Téa Bloomfield '22 Recruiting Profile

One Saturday when I was ten,  my mom said, “Tea, let’s go running,”  She was trying to lose weight and wanted a running buddy.  As we ran, my mind let go, my body took over and I felt freer than I ever had before in my short ten years of life.  I was hooked!  Over the next four years, I ran almost every day.  I wasn’t amazing from the very beginning, but that didn’t matter to me.  I wasn’t running for praise or attention.  I was running because it was the one thing that calmed my mind, focused my energy and gave me something to work hard for.

By the end of my sophomore year, I was the fastest long-distance runner in my city and was on track to be one of the fastest five long-distance runners in the state.  That was when everything changed.  During the cross country season of my junior year, I experienced what I thought was regular use pain after a meet.  The pain went on for weeks and I ran through it  Eventually, I consulted a physical therapist.  Suddenly, what I thought was an over-training injury became something potentially career-ending.  My hip had a deformity that had severed the cartilage of the socket and at 17, I was facing hip surgery.

That surgery caused the most intense physical and psychological pain I had ever experienced.  I spent the next two months in recovery, unable to put any weight on my leg.  I watched my junior season of track from the sidelines, something I’ve never done.  I was cleared to begin PT and pushed through the pain, focusing only on recovery and getting back to what I love.  I was proud of my focus and my resiliency in not giving up on my dreams.  I was coming