It feels as if a thousand knives are being stabbed into her shins. The pain is killing her. She can barely walk, but she tries her best to do her fourth attempt for long jump. She wants to quit, but has a chance at breaking the record.

Flashback to where this all began.

While at St. John’s Episcopal School, Katey Long participated in a variety of track events. From the 4×100 relay to the 4×400 to long jump, she tried out various events to find her best fit.

“I developed a passion for track when I decided to try all the different events,” Long said. “I’m so glad that I got to try most of the events in middle school before going into high school track, so that I was able to determine what event was best for me. I eventually narrowed it down to my two main events, long and triple jump.”

Long has always been passionate about soccer, basketball and track. For a while, she struggled to juggle soccer and basketball games with track meets. Later, she gave up her other two sports to focus on her passion for track.

During track season her sophomore year, she began to experience excruciating pains in her shins. Much to her dismay, the pain did not dissipate but instead continued throughout her junior year. As the pain intensified, it became more and more difficult to run and jump.

“It was super severe this year and it began to hurt when I walked,” Long said. “I went to my orthopedist and I found out that I had medial tibial stress syndrome.”

Medial tibial stress syndrome, or shin splints, refers to persistent pain in one’s inner shins. Unfortunately for Long, the only cure for her shins is rest. Luckily, she’s found other ways to stay in shape for jumping.

“I wasn’t allowed to participate in sports for two weeks,” Long said. “I missed a ton of practices and I was unable to compete in a couple of meets. Since I couldn’t participate in track, I signed up for Pilates almost every day so that I could stay active but with less pressure on my legs.”

This isn’t the first time she’s endured pain to this extreme. She’s fractured both of her ankles three times and she’s sprained one to the point where it looked like a muffin. Even now, she still takes caution because she is so prone to ankle injuries.

“I always end up getting hurt because I’m so fragile,” Long said. “It’s challenging to deal with all my past injuries. It affects me today because I have to work harder so that I am stable when it comes to athletics.”

Despite these setbacks, she is only 5” away from breaking the school record long jump record, 17’6”.

“Track is coming to an end and I’m freaking out because I need to beat it,” Long said. “Thank God I have another year, but I am so determined.”

As a junior, Long has begun to look at colleges in hopes that she can find one where pursuing long jump is a strong possibility.

“I think that’d be really cool to do track in college,” Long said. “It’d make it a lot easier for me to get into college if I got a scholarship. I think that it’s awesome how far your talents can get you.”

Since Long’s injury has inhibited her from reaching peak performance, her chances of being recruited by colleges have been diminished.

“My injuries make it extremely difficult for me to get recruited because your best scores from each meet get recorded and due to my legs, my jumps haven’t been meeting my expectations,” Long said. “Dealing with an injury is so irritating because you know you have so much potential, but it holds you back from reaching your goal.”

Even though Long has faced multiple challenges in her long jump career, she remains driven to reach her goal of breaking the school record. Because of these experiences, she cannot imagine her life without track.

“My challenges have motivated me because it shows me what I’m missing out on,” Long said. “While I had to sit out for the past couple of weeks I realized how much track means to me and it motivated me to come back stronger and to really put my best effort into everything.”​