Catching Up With Kayla

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Every so often, Kayla Montgomery receives a burst of emails and social media messages and it tells her one thing: ESPN has re-aired its E:60 episode about her.

The messages that come are from people who are genuinely inspired by her courage and motivation to keep running despite a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. They arrive from people who are fighting their own challenges, health-related or otherwise, and want to say thank you for inspiring them to dig a little deeper.

And it can become a feedback loop, of sorts.

Because those messages keep propelling Kayla forward as well.

“I appreciate how impactful that story is, and I wouldn’t change that for the world,” she said. “I never thought that I would have that kind of legacy. It’s constantly being shared and talked about, even today, five years later. I thought it would die down, but it really hasn’t. Just a little bit.”

Montgomery revealed in an interview Monday that life is going well. She is pursuing a Master’s degree in Education. A year ago, she achieved her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.

She wants to be a high school English teacher and track/cross country coach. She recently took a job coaching the middle school and high school runners at Lipscomb Academy.

On Sept. 1, her boyfriend, Tucker Keen, got down on one knee and proposed. They’ll be married next June.

They go rock climbing together.

Today, Montgomery and her family have a lot to be thankful for.

Multiple sclerosis literally means “many scars.” The disease is a beast and it can rear its ugly head any time.

Montgomery hasn’t gotten off scot-free. Over four years at Lipscomb, she dealt with a couple of relapses and a litany of injuries.

Back when the world learned of her incredible story, how she became a North Carolina state champion at Mount Tabor High in Winston-Salem despite the fact that she lost the feeling in her legs mid-race, Montgomery could only hope for five more years in which to run. She really had no idea how long it would last, or when MS might swoop in and snatch away the activity and the competition that she loved.

READ THE 2013 ORIGINAL DYESTAT THANKSGIVING STORY 'CATCHING KAYLA'

Montgomery went to Lipscomb and continued to work. The added intensity of a college training program meant that she overheated more often than she had in high school. An assistant coach was assigned to ‘catch’ Kayla at the end of workouts as well as races, the same way Mount Tabor coach Patrick Cromwell had done between the ninth and 12th grades.

One of the big differences in college was that Kayla now had a recognizable face. Media outlets from all over the country told her story before she graduated from high school. The E:60 story captured her breathless desire to keep going in the face of adversity and the vulnerability she experienced at the finish line. “My legs, where’d they go? Help me. Help me.”

The images were powerful and they gave her story a visceral impact. While at Lipscomb, Kayla gave talks in churches and schools, made speeches and accepted awards. She has become an advocate for sufferers of MS and raised awareness about the disease, as well as become a symbol of hope.

“I’ve heard from people in Brazil, Mexico, Europe, everywhere. It’s crazy,” she said. “I never thought my story, or even me, could have that kind of impact. It’s been cool to see how I’ve been able to impact other peoples’ lives.”

Back home, coach Cromwell said her story is woven into the fabric of Mount Tabor.

“Kayla’s story is now ‘old’ enough that another group of students and athletes are seeing it for the first time,” he said. “I know many educators share it during lessons in perseverance, commitment and trust.

“I rarely show it, but did a few weeks ago to my most challenging class ever. (The kids) were silent for 15 minutes. The story is rare, and it will always be powerful.”  

Kayla loves that she has made that impact, touched or inspired someone. But the attention, sometimes, she could do without.

She went to a Firehouse Subs sandwich shop in Nashville one evening with Tucker and his family, and the E:60 show started to come on the TV mounted on the wall. Customers noticed the face on the TV and recognized that she was in the store.

Moments like that are still a bit jarring.

Kayla’s ongoing fight still presses on one day at a time.

She got through her freshman cross country season in 2014 pretty well, adapting to increased mileage and a new environment. She helped Lipscomb win its conference title.

In the spring, she turned her attention to the 10,000 meters, a new race distance. But the added pounding on the paved running surfaces around Nashville led to a stress fracture in her pelvis. That injury eventually led to a string of injuries – to her back (two herniated discs) and then her diaphragm.

In the winter of her sophomore year, she had two MS relapses a month apart. Kayla experienced severe nerve pain on the left side of her body. Then, another relapse made her blind in her left eye.

“We caught them quickly and got treatment, and it reversed the first (problem) completely,” she said.

