Kampfe Battles Through Pain to Continue Successful Career
11/11/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Kampfe Battles Through Pain to Continue Successful Career
by Adrienne Gutierrez, U-M Athletic Media Relations Intern
Decatur, Ill., native Elizabeth Kampfe has the collegiate athlete story fit for a made-for-television movie:
A talented scholar-athlete during grade school and high school continues her athletic and academic career at the University of Michigan, joining the cross country and track and field teams. She wins the 1997 Great Lakes Regional cross country championship and earns academic accolades.
Unexpectedly and inexplicably, at the end of her sophomore year, she starts experiencing excruciating pain in her shins that continues to plague her in the present, making it difficult to run, let alone traverse 5,000 meters at the collegiate competition level.
Like any other storyline, the heroine fights adversity to rise triumphantly. The senior bores through the pain and gives an impressive performance in her final Big Ten Conference Championship, placing 14th to earn a spot on the All-Big Ten Second Team and help the team to a runner-up finish.
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Kampfe will put herself to the test this Saturday (Nov. 13) at the Great Lakes Regional Championship at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind., where the Wolverines hope to make a run for the championship. Saturday's race could possibly be the last cross country race Kampfe runs for Michigan, but she hopes she can continue to the NCAA Championship.
"Ideally, I would love to be All-American again and to be top 25 in the country and get back to where I was my sophomore year," admits Kampfe, who finished 23rd at the 1997 NCAA meet. "Realistically, I would like to make nationals and go there and have a great race. Just with how things are going this year and where I'm at physically with injuries and things like that, I just want to end it on a good note, and hopefully that will be at nationals."
Her condition can only be described as "severe shin splints," she explains. "That's kind of the easiest diagnosis they can give. It's not a stress fracture. It's frustrating for me because it's not something that can be easily diagnosed. I've tried lots of different treatments and therapies. Nothing seems to work."
It has been a long and difficult road for the highly competitive scholar-athlete who has had to come to terms with her injury. The shin splints bother her daily when she runs, walks or even sits. With her competitive nature, Kampfe finds it difficult to take days off when her condition essentially is not any more than shin splints. What is even more difficult is knowing that she cannot perform at the same level she did two years ago.
"To go into a race, knowing I'm not 100 percent, that is hard," states the accomplished runner. "To know there are people beating me that shouldn't be beating me or who I've beaten before. There are things that I have accomplished that I'm not accomplishing. That's a mental challenge for me. It's something this season I've gotten adjusted to and come to terms and I just now look to have a good race every time out and hope that it's a pain-free day."
Through her career at Michigan, Kampfe has run in four Big Ten Championships, three Regional Championships and two NCAA Championship races, earning an All-American honor, an individual regional title, a place on the All-Big Ten First Team and three spots on the All-Big Ten Second Team.
Kampfe has speculated that her injury could have been caused by her pushing herself too far or not taking the needed time off. Even in hindsight, she would not have made any changes in her training, nor does she regret all of the events of her college career.
"Yeah, there are things I wish I would have done differently, but had I done them differently I wouldn't have learned the things I learned," Kampfe reflects. "I think it's just given me as a person. I've tried to use it to say there's more to me than what I accomplish as a runner. That's pretty important, to accomplish in sports, because it is such a big part of my life, but I've had a lot of people tell me, 'You're still an All-American and that's not something that can be taken away from you.' That's something I really have to remember. I am a good, I was a good runner, but I also hope I can be a good person. That's the other side of it, too."
Kampfe does have other talents and aspirations. She works just as hard in the classroom as she trains for running, which is why she is a winner of the U-M Athletic Academic Achievement award and was named Academic All-Big Ten three consecutive years.
After graduation, the sports marketing major would like to continue her academic career in business, focusing on event management or marketing and promotions in order to familiarize herself with the business side of sports.
One act of her life may be nearing its close, but the show is still going on, and the heroine is still running strong.
Contact: Adrienne Gutierrez (734) 763-4423
