Rohrer 'thankful' to get back to this point

 

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Anna Rohrer can look back across two calendar years and pinpoint Dec. 8 , 2012 as "probably the best day of my life."

She wore a yellow singlet that day in San Diego. She was a sophomore, the pride of Mishawaka, Indiana, with long skinny legs and arms, and a talent for covering ground and pushing aside pain.

The day Rohrer won Foot Locker, she felt complete.

"It was proudest moment of my life," she said. "The entire experience of getting to meet all the best runners in the country, it was surreal."

She stood next to the boys winner that day, Edward Cheserek, and they held silver platters over their heads.

On Saturday, Rohrer will try to earn a return trip to San Diego when she runs at the Foot Locker Midwest regional in Wisconsin. If she finishes in the top 10 and qualifies for the national championship race, it will bring her full circle with a chance to recapture her very best day.

All over the country on this Thanksgiving, millions will pause at the dinner table and reflect on something they are thankful for.

Rohrer will no doubt think of the long journey back from two broken feet and a 2013 surgery that threatened to derail her racing career. And the countless hours of stationary bicycling and swimming, much of it in solitude. And the arduous process of trying to re-learn how to run so that she minizmizes the potential for another injury.

Rohrer has earned this second chance and doesn't take it for granted.

"I purely do enjoy running and I remember how it felt when I couldn't do it," Rohrer said. "I'm running for the people who can't (run). I'm running for my teammates and my community. I have to remind myself of all I have to be thankful for."

Root of the Problem

Rohrer's injury troubles have been caused by unorthodox running form. The way that she ran all the way up and through the seventh grade -- where she was first singled out for her ability and determination -- and then into high school, was a problem.

She landed each footstrike on the front and outside part of her foot.

That impact caused the navicular bone in Rohrer's foot to break the first time when she was a freshman.

That injury healed and Rohrer's athleticism and rapidly developing cardiovascular system helped carry her through a dream 2012 cross country season. When she ran she had been pretty good as a freshman. But entering her sophomore year, she was becoming one of the top runners in the nation.

At the Culver Academy Invitational, Rohrer lost to national 5,000 meters track champion Ashley Erba by 19 seconds. Five weeks later, at the Indiana state championships, Rohrer broke the meet record and bested Erba by 16 seconds.

Rohrer rode all of that momentum through the end of the season and won the national title.

The following spring she won the Indiana state title in the 3,200 meters (10:20.68). Over the summer between her sophomore and junior years she attended Nike Elite Camp and anticipated being part of an elite group of headliners that included Alexa Efraimson, Elise Cranny and Sarah Baxter.

She ran 16:52 in her 5K season opener on Aug. 24, 2013.

"Nothing happened during the race, but afterward my feet started to feel sore," Rohrer said. "I could tell something was wrong because I had broken my foot before."

A week went by and the pain didn't go away. She went to the doctor to have her right foot examined and a CT scan revealed the navicular bone was fractured. Althought not as sore, Rohrer mentioned that her left foot was bothering her also. Another scan revealed that the same bone on her left foot was also fractured.

Rohrer underwent surgery as week after that.

The lowest point for the Foot Locker champion came after the surgery when she was confined to a wheelchair for six weeks.

"Most definitely, that was the worst," she said.

The prospect of losing her racing career if her feet didn't heal properly was a constant concern during those helpless weeks.

"It's a constant fear not knowing what it's going to be like and worrying 'Am I going to be fast again? Is my foot going to heal?'" she said. "I felt really embarrassed at first. I had let my team down and being in a wheelchair was a constant reminder of that. People were expecting a lot of me and I felt like I let them (all) down."

Rohrer's mother, Katie, is a special needs instructor at Mishawaka High School. On those mornings in late September and October of 2013, Katie drove her daughter to school and Anna was in her mother's classroom when other students in wheelchairs showed up to start their day.

"It was eye-opening," she said. "It was right then I realized I was being selfish. I knew I wasn't going to be in a wheelchair for very long, and they were. It was a humbling experience."

By Thanksgiving, Rohrer was out of the chair and past three additional weeks on crutches. The surgery appeared to be successful. She took her first run since the surgery on New Year's Day, 2014.

In the spring, Rohrer returned to a long, slow recovery phase that also included something new. She began seeing sports medicine doctors at the St. Vincent Medical Center. They analyzed the mechanics of Rohrer's stride and began to teach her how to correct her form -- and land more squarely on the ball of her foot.

"It was really awkward at first," Rohrer said. "It's hard to change how my body natually does something."

She was working on those new techniques when she won the Indiana state title in the 3,200 meters and then traveled to North Carolina and ran a stunning 16:16 to win the New Balance Nationals Outdoors 5,000 meters title.

Everything seemed restored on that night in Greensboro.

But a week later, Rohrer felt pain in her foot and decided to have it checked out. Another scan showed that there had been some regression in the foot where the bone had been mended surgically. Complete recovery after surgery was supposed to take a full year. She simply wasn't healed yet.

So Rohrer took the summer off from running. She rode the bike. She swam four days a week. She did core.

"It was tough always working out by myself when my team was out there running together," she said. "There were times it was really discouraging. But I kept telling myself, there's nothing I can do about it except this (next workout). I had to focus day by day."

Rohrer had a few opportunities to use an Alter-G treadmill, but didn't take her first strides on terra firma until the start of September.

Even then, Rohrer started off slow. Eight miles the first week. Then 12-15 after that.

Rohrer ran her first cross country race in more than a year on Oct. 11. It was the sectional meet and it was fairly easy. She won by more than 45 seconds in 18:54. The best part was being able to run with her teammates again.

A week later, at regionals, Rohrer got a bit more serious. She intended to stay with Maddie Woods of Penn, one of the top runners in the state, and then try to go hard in the final 1,000 meters. Rohrer dipped under 18 minutes and won by nine seconds.

"It felt good," Rohrer said. "I hadn't pushed all out and I knew I could go faster."

A week after that, at semi-state, Rohrer took it up another notch. She wore flats instead of spikes, but it was a legitimate hard effort. She ran 17:34.9 on a warm day that saw very few runners PR. She beat Woods by 30 seconds.

Rohrer returned to the IHSA state championship in Terre Haute and reclaimed her status as one of the top runners in the country with a meet record 17:08.

"I wasn't expecting to run (that fast) at state," she said. "It's usually not that fast of a course because of the wind, so I was proud of running that time on that course. I knew from the past that I was in really good shape."

To break up the interval between state and Foot Locker Midwest, Rohrer ran and won the MidEast Championship meet on Nov. 15.

All of a sudden, Rohrer seems to be a national title contender again.

"There's always pressure so I try not to think about that," she said. "Win or lose I know people will be proud of me. It's really exciting to live in the moment. It's fun to represent my community, because I know I bring pride to my community."

This week, it's a different Anna Rohrer than 2012. She runs for her coach (Chris Kowalewski) and her teammates. She runs for the kids in her mother's classroom, and everyone at her school. She runs for Mishawaka.

"It's crazy how far I've come in two years and how things have changed," Rohrer said. "It's a very different experience."