Roy Exum
Kayla Montgomery, a freshman cross country runner at Lipscomb University in Nashville, is one of the fastest girls in the country. Last month she starred on a team that won the Atlantic Sun Conference championships and she already has run the third-fastest time in school history over the Vaughn’s Gap course, but it is her trademark finish that has made the 5-foot-1 pixie one of the most inspirational athletes in the United States
At every finish line Kayla falls flat on her face, unable to move.
Some who watch think she’s had a seizure. Others figure she’s fainted, but as a growing legion of admirers have now come to know, the humble girl from North Carolina has another trademark of sorts. She runs despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
She placed 18th in a field of 260 runners at the Vanderbilt Invite on Sept. 13 clocking in at 17:34.8 to secure a fourth place overall finish for the team. Her time ranked her No. 3 all-time on the team’s home course and it appears the sky’s the limit for the honors student.
A stunning video aired By ESPN several weeks ago explained that because her disease blocks nerve signals from Kayla’s legs to her brain – especially as her muscles warm from physical exertion – she has no control over the lower half of her body the second she quits running.
“It usually starts in my toes and works its way up to my waist,” she told ESPN. “It just stays like that for the rest of my run or race. It’s just a very strange feeling,” she explained. “You don’t know what’s going on. You just know its happening.”
Unbelievably, Kayla has learned that if she pushes herself, it is like auto-pilot takes over. “But when I finish it feels like there is nothing underneath me. I start out feeling normal but then my legs gradually go numb. I have trained myself to think about other things when I run, to get through. But when I break the motion, I can’t control my legs so I fall.”
Immediately coaches and trainers ice her legs and, after a few minutes, the feeling comes back. Kayla has trained herself to ignore the stares. “I didn’t want to be treated differently, and I don’t want to be looked on differently.”
She was 15 when playing soccer became a real burden so doctors in North Carolina soon diagnosed the disease for which there is no cure. After initial treatment, she went to Coach Patrick Cromwell, who coaches runners at Mount Tabor High in Winston-Salem, and told him, “I don’t know how much time I have left before I can’t run so I want to run fast – don’t hold back,” she asked and Cromwell looked at her and offered the ideal reply. “Wow! Who are you!”
Neurologist Lucie Nave told the New York Times that Montgomery’s disease doesn’t give her a competitive edge – she doesn’t feel the leg pain other runners do – and the doctor can also not explain why Kayla loses control of her legs when she stops running. “If M.S. has made her a better athlete,” the doctor believes, “it is because it has given her a mental edge.”
Dr. Peter Calabresi, who heads the Multiple Sclerosis Center at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, wonders what is to come. “When you push to your limit, your body usually sends signals to your brain to warn you are damaging tissues. Pushing that limit is what endurance sports is all about. But if you can’t feel these signals … you could be doing damage we won’t learn about until down the road,” he told the Times, “It’s a paradox.”
As a matter of fact, it is one risk that many top colleges refused to take. When coaches and recruiters learned Kayla was diagnosed with M.S. at the age of 15, the phone calls understandably stopped but Lipscomb coach Bill Taylor saw an opportunity and this season the freshman was immediately one of the best runners on a team that has now won four straight conference championships.
The ESPN film, aptly called “Catching Kayla” after the way her coaches and trainers alike break her falls at the finish line, has been seen over 1.5 million times on YouTube since it aired several weeks ago and, after Kayla pleads with her coach, “My legs … where’d they go? … Please help me. Please help find my legs,” the miraculous finish at the end of the tape requires Kleenex and a quiet moment to thank the Lord for such a prized individual.
“I just make myself do it,” said Kayla. “I tell myself, ‘I know you are tired and you can’t feel anything and it’s hard … but you are going to finish this.’ And then I do.”
royexum@aol.com