Catherine Gallegos '20 Recruiting Profile

"It is going to be hard, but hard is not impossible." This quote directly applies to me and what has happened to get me to where I am today. 

I started out playing soccer at the age of 6. This would only be the beginning of what would be a great soccer career. From there I went on to play club soccer for a few years, and that's when I first started to have ankle pain. For more than 2 years I had been pushing through the pain for the game I loved to play. It got to the point where I could not bear the pain any more. This was when I found out that I would need ankle surgery on both ankles. Each ankle would have a 4 month recovery time, which meant that for 8 months I would not be able to do any physical activity. Those few years of pushing myself through the pain would have done nothing to prevent this, I could have done nothing to prevent this. It could have happen to anyone. 

I went through with the two surgeries, and each was a success. I struggled for a while getting back into shape, trying to get back to where I was before. I worked hard and then I went back to soccer for about a year when my school's cross country team was looking to add another girl to their team. I joined and I could not have loved it more. This is when my love of distance running began. From there, I have not stopped running, and I will never stop running.