Silver linings and golden memories
A couple days after racing home from the District 3 Championships last week with three gold medals around her neck Addie Cohen found herself going in reverse once again.
After battling for months to regain her health and the gold-medal form of her junior season, the highly decorated Wyomissing runner was sidelined again.
She was sacked by a virus; her temperature spiked to 102. She wasn’t able to train the three days leading up to the weekend’s PIAA Championships.
She had no energy when the gun went off Friday morning for the 1600. She finished at the back of the pack, in 24th place and more than 24 seconds slower than the year before at the same meet, where she set a PR with a blazing 5:00.51.
“I was so upset,” Cohen said. “I had worked all of high school, and that’s the outcome I get?”
Moments after that grueling, heartbreaking race ended she decided she would not return to Shippensburg for the second day of the meet and her final two races. She was exhausted, emotionally spent, ready to move to the next chapter of her running career, at the University of Richmond.
Champions don’t stay down long. Addie Cohen didn’t.
A few minutes after a brief pity party on the infield grass at Seth Grove Stadium she changed lanes. I’ll get a good’s night sleep tonight, she reassured herself. I’ll come back tomorrow feeling better. It’s my last time here . . . I’ll give it my best shot.
She awoke at 5:30 Saturday; two-plus hours later she was on the track warming up, her mind refreshed, her competitive spirit back in first gear.
“One thing I’ve learned this week,” Cohen said. “Not everything has to be so perfect.”
Nothing was perfect for Cohen last week. She felt lousy. Her legs were fatigued. Her training regimen went out the window. Her normal daily routine – something runners, all athletes, live by — was askew.
She wasn’t at her best for the 3200 Saturday morning, but that didn’t matter. She was determined.
“Something clicked,” she said of getting back on the track. “I just dug really deep.”
Who would have believed it would end in a silver-medal performance, and with her best time of the season, no less?
Cohen had a breakthrough junior season, sweeping the three longest races at districts and copping a silver in the 1600 and bronze in the 3200 at the state championships. She was at her best against the best competition in the state, setting PRs in the 800, 1600 and 3200 the final weekend of the season.
Everything went sideways after that. Mononucleosis severely impacted her summer cross country training. In December she was hospitalized for nine days with a blood infection that spread to her hip bone and erased her indoor season.
It took her all spring to get back to her winning form. She experienced another tremendous weekend at districts, running season-best times in the 800 and 1600. And then. . . another detour.
“It seemed fitting that I ended it (like that), after a whole year of uncertainties,” she said.
It was fitting, too, that she added a fourth PIAA medal to a collection that includes 10 District 3 medals.
“It wasn’t a PR,” she said of her 3200 silver. “It wasn’t my most incredible race ever. But this is probably the proudest I’ve been after a race. I proved to myself that I can really dig deep even when the odds are stacked against me.
“Coming back after a bad day Friday . . . I feel really good about it. It was a really special moment.”
Cohen’s courageous finish was one of the highlights of a weekend overflowing with them. It seemed as though almost every Berks athlete was at his or her best. Brady Mider of Berks Catholic and Kyle Archie of Muhlenberg came in as top seeds and won gold medals; Schuylkill Valley’s Luke Martinez stunned the pole vault field by winning as the No. 13 seed.
Reading High’s Xavier Beatty, Exeter’s Logan Wegman and Kaitlyn Highduch of Gov. Mifflin all came through with tremendous performances to win medals.
Addie Cohen had one last special moment after her final high school race, the 800, late Saturday afternoon. She had nothing left for that race and finished well back, but that mattered little. After the race she fell into the arms of her mother Julie, a long-time track enthusiast and writer who covers track and field for MikeDragoSports.com. Tears flowed as they embraced.
“I was so proud of myself because I went through a lot this year,” Addie said. “To be able to come out with something I was proud of . . . it was a really good moment.”
