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Running through the pain

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Contributed by: Travis Duncan on 7/13/2007

Injuries just bump in the road of girl's marathon training

Jessica Shoop rose shortly after the sun Saturday and ran farther than ever before - 14 miles, from Fountain Creek Nature Center through wetlands and shaded trails.

Shoop, 14, is the youngest member of the Students American Discovery MarathonTeam, and also one of its more experienced. Most of the kids in SADMT, a District 3 program that challenges at-risk students to train for and complete a marathon, had no previous running experience.

But Shoop took up the sport in eighth grade after a dinner out with her grandparents led to a random conversation with two girls who ran cross country for Widefield High School.

"They asked if I liked to run," Shoop said. "I thought it was running once around the track. Then I went out for cross country and found out it was three miles."

Shoop, whose grandparents were her care givers while her mother served a tour of duty for the Army in Iraq, joined the Widefield cross country team.

She said she didn't have much of a work ethic before her mother left.

"I was really lazy," Shoop said. "She came back and I'm planning on doing a mara thon."

The changes in Shoop extend beyond her work ethic.

"I think if I hadn't started running, I'd be in a whole different situation right now - getting into trouble and doing stuff I shouldn't be doing," she said.

Marathontraining hasn't all been positive though.

Shoop developed problems with the arch in her left foot, and without noticing, changed her running style to compensate for the injury.

"My ankle started swelling because of it," Shoop said, "and then I tried to compensate for that with my other leg and that messed up my knee."

Shoop was later diagnosed with chondromalacia, often called runner's knee, a painful condition in which the cartilage under the kneecap becomes irritated and inflamed.

Shoop now runs at a slower pace and ices her knees after each training run, although the pain can sometimes run the length of her leg. Shoop shrugs at the discomfort.

"I love running, but it doesn't seem to love me very much," she said.

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