to competition in April 2025 for the outdoor season. But then, at the end of the season, I injured my hamstring. This summer, I was once again in PT, unable to run, trying to repair and come back stronger. It felt in many ways like I was getting stuck in a cruel cycle of setbacks, comebacks, and pain.

I have asked myself many times in the last two years, how do I keep going? How do I face the steep hill of returning to run, while managing not only intense physical pain but also the loss of something that brings the most joy to my days?

Sports psychology has changed everything for me. A sports psychologist is basically a therapist with a specific area of focus on the mental performance and well-being of athletes—however, they have general mental health knowledge as well, because it’s impossible to isolate athletic performance without addressing overall mental health.

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After coming back from my shin injury, I wrote these affirmations for myself to keep in my track bag.

The first time I returned from an injury in 2024, it took months to feel like myself again in competition. I was battling my body and my mind simultaneously every time I stepped on the track. There was no fight left in me to actually compete in the race itself—I was expending all of that energy getting anxious about racing and psyching myself out.

But when I started focusing on affirmations, I gained a great gift. I started taking back control of my brain. I told myself every day that I was strong and fast and getting better every week, and I started to believe it. 

I told myself that I had earned my spot in every race. I told myself that my journey was mine and mine alone.

I’ve struggled a lot with comparison while coming back from injury. Most people deal with comparison in life, whether they’re an athlete or not. Academics, social life, and body image are three areas rife with opportunities for comparison. Personally, I struggled a bit with comparing myself to teammates and friends competing at their best while I was facing setbacks, but mostly, I compared myself to the athlete I used to be. I’ve tried to reason my way into thinking that I could be exactly the same athlete I was before I got injured.

When I went to the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships last year, I wrote affirmations on the back of my bib.

But this doesn’t really work. I’m not saying that an athlete can’t come back and be better than they were before, because you can and I have. But you can’t ever reverse what has happened to you. You can let it hold you back, or you can let it inform how you can take care of yourself going forward. You can take your weaknesses and train them into strengths.

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After I injured my hip flexor, I worked a lot on strengthening my quads to protect my hip flexors in the future.

While there are so many factors that you can’t control, there are a few that you can. Do your PT. Eat well. Sleep well. Take care of yourself. And also, make time for other things in your life. Find something that brings you joy outside of your sport, and dedicate yourself to this space where you don’t have to think about your injury at all. 

The physical pain is enough. You do not need to mentally beat yourself up about it on top of that.

And through all of this, recognize what you are still able to do and what you are doing well. I know that it sucks when it feels like the one thing you want to do is the one thing you can’t. But there’s probably so much more you’re doing for yourself that you didn’t even realize in the first place. When my sports psychologist recently told me to write down everything I was doing well, I was shocked by the number of things that I was taking for granted.

Remember that it’s okay to be disappointed with where you’re at, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate how far you’ve come or what you’re working towards. People might say annoying things like, “well, at least you’re injured now,” if it’s the off-season, or the beginning of the season, or any time they can. You don’t need to agree with them—it’s okay to feel disappointed no matter when it happens. 

Just try, as much as possible, to plan through the uncertainty. Make a progression plan that you feel good about. Even if it doesn’t work out exactly as you pictured, it’s nice to see steps forward on paper. 

Journaling and celebrating my strengths has been really helpful for me in accepting where I am in injury recovery.

Now, I’m in a much better place. I’m still dealing with some aches and pains from these major injuries, but I feel much more equipped to handle them. I’m moving forward with purpose and joy in the process, and listening to my body to prevent further injuries from sidelining me again. 

I’m keeping in mind the importance of mindset in tackling the road ahead of me—because it’s never just about the work you do on the track.

Through all of this, my biggest takeaway has been that being able to move your body is a gift. The pain of strenuous exercise is a privilege—it means that you have the ability to push yourself in a healthy way. Being injured has truly put in perspective for me what I have to be grateful for. Those last few steps of recovery might feel the most rewarding, but every single step of the journey matters.

The opportunity to run and compete is a gift I will never take for granted again after being injured.