Rare Air: Kate Hall thrives despite diabetes

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

  Kate Hall is an outlier. Her measurables in the sprints and long jump are so far outside (or above) the normal data set for high school track and field in Maine that there is no one to compare her with, past or present. 

Even rarer, across the wide spectrum of track and field, is an athlete of this caliber who has Type I diabetes.

 Staying on top of a training regimen prescribed to lead one of the country's most isolated track stars toward an Olympic dream is one thing. Monitoring, sometimes by the half-hour, what is going on with her fluctuating blood sugar readings requires a much higher level of diligence.

 "I don't think it's been a huge obstacle," Hall said of the medical condition she was diagnosed with at 10 years old. "It hasn't affected me from being able to train and compete and all of that. It's just another thing on my plate that I have to take care of."

 Because Hall is adverse to making excuses -- not that any are required -- she said competing with diabetes is "99 percent not a problem."

 That leaves a very complicated one percent. Hall is attached to an insulin pump all of the time. She pricks her finger to draw blood for testing five times per day. She requires a shot every third day. She must make precise choices about everything she eats, which is a factor complicated by celiac disease (caused by gluten intolerance). If Hall’s glucose readings swing too low or too high – something that happens during the course of meets or workouts -- she can develop painful muscle cramps. The night before a meet last year she was hospitalized after her insulin pump malfunctioned and her blood sugar plummeted.

 Hall accepts this one percent and does not complain or let it slow her down.

 When Hall jumped 20 feet, 6 inches to win the long jump at the New England Championships on Feb. 28, it was No. 10 all-time indoors. The same night at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston she won the 55-meter dash in 6.95, good for US#4. 

“It was an amazing and unbelievable experience,” Hall said of her big jump, which drew a raucous cheer from the grandstand. “You never know what it means to you until you see it for yourself.” 

Hall will compete for long jump and sprint titles this weekend at the New Balance Nationals Indoor Championships at The Armory in New York City. Perhaps no athlete in the meet has waited so patiently for the chance to compete against her athletic peers, or endured so much in pursuit of a national championship. 

Hall lives in Casco, Maine, a town of 3,800 people located 42 miles northwest of Portland, the state’s biggest city. It is situated in heavily wooded terrain next to Sebago Lake and the population of Casco and the surrounding area swells to three times the size in July when tourists and summer campers arrive. 

Hall started playing teams sports in the first grade and always had  a reputation for being fast. 

Hall said she was 9 when she lined up to race her soccer teammates after practice. One of the girls that Hall had always beaten got the better of her and won the race. The girl had gotten faster because she had done track. 

“I used to be hesitant about trying new things,” Hall said. “But that convinced me to go to one (track practice). And I loved it. I have never stopped since.” 

By the time Hall reached high school, she realized that the sport could take her places, perhaps even pay her way through college. 

Even though she was home schooled, there was pressure to join the soccer and basketball teams at the school. Her athleticism was too enticing for her small town to let go. 

“I did soccer my freshman year but when it was over my coach said. ‘You were meant to run and jump,’” Hall said. 

Eventually everyone in town understood that’s where Hall would focus all of her energy. 

She was 10 when she found out she had diabetes and it never felt like an insurmountable obstacle. 

“I never thought of it like it was a roadblock,” Hall said. “I was curious what it would involve but not terrified about how it would affect my sports.” 

In the seventh grade, Hall suffered a hamstring injury and her father sought out Chris Pribish, the Director of Clinical Exercise at The M.O.G. (Medically Oriented Gym) in Portland. That began a training relationship that has been central to Hall’s development as an athlete.

Pribish is Hall’s strength and conditioning coach and he also has the sports medicine background to navigate the complexities of working with a diabetic athlete. 

“She took to it like a fish to water when it came to strength training,” Pribish said. “When she started she was a skinny little kid with all these fast-twitch fibers and lots of potential. She has trained like a mad woman and people around here know she’s got a gift.” 

There was a lot to learn from the start. Pribish developed ways to record live-time data to learn how workouts affected Hall’s blood sugar. And the years since have required constant attention to the details of how stress, anxiety, hormones, adrenaline and other factors cause Hall’s blood sugar to bottom out or elevate sky high. 

“Her sugars have been down to 40 and up to 300,” Pribish said. (The normal range for fasting glucose is 70-100 and up to 140 after eating a meal). 

Setting aside the medical issues, Hall trains consistently 11 months out of the year and has become more powerful every year. 

“She’s developed into a freakishly strong, stable person,” Pribish said. 

At 124 pounds, Hall can accelerate a 250-pound barbell off the ground. Pribish contends she could lift 300 pounds as well but doesn’t ask her to try it. 

On a recruiting visit to LSU, a coach asked Hall if she could do  a pull-up. Hall said 'Yes' and ripped off 15-20 without hesitation. 

Pribish’s mission from the start is to make Hall “functionally strong.” It involves not only strength training but developing correct movement patterns, core stability and learning to breathe properly. 

“It’s a trustful situation on both ends,” Pribish said. 

Hall has seen the level of her performance rise steadily. As a freshman she has PRs of 12.20 in the 100 and 17-1.50 in the long jump. As a sophomore, she improved to 11.69 and 19-0.75. 

As a junior, Hall placed second at New Balance Nationals Indoor with 19-11.50 in the long jump and was fourth in the 60 meters with 7.53. Outdoors, she ran 11.45 wind-aided in the 100 for third at nationals and had a wind-legal best of 11.58. 

Hall has committed to Iowa State, where she looks forward to her first professional coaching in the long jump. To this point, Hall’s long jump technique has been derived from watching videos and researching on the internet with her father, Eric Hall. 

“We’re not professional track coaches,” Pribish said. “What we do is the science of what makes you fast, powerful, putting force into the ground and not getting injured. The beauty will happen when she gets in the hands of an actual jump coach. We’ve gotten to this point by making her strong, fast and stable.” 

Although Hall participates in sports and activities at Lake Region High School, she fulfills her graduation requirements and earns college credit by taking classes at the University of Southern Maine and St. Joseph's College of Maine. 

The added benefit of taking classes at USM is that she has a student ID and has access to the indoor track and long jump runway there. 

But Hall only jumps once a week and even then may only do two or three full attempts. 

“There have been some changes (to technique) throughout the years,” Hall said. “From freshman to sophomore year I would arch a lot and almost look behind me. Last year I started leaning forward and falling forward.” 

Hall surpassed 20 feet twice at New Englands and her farthest jump was an over-the-board scratch that may have been close to 21 feet. 

Hall relishes the chances she has to perform at nationals because they are one of the few meets where she can find elite level competition. 

“(Nationals) is what I look forward to all season,” Hall said. “My season hasn’t really started until (after New Englands). I look forward to these meets so much.”