Her left eye is still blurry and colors aren’t as vivid as they used to be. Her right eye compensates.

And every so often, here came another airing of the show, and another batch of messages from admirers and people who wanted to say thanks, or keep it up.

“I guess it reminded me of why I was doing this,” Kayla said. “I was running and training to overcome MS. I was very determined to not let any of it get the best of me, and since I already had that mindset I wrapped my injuries into it, too.”

In her junior year, she was unable to run cross country because of the herniated disc. That injury also led to her pulling the diaphragm muscle in her chest, twice. She couldn’t breathe walking up stairs.

“Eventually it got better,” she said.

She was able to wear the Lipscomb uniform a couple of more times, during the indoor and outdoor track seasons. She missed running at conference because of a combination of the back issue and something new – stomach ulcers.

“I’m not good at handling stress,” she said.

In the fall of 2017, Kayla was determined to have one more cross country race in a Lipscomb uniform, a chance at some closure on her star-crossed collegiate career.

A year ago on Oct. 13, she ran to 256th place (not last) for 6K at the Crimson Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

“I was more proud of that race than any other,” Kayla said. “It was hard, for sure. I decided that I was going to do my best. I know that’s not what I’m capable of, but it was the best I could do for that day.”

Two months later, she graduated. Then she took some time, to heal.

She is now recovering from a third knee surgery (she had two of them in the eighth grade after getting hurt playing soccer).

She hopes to run again soon.

She wants to run a marathon someday. Cromwell, her high school coach, said he would help.

Tucker Keen entered Kayla’s life in April of 2017. The youth ministry student was playing Ultimate Frisbee on the Lipscomb campus when she caught his eye. He asked if she’d like to have a catch. She was on her way to meet friends and said “no.”

A bit later, he managed to strike up a more productive conversation. They went on a date, and then another.

And one evening almost two weeks after that first meeting, in Tucker’s car, he noticed her scrolling through Instagram messages, lots of them.

“She has like 300 new messages, and I’m like ‘What are you doing?’” he recalled. “She says, ‘responding to some fans who messaged me.’ Oh my gosh! I had been on a couple of dates with her before I realized who she was.”

Before he met Kayla, Tucker had spent some time in Brisbane, Australia, working on a mission project in a church there.

His ‘host mom’ happened to have multiple sclerosis.

One day, she asked Tucker to sit and watch a program on ESPN with her about a girl in the United States who was able to run in spite of her MS. It turned out, she was going to Lipscomb, just like him.

“I had seen Kayla’s story in Australia, but I didn’t know her,” Tucker said. “And I didn’t know it was her when I started talking to her. It was just a crazy circumstance.”

Tucker is an athletic guy. He grew up playing ice hockey and co-founded a new club program at Lipscomb. He also plays on an Ultimate Frisbee team. He’s training to be a contestant on American Ninja Warrior.

He has introduced Kayla to rock climbing, and they have been out West together to climb at Sedona and Yosemite.

She fell in love.

“He’s just a good man,” Kayla said. “He made me happy and treated me right.”

Tucker has also come to appreciate Kayla for who she is, what she battles, and why she matters to so many people.

“The stuff that she deals with on a daily basis, the nerve pain or migraines, the symptoms of MS, it’s really impressive to see the grit that she has and the willingness to say ‘If I’m going to have this forever I’m going to do something incredible with it,’” Tucker said. “It’s an inspiring attribute to have, to not let this (life) be wasted.”

There is a lot of exciting life going on right now.

In the lead-up to a marriage proposal, Tucker hatched a plan. Two of Kayla’s friends, Mitch and Avery, track teammates, were on the verge of engagement, too.

Tucker told Kayla they were going for a drive and that Mitch was going to propose to Avery. Meanwhile, Mitch convinced Avery to come along to be present when Tucker popped the question to Kayla.

At the porch steps of an historic Revolution-era stone house outside Nashville, Tucker got on one knee and asked Kayla to marry him. (Somewhere else on the property, Mitch did the same with Avery).

The wedding is set to happen near those same steps in front of the old house.

“I knew that I was going to marry Kayla. I love her so much,” Tucker said. “I wanted to propose on the spot where we will get married.”

And in that moment, Kayla was caught. For good.