Kayla Montgomery played
competitive soccer in junior high. The
summer before high school, she noticed that due to numbness, she couldn’t feel
her feet. In October of 2010, after
multiple tests, Kayla was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. At first she cried a lot and just wanted to
be alone. For 8 months Kayla had no
feeling in her legs and had to give up soccer.
With medical help, the feeling in her feet and legs began to return as
did Kayla’s desire to run and compete again.
Since soccer is a contact sport, another sport had to be chosen.
Kayla approached the
track coach, Patrick Cromwell, at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, about training and running on the track team. She wanted to run, make the most out of every
day, and to be held accountable. As
Kayla trained, she progressed from an average runner to one of the best in her
area. She made Varsity and pushed
herself further by training with the boys’ team. Because of MS, when her body overheated she
could no longer feel her feet or legs or know how fast she was running. She had to listen to her coach and learn how
to pace herself.
Not only did Coach
Cromwell train, motivate, and push Kayla to do her best, he also made the
commitment to meet Kayla at the finish line to catch her after she completed each
race. Since she could no longer feel her
legs, Kayla would collapse in the coach’s arms and he would pick her up and
carry her off the field. People would
come and place ice packets on her and give her water or Gatorade to drink to
begin the cooling down process. Her body
temperature would eventually return to normal and the symptoms would subside.
Earlier in the year,
Montgomery qualified for the North Carolina state meet for outdoor track in the
3,200-meter race. Within the first 100
meters of the race, Kayla was running with the group and tripped and fell. She got up, began running again, and eventually
caught up with the crowd of runners. Kayla
crossed the finish line, collapsed into her coach’s arms, and was declared the
winner with a time of 10 minutes 43 seconds, which was a good enough time to
rank her 21st in the country.
There are so many things
that encourage me about this story:
*After assessing the
situation, Kayla didn’t let being diagnosed with MS define her life.
*It’s important to have
dreams and goals and to be willing to work for them, even when there are
hurdles along the way.
*When you fall down, you
have the choice of staying down or getting back up to finish the race.
*Wise instruction is
beneficial when it is assessed, taken to heart, and then applied.
*Going the extra mile
helps bring results and blessings.
*I am blessed by people
who invest in me so I can fulfill my dreams, goals, and purpose in life. I also need to be willing to encourage,
catch, hold, pick up, or bring water so someone else can have the opportunity
to do the same.
When interviewed for a
documentary Kayla stated, “I just hope to run as long as I can and to make the
most out of it as long as I can. When or
if I am not able to run at some point down the road, then at least I can look
back and know that when I could I gave it my all.” May we all be able to have the same response
to whatever Jesus is asking of us.
Do
you not know that in a race all
the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain
it.
I Corinthians 9:24
I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7
Therefore,
since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside
every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
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