What Hayley Oveson has gone through may have caused other runners to quit; not Oveson

Samuel Nicholas

The Daily Barometer

Media Credit: casey grogan Hayley Oveson, pictured here in a meet in 2008, has spent the majority of her OSU career battling injuries, but has persevered and is finally healthy again as a senior for OSU.

As redshirt senior Hayley Oveson crossed the finish line in the 5000m at the Stanford Invitational, she was instantly swarmed by teammates.

They hugged her six at a time. They congratulated her for a great performance and for setting a new school record in her event. But for Oveson, that day was not just about track. It was about her coach, teammates, and perseverance through two years of demoralizing injuries.

"I never got hurt in high school," Oveson said. "There were always some people that were perpetually hurt on my team, and at some point I stopped taking them seriously. That was my attitude toward injuries. Then it happened to me."

It all started in December of 2008. Oveson felt pain in her shins during a workout, and an MRI showed that she had a stress reaction in her shin. This type of injury is a precursor to a stress fracture, and must be managed carefully. She took some time off to heal, and started training again over the holiday break.

"We had just missed going to nationals that year," Oveson said. "That was a really good cross country season for me. After that, it was just one thing after another."

After returning to training, it only took a few weeks for Oveson to suffer another setback. She developed tendonitis in her left hamstring, keeping her off the track from January to March of 2009. Oveson said that repetitive stress injuries were even more difficult to deal with because there are no operations and no definite timelines.

"Running injuries aren't like other injuries," Oveson said. "It's not like they give you an amount of time, and after that you're better. You almost want injuries that they can put answers to like, 'a bone is broken, it's going to take this long to heal.'"

The waiting was unbearable. Oveson tried to stay in running shape through cross training exercises and physical therapy, but nothing could replace her desire to get back out on the track.

"The hardest thing is when you're waiting to see how long it will take to heal, then they tell you 'let's see how it looks in three weeks.'"

After two months of anticipation, Oveson finally started running again in March of 2009. Her cross training had paid off. She ran the 5000m and narrowly missed clocking a regional-qualifying time. Eager to set the mark that had eluded her, she ran the 5000m again the following weekend.

Then injury struck again.

The wear and tear of back-to-back events proved to be too much. Oveson had re-aggravated her previous shin injury, resulting in a stress fracture.

"You'd almost think that once it happens so many times, it shouldn't hurt as bad," Oveson said, "but it does."

She took the entire summer off and returned to campus in the fall only to immediately develop Achilles tendonitis, sidelining her yet again.

After losing the cross country season, Oveson had two months of successful training over the winter. She felt fit and her body seemed to be cooperating.

"It's incredibly challenging to get a glimpse of hope, to train really hard, get hurt again and then try to come back all over again," said head coach Kelly Sullivan.

Maybe Oveson was pushing herself too hard trying to get back into shape. Maybe it was just a freak accident. Whatever the cause, Oveson felt something wasn't right after she finished a workout in March of last year.

"You love to see kids get excited, but there's an advantage to being lazy," said Sullivan of Oveson's work ethic. "Hayley is a type-A personality, where she is thinking, 'If I'm going to do something, I'm doing it either 100 percent or not doing it at all.' The problem with that in athletics is that you can run into injuries."

Oveson came into the trainer's room crying because she knew she had injured herself again, just as she was starting to excel with the team. She had felt a twinge deep in her hip that hurt too badly and too sharply to be just another of the normal aches and pains.

An MRI would reveal that Oveson had suffered a stress fracture of her inferior pubic ramus, a thin portion of the pelvis. The location was very uncommon place for a running injury.

"With that injury, to be honest, most people would have quit," Sullivan said. "The doctor told us she would be out four to six months."

At this point, more than ever, Oveson truly questioned whether it was all worth it. The feeling of futility after all of the time and effort she had invested into running weighed on her heavily.

"The worst part about it is that you feel like a joke," Oveson said. "I'm like, 'If I was a coach and this was my athlete, I wouldn't want anything to do with them.' You don't want to work with an athlete that's constantly getting hurt. I knew he felt bad for me, but I also knew how frustrating as a coach that must have been."

Sullivan wasn't surprised by Oveson's comments, but said he had a much different outlook on coaching.

"That's the difference between her and I," Sullivan said. "For her, the world is very black and white. I come from a very different mentality of 'it's not over till it's over.'"

Oveson was in Sullivan's office many times over the course of her two-year injury spel=l. Whenever a new roadblock presented itself, Oveson would question herself, but Sullivan would not yield in his support.

"If she was the type of individual that was hanging from a chandelier at 1 a.m. in the morning and not taking care of herself, and then she gets hurt? Yeah, you'd get rid of her," Sullivan said. "There's nothing that Hayley does that isn't the right lifestyle or doing her part."

Through all of the ups and downs, the hope and the gloom, Oveson stayed with the team. She would attend practices as often as possible, playing the part of timer and cheerleader. As she continued to support her team, her teammates gave her even more support in return.

"On one hand, it's hard to see people doing stuff that you want to be doing, but my team was phenomenal," Oveson said. "I can't over-exaggerate how awesome it was to have them behind me. It was huge."

Nearly two years after the first injury, Oveson is finally back on the track and performing well for Oregon State in her senior season. In only her second meet back in action, she set the school record in the 5000m. Junior Laura Carlyle has since broken that record.

"I don't want this to sound arrogant, but I had pretty high expectations (in my first meets back from injury)," Oveson said. "I was really happy at Stanford, but I wasn't surprised. My first thought was, 'Well, that should have happened a couple of years ago.'"

Coach Sullivan was happy to hear how poised Oveson was in her return. He recalled the first meet that Oveson had competed in as a freshman. He had walked over to her to see if she was nervous. She was hyperventilating. She had struggled over her senior year of high school, missing her final track season, and the pressure and nerves were getting to her.

"That was my first experience with her after she had a long time off. Now hearing her sound so confident after an even longer time off, it's just the polar opposite. It's really cool."

Oveson credits her coach and teammates for helping her through what has easily been the most difficult stretch in her athletic career.

"There's no way I could have done this without Kelly as my coach and the people on this team. I had little notes on my locker saying, 'keep it up.' The feeling that there are that many people that care about you - there's no replacement for that."

Oveson is finally back where she says she belongs. After so much time away, she relishes the feeling of training again and being with her team. As they cool down after every workout, after every race, it's all she can think about.

"It feels like being home."