Chieco’s comeback run four years in the making
Story by Rob McGuinness
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The path to the finish line at the Western New England Invitational measured far longer than 5,000 meters for Salve Regina's Jennifer Chieco (Clifton Park, N.Y.).
The senior captain placed in the upper half of the 210-runner field on Saturday, marking her collegiate debut and capping a comeback that was four years in the making.
Chieco had last finished a cross country race in 2010, during her senior year at Shenendehowa High School, where she'd been a varsity runner with a three-mile personal best of 19:39. Her last race of any kind came in February 2011, during the indoor track season. What followed was a baffling and frustrating injury that ended her high school racing career and sidelined her indefinitely during her first years at Salve Regina.
"I have a muscular imbalance, and my body compensates for the weaknesses in other muscles, causing pain," Chieco explained. "However, I felt pain in a lot of different places – from my foot to my back – so it was difficult to pinpoint the problem and find the right solution."
Chieco consulted an orthopedist, a podiatrist, a chiropractor and three sets of physical therapists over the course of two years, all to no avail. It wasn't until she began working with Foundation Performance in Pawtucket, R.I., that she started to see progress. She credits physical therapists Mike Silva and Casey Madore with helping to rebuild her body.
| Teammates Give Chieco a Motivational Note of Her Own |
|
During her years on the Salve Regina cross country team, senior captain Jen Chieco has established herself as a leader and as one of the team's most vocal supporters on race days. Sidelined by injury for the last four years and unable to compete, Chieco made it her mission to help her teammates stay motivated, writing personalized index cards with inspirational quotes for each runner on the men's and women's teams. That's nearly 50 cards per week.
"He always wrote key words or something in practice that we discussed that I should work on during my next race. I always looked forward to what he had to say," Chieco said. "When I realized I couldn't race during my second year, I asked myself how I could contribute if I wasn't on the course. So then came the notecards and the quotes. I just wanted [my teammates] to know how much I noticed their hard work and believed in their success." On October 18, as Chieco prepared to race for the first time since high school, the team returned the gesture. Sophomore Kevin Onofreo (Middlefield, Conn.) led the effort to have the team fill a poster board with motivational messages to wish the captain luck in her first collegiate race. It was one note card – and one race – that Chieco will never forget. |
The race-day notes were something she learned from Shenendehowa High School coach Rob Cloutier, who does the same thing to inspire his athletes. Chieco still has a collection of notes from Cloutier."I did physical therapy five days a week for a year," Chieco said. "I owe most of my success to Foundation Performance and their incredible staff and facilities."
The road back to running started slowly – first in limited amounts on an anti-gravity treadmill, and then in longer increments at a higher percentage of body weight. By the end of the summer, Chieco was training on terra firma, replicating some of the treadmill workouts on the track.
The meet at Western New England – the last invitational on the Seahawks' 2014 racing schedule – had long been the target. But preparing to race, on a tight timeline, still posed a challenge.
"When I started running again in August, I knew it would be close," Chieco said. "I had three months to get into shape, but I was basically a new runner again."
Chieco trained solo on most days, putting in time on the track or at a park in Newport. Her teammates would sometimes join in for a few easy miles after they'd finished their own workouts, making practice less of a lonely pursuit.
"My teammates always told me that I would be back soon," Chieco said. "They also came on really slow runs with me, or simply came to watch as I ran around a soccer field for 20 minutes because I didn't want to be there alone."
Junior captain Jackie Ofria (Manchester, Conn.) paced Chieco on her longest run of the season – 45 minutes – in early October and came away feeling confident that her teammate and friend was ready to race again. It was inspiring to see Chieco working toward her goal, Ofria said.
"Jen is a huge motivation to our entire team. Through all of her setbacks and obstacles, she never once lost hope," Ofria said. "Seeing her work tirelessly to come back from her injuries and to be able to race with us proves that we are all capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for."
Ofria wasn't the only Seahawk to lend training support. Sophomores Amy Irving (Bohemia, N.Y.) and Alison Walby (Farmingdale, N.J.) and junior Tori Maxson (Old Saybrook, Conn.) often joined her on the roads and fields, and coaches Rob McGuinness and Kacie Gallo also jumped in for workouts at Gaudet Field and at Brenton Point State Park.
"The entire team definitely wanted Jen to return to action, and we're all proud to watch her make a successful comeback," McGuinness said. "She's always been one to encourage her teammates to achieve their goals, so it is especially rewarding to see her achieve a goal of her own. Jen never gave up. She never lost focus. She finished. No one can ever take that away."
The pre-meet routine and race day itself were nerve-wracking for Chieco. Even though she'd run in major meets and championship races, those days seemed like a lifetime ago. As she warmed up on the fields in Springfield, she focused on positive affirmations.
"I was trying to think of everything positive I had done to get myself to that point. I just decided to take a leap of faith and believe in all the work that I had put in over the last three months," she said. "I just reminded myself that I was going for a run. Something that I worked so hard to do again."
The race turned out to be more than just another run, as Chieco found her racing instincts intact. She was in the middle of the field through the opening mile and tried pass other runners in the trails. As the race wore on, she worked with teammates Rachel Pyne (Foxboro, Mass.), Casey Devaney (Mahwah, N.J.) and Sam Gisonni (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) to maintain her position.
Some 23 minutes later, the finish line was in sight. She crossed at 23:14.
"When I made the final turn and the finish line came into view, I felt like I made the biggest accomplishment of my running career," Chieco said. "I made goals into a reality – after all this time, the finish line was literally in my grasp."
With her cross country return complete, Chieco aims to stay healthy, to run more mileage and to prepare for her first track season since high school. She's aiming to race at 1500 meters this spring and to be a full-time runner for a long time to come.
The comeback has offered some valuable perspective on perseverance.
"Never give up. Get another doctor's advice. Ask for help. Even if you can't figure it out right away, just keep on trying," Chieco said. "All the time and effort will pay off, even if it takes longer than you would have hoped."