Lyndy Van Horn

Avery Ogg has had a long journey since her spinal injury back in July.

How long have you been running track?

Since freshman year.

What races do you run?

I have ran in everything from the 60 in indoor track and the 800 in outdoor track. That is the shortest to longest mid-distance race.

When did you find out that you were injured? What was your injury?

A couple of days before I left in the summer for Japan in July. I had a partial spinal fracture in my right side and it was causing my left side to hurt really bad.

How was the surgery and recovery process? 

I had a cortisol shot a month earlier that I was hoping would work to heal it but it didn’t, which was the first time I went under. For the surgery it was the second time so I felt better about it. The surgery itself was fine, after it was really painful. I could not move at all and they had to move me with a sheet.

What inspired you to continue this long recovery process?

I would say my friends, being back and seeing them at track. I tell them that all the time, that they were my goal to get back to; to see them, to run with them. It’s nice being back running with them, I missed it.

What was the worst aspect of being injured and recovering?

The worst aspect was watching my friends in the sport that I love without me. It was hard, really hard.

What did you look forward to the most when you got back?

Just being back doing something and playing something that I love. I know a lot of people don’t love running but being my sport it was really hard. Like I couldn’t move, it was so hard even just walking on my own and I just wanted to run and I was stuck to a treadmill walking like 30 minutes a day.

Was there a long adjustment period when you started to run again? 

I’d definitely say I’m back to almost full percent I would just like to be in better shape now. But it was a process of working out in the physical therapy aspect of it, having months of physical therapy working with my pt, shoutout to Ben, I’ve worked a lot at pt and doing running progressions just slowly upping my distance and how intense it is everyday.

How has the track season been so far for you?

Track season has been fun, I’ve been thrown into a new event this year, the 800, which is most difficult than my 400 but I’m back to running the 4×4 with my friends and my team and I love them so much.

What do you look forward to in the future? What are your future plans?

Being a senior on the track team and helping out with all the younger kids since, shoutout to Danielle Varraso, who was my senior when I was a freshman who made me truly love the sport. I want to be that to someone else. I am looking to run in college maybe I don’t know what division it would be but if I don’t do it for college track I would probably do something intramural. I would like to run.