Injured Morrison hopes for successful post-collegiate career

To be injured is every athlete's worst nightmare — especially when, for that athlete, to be an NCAA champion is more than just a dreamer's goal, but a definite possibility.

For senior Paul Morrison, previously Princeton's top men's cross-country runner, that nightmare came true.

Sept. 3, 2000 was the fateful day, one that Morrison will never forget. After a great workout the day before and an equally smooth morning session, he put on a new pair of shoes and went out on a 50-minute run. Suddenly, about 40 minutes into the workout, he felt a tightness in his right leg along the tendon that runs from the hip to below the knee. The pain progressed to the point where he couldn't walk.

The next day he was in a brace.

What Morrison had developed was, in medical terminology, iliotibial (IT) band friction syndrome. This is a common injury among athletes and is characterized by inflammation and pain on the outside of the knee where the IT band – the ligament that runs along the outside of the thigh – rubs against the large leg bone. In less serious cases, stretching, massaging and icing the area are often effective. Morrison's case, however, called for more extreme measures. After getting an MRI, he received an injection of cortisone to break down the inflammation.

For the next few months, Morrison tried to run, but the pain would not go away. It was what he called "a teasing injury. I'd start out feeling fantastic, but after five strides the pain would kick in."

In December, Morrison received another cortisone shot before returning home for Christmas break, during which he stayed off his leg. The three-week rest seemed to help the injury, for, when he got back to Princeton, he was able to train hard for a month-and-a-half, in time for track season.

A strain in the muscle in his lower calf, however, broke his progress. He took five days off, after which he eagerly jumped back into training – a little too eagerly.

"I came back too fast," he said. "I ran two 60-minute runs and started to feel the pain in my knee again. It was just horrible."

Disheartening as it was for the pain to return after a month-and-a-half of hard training, the Mount SAC race scheduled for the end of April beckoned to Morrison, driving him to keep up a routine of 30-minute, rigorous training sessions followed by 3-day rests.

At Mount SAC — a national-caliber meet that included mostly post-collegiate participants as well as teams such as Nike and Reebok — the pain finally decided to give Morrison a break. He ran extremely well (13 minutes, 53.75 seconds), without feeling any pain in the race or the whole next day.

But it was a short break. The pain came back in the time between Mount Sac and the Heptagonal Championships, rendering Morris unable to train. "I started to fall really out of shape," he said.

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Morrison's standard of what it means to be in shape must be pretty high, though, for he managed to finish second place overall in the 5,000-meter at Heps — even though for most people in his condition just finishing the race would have been an admirable feat.

After his amazing performance at Heps, Morrison took eight weeks off. Then, on July 1, he began to train for his fourth and final cross-country season.

Over last summer, he attended a running injury clinic at the University of Delaware, where Dr. Irene McClay, a running biomechanics expert, performed a complex procedure involving fluorescent balls, infrared lights, and a high-tech pressure box. He would go back in early September to get the analysis of the procedure's results.

Morrison's injury kept quiet all summer.

"Back home at Montreal I was smoking hills. I felt infallible," he said.

A pain in his Achilles tendon, however, reminded him that he was not infallible. He took a week off, but, again, he came back too fast. IT band friction syndrome re-emerged with a vengeance.

In his left leg.

"I was unbelievably frustrated," Morrison recalled. "I tried to be optimistic, telling myself 'just another week, just another week.' There was no way I could miss my senior year season."

Sadly, however, it turns out that the injury in his left leg is no different from the one in his right; it will not be a quick fix. And with Heps coming in under a week, the chance of Morrison recovering in time is bleak.

There is no mistaking the tragedy in Morrison's condition – the indescribable frustration, the ceaseless pain, the shattered dreams.

"On my recruiting trip Coach Brady asked me what my goals were as a runner at Princeton," Morrison recalled. "I told him, 'I want to win an NCAA cross country championship, that's what I want to do."

He very well could have, too; the runner who finished in first place in 2000 was behind Morrison in 1999.

Morrison's dreams may be lost this year. But that is not to say that they are forever out of reach; they need only be rearranged a bit.

"My goals are a little different now," Morrison said. "I've always envisioned running after college. When I graduate I'm probably going to go to graduate school where I can continue the eligibility that I've lost. It'll bring a real peace of mind if next year I go somewhere and do what I wanted to do, even through all the tough times."

There is also the very real possibility of Morrison's running professionally.

"Especially being from Canada," Morrison said, "the focus is not on college athletics; it's on post-collegiate athletics and national competitions."

Another realizable goal for Morrison is the Olympics. Again, being from Canada is an advantage, as Morrison explained:

"All I have to do to qualify in Montreal is to run at Olympic A Standard," a time which, at 13 minutes, 26 seconds for 5,000 meters, is not a giant leap from his time two years ago of 13:49.

Whatever Morrison decides to do after college, it is clear from his willingness to try anything and everything to keep his muscles strong and ready that he has not given up on running. For the past week-and-a-half he has been trying out an especially interesting rehabilitation technique: ice skating.

"I need to do something. I have such a competitive spirit that just sitting around watching other people race is so hard," he said.

However, to Morrsion, the worst thing about being injured is that "I'm not out there running with my teammates; I can't support my team."

"Last year I was captain," Morrison said, "and I did a horrible job of it because I couldn't be there with my teammates. They're looking up to me and I'm off on the sidelines, and I can't show them what I can do. I'm not the 'round up the troops and kick some ass' kind of guy; I lead by example. If I can't do that, then I can't be a good leader."

Maybe he can't be there with the team. But Morrison's example of determination, hard work, perseverance, and hope in the face of his heartbreaking injury is more inspiration than any team could ask for.