Breaking 868 Days - Student Equity and Engagement Center

10 months, 868 days.

The support when I came back was by far one of the coolest moments of my college career thus far—granted—I haven't had much of a career yet.

The morning of my race, I received an overwhelming amount of encouraging texts from my family, friends from back home, NMU friends, and my athletic trainer. They were so excited for me to break my 868-day streak.

Three weeks into my freshman year, I went on a hike and completely ruptured my ankle. It took the doctors around 5 months to figure out the diagnosis, and 10 months to receive surgery. In total there have been 868 days between race days—but two weeks ago—I broke my no-racing streak. The encouragement I received as I ran around each curve made all 868 days worth it.

Being a collegiate athlete is a reality many dream of; Coming to Northern and getting injured within the first three weeks was extremely difficult for me. This injury felt even more painful due to my habit of associating my identity solely with my sport.

When I wasn’t able to run, I felt that my purpose was stripped away from me, making my journey extremely hard to process.Although my accident happened just three weeks into my first year, I thankfully had a built-in family to support me. Between my roommates, suite-mates, and sister, they each helped me keep my mind off of my injury. To add, my fellow teammates who are currently injured know they can come to me because I know the ups and downs of a long-term injury, on both the physical and mental side.

My injury was also around the time when my faith really started to shift. I grew up in a Christian household, so God has always been in my life. I started to dig deeper into my faith and to those around me when I got injured. I am a part of AIA (Athletes in Action) on campus, and being surrounded by athletes who are like-minded (in that sense) has been so reassuring to me, because many of the members have gone through a similar situation. Joining AIA was a great reminder for myself, that what I might see as adversity God sees as an opportunity.

This newly turned opportunity came to light as I did physical therapy for my ankle. I realized watching the progress of an individual going through PT is incredibly fulfilling. Instead of becoming a doctor who mainly sees an injury, I want to be a physical therapist and help people get back to the activities they love by joining their journey.

Although the 868 days made me feel lost, those long months guided me to my purpose and showed me direction. There is much more to my identity, beyond just being an athlete.

My name is Kate Langworthy. I am on the Cross Country and Track team here at Northern. I am a junior, majoring in sports science. I am from Big Rapids, Michigan.