Star-Journbal Editor
The 800 meters is painful.
It's too long of a race to be run as a sprint; too short to be run as a distance. Instead, it's two laps of all-out running, with a breathless kick to the finish line.
Nathan Vogel says it hurts to run 800 meters like the wind, never slowing down. But, he shrugs; it's really no big deal.
Over the past 10 months, he's endured more pain than any race can cause.
Which is why, Aug. 5, in the national 800-meter championship at the Hershey's Track & Field Games North American Final, Vogel may concede to a faster foe, but no run-of-the-mill runner's pain will keep him from being first to cross the finish line.
Vogel, 14, of Hillsboro, is one of only eight 13- and 14-year-old 800-meter runners in all of North America to qualify for the chocolate makers' track meet in Hershey, Penn. His airfare and other expenses will be paid in full, and he'll get to spend an entire day riding the sweet rides at Hershey Park, for free.
Even though they'll have to drive 19 hours and 1,200 miles to get there, his dad, Brad, and mom, Bev, and older brother, David, will be there to watch him run, and to share in the miraculous, come-from-behind victory, already his.
Remember the terrific Hillsboro Middle School football player who broke his arm badly running the ball against Halstead last fall?
The one whose hand wound up bent all creepy, in a claw?
This is the same guy.
You have no idea what he's been through.
At 5-5 and 120-pounds, Vogel has wavy-wiry sandy-blond hair and a double-dimpled smile, eats at Micky D's, plays video games, and is anxious, no doubt, about his first day as a freshman at Hillsboro High School. In short, the appears to be as normal as any teen in town.
These days he also ties his own shoes and shoots left-handed lay-ups. And this year he'll get to unwrap his own Christmas presents. He was unable to do any of these normal things a few months ago.
So even if Vogel comes in eighth in the eight-runner race, he's a champion. His battle to regain the use of his left wrist, hand, and badly broken arm has been won.
Not that the big race isn't a big deal, it is.
Hershey's Track & Field Games is the largest track and field event in the nation, with more than 400,000 participants from 3,000 communities.
Vogel qualified by winning the 13- and 14- year-old 800-meter run at the state meet June 23 at Emporia. His time, 2:12, was the fastest in a vast region, including Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Not all of the great young runners compete in summer track meets, and the Hershey's meet is geared more toward recreation department athletes than junior elite runners. But at the national level the times will be very competitive, said Brad Vogel, Nathan's father and summertime coach.
"Last year, the 800-meter winner in the 13 and 14 age group ran a 2:05," Brad said. "This would compare well to [other age group national meets]."
Vogel is in Colorado this week on a team-building training trip for members of the high school cross-country team. He'll take the tram up Pikes Peak, and then return to Hillsboro just in time to leave for a peak performance in Pennsylvania, where he hopes to climb the award stand for the second time. He placed second in the 11- and 12-year-old 800-meters two years ago.
Vogel has been training twice a day, five days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday he runs timed intervals on the track. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 20-25 minute runs on the streets. He's at the high school weight room before 7 a.m., strengthening his upper body one morning, lower body the next.
Dad is the music director at Tabor College and has time to devote to Nathan's training in the summertime. It's been a bonding experience since his gift began to surface in the third grade. This summer, Brad has been cycling alongside on the road, and uses a sports watch to time workouts on the track.
"He actually listens to me, and he doesn't complain too much," Brad said. "I always check with [cross-country] Coach [Stuart] Holmes about intervals and heart rates and things, and I read as much as I can."
When it comes to the big race, Nathan's strategy is painfully simple. A natural front-runner, he plans to go out fast, and then out-suffer the field. It's unlikely at best that any of the other competitors have experienced the pain Nathan has.
Both bones in his left forearm snapped like dry sticks Oct. 6. Six weeks later, a disappointing season-ending sports injury became a frighteningly serious medical emergency.
"I was really worried; my arm was really, really thin," Nathan said. "It was really weak, and I couldn't lift anything. The middle of my arm where the breaks were was really painful.
"My wrist curled under, and then my hand went numb."
Nathan's hand was paralyzed in a claw-like position. The muscles in his forearm contracted, tendons tight as ropes, locking his wrist and curling his hands and fingers.
It was, he said, "very painful."
His parents rushed Nathan to Wichita to see a hand specialist.
He was diagnosed with two conditions, both serious:
1). Compartment Syndrome, a restriction of blood flow to the muscles and nerve cells, which can cause permanent disability. The median and ulnar nerves in Nathan's forearm were damaged; the flexor muscle in his forearm had died.
2). The nerve damage had caused Volkmann's Contracture, a flexion of the hand at the wrist, resulting in a claw-like deformity of the hand and fingers. His wrist and fingers could remain bent, permanently.
The doctor was not optimistic.
"When the doctor saw Nathan's hand, his opening words were, 'I don't know what, if anything we'll be able to get out of this,'" Brad said.
The doctor performed carpal tunnel surgery on Dec. 19 to relieve pressure on the damaged nerves. The rest was up to God, physical therapy, every day at home and once a week in Wichita, for the rest of the school year.
The first objective was to straighten out the curled fingers so he could make a fist; and bring the wrist back to a neutral position, if possible.
There was only way to do it, the therapist forcibly bent the joints.
"It was excruciatingly painful, he just cried," Brad said. "Flexibility didn't exist. The tendons didn't pull. The therapist gave him a splint to wear at night to keep the tendons stretched. He went through three or four of them bent at different degrees during that time.
"When he started out, they tested his pinch strength," he added. "He could generate just a pound of strength pinching his index finger and thumb together."
How far he would come back, God only knew.
"Our prayer life was nonstop," Brad said. "I thought about it all the time. Whether I was teaching or directing my choir, it would be in the back of my mind. You refuse to accept that it was going to be that way forever, I just didn't want to believe it would stay that way."
Progress was measured one painful centimeter at a time.
Simple things, like picking up and stacking toy blocks were major accomplishments.
He also suffered mentally.
Basketball season came, and he couldn't play.
But his peers had no clue what he was going through, or what was at stake.
"A lot of people thought it was just a broken arm," he said. "But I couldn't do anything with it. It was really hard to see everybody competing in a sport that you really like and want to play in. It makes you feel left out and lonely."
In March, Nathan made a left-handed lay-up, in the hoop at home on his driveway.
He called to tell his dad, who was in St. Louis.
"That was pretty special," Brad said.
It was a very good sign.
Track season came. Nathan wanted to run.
His teammates had to tie the shoestrings on his spikes.
He ran like the wind, setting a school record of 2:12, and felt just fine.
"It was great just to see him compete," Brad said. "It was a huge relief."
The physical therapy continues. He stretches his wrist and fingers constantly. If you look closely, you can see his thumb is still slightly askew, but he's working on that, too.
A Hillsboro high football coach said last week that Nathan was arguably the best athlete in the incoming freshman class; undoubtedly the toughest.
"People shouldn't think that just because he can't play football he stopped being an athlete," the coach said. "If he takes his ability and aggression onto the track, I feel sorry for the guys who have to run against him."
After all he's been through Nathan admits he'll be on a mission, come race day.
"Call it revenge, I guess," he said. "I get to show people what I can do and show people what I missed when I broke my arm."
No matter the outcome of the big race, it would be fitting to see Nathan's left fist aloft, in victory, as he crosses the finish line.
