Bethanie Brown is taking a break. The Waterville Senior High School graduate who dominated Maine cross country as well as the distance events of the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons while a Purple Panther, will not compete for the Iowa State track and field team this spring.
Brown, who also sat out the indoor season, is recovering from an injury to the peroneal tendon, which runs from the outside of the ankle under the foot.
“It’s one of those things, I think it’s better to ease back in,” Brown, a sophomore at Iowa State, said.
Brown’s injury is inflamation of the peroneal tendon, and comes from overuse. The fix was simply rest. Originally, Brown’s plan was to just sit out the indoor track and field season.
“During indoor track, I was very optimistic I’d be back for outdoors,” Brown said. “I jumped in to (training) too fast. I was probably too optimistic.”
When she trained with teammates Katy Moen and Margaret Connelly, Brown noticed she wasn’t healing as quickly as she had hoped.
“I noticed I was not recovering well,” Brown said. “Whenever I would run, I would irritate the ankle. I needed to give it time to heal itself and rest.”
The injury caused Brown to miss most of the cross country season last fall. She returned to compete in the NCAA championship meet on Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Ind., and helped the Cyclones to a second place finish behind national champion Michigan State. Racing for the first time in almost two months, Brown placed 53rd at nationals.
The ankle injury wasn’t the only injury Brown faced this past year. Last summer, an iron deficiency left Brown feeling sluggish.
“It was a challenging time for me, in terms of being able to get fit and stay fit,” Brown said.
Brown, who holds state high school records in the mile and 2-mile (indoors) and 1,600 and 3,200 meters (outdoors), hopes to amp up her training when she’s home this summer.
“I’ll do my base thing, and at the end of the summer, amp up for cross country,” Brown said.
While the Cyclones shift from the indoor season (Iowa State placed seventh at the Big 12 indoor championship) to outdoors, Brown will continue to do some light training on her own in anticipation of the cross country season.
“It’s not very frustrating at all. I feel good about what I’m doing. I know it’s best for me,” Brown said. “Right now, I get to train for fun. There’s less pressure.”
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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