It all started with my freshman year. I ended the year pretty good, with a 21:37 as a PR, and had high hopes for my track season, and following years of cross country. Track season began, and was running an average of 7:30 pace for my easy 5-7 mile runs daily. Until one day, my breathing suddenly became erratic. My coach had me stop, and eventually had me go to a doctor, because he believed i had asthma. I could never get a clear answer out of doctors, and even specialists of what it was. I got diagnosed with asthma, vocal coord dysfunction, severe allergies, and several other things that eventually weren't right. I ended up just sitting that season of track out. The following cross country season was no better. I still pushed myself hard enough to stay varsity, but never got close to my previous PR. Everyone thought i was done. I made the decicion to run track the next season, because my winter training seemed to be looking up. I started running, and seemed to be better. Our first meet was a good comeback for me. I got a 6:17 in the mile, and had no breathing problems at all. A few weeks later, it all spiraled downhill. After a simple, easy 15 minute warm up, my breathing went out of control. The coaches had to call an ambulance, and that track season was ended, just as my freshman year had. I started going back to specialists again. Still, nothing was helping. They eventually said i was just allergic to potatoes, soy, and cheese. So i quit eating those. For about a week, my running was going great, just as my freshman year had. For 2 weeks i felt as if i had never gone through that whole breathing thing. Then i broke out in a full blown rash all over my body for about 5 days. It wouldn't go away, sending me back to the hospital. The doctor said that i was ingesting something that my body was allergic to. So, my mom got online and reasearched what could cause it. She found something called Ciliac Disease (aka gluten intolerance). It's symptoms were exactly what i had. Dificulty breathing, always tired, swolen face, and sever other issues that i had previous. So my mom had me cut everything out of my diet that had gluten in it (wheat, flour, barley). It was difficult not to eat things with those ingrediants, but it showed such an improvement! Within 2 weeks, we had our preseason time trial. I got 14:14 (2 miles). I had never done that without training. Everyone was shocked. I was was back. I started training, and halfway through july, we had a pre camp time trial. I got the same time, but weather conditions were very humid. I continued training, and eventually compleated my goal to run 350 miles over the summer. By the end, i was running 8.5 miles for long runs at 7:30 mile pace. Yesterday was our final time trial of the summer that placed us on varsity or JV. I went out and ran 13:43, with 30 mph wind gusts, making me number 2 on our team (3 when Jennifer's ankle heals). This season is looking to great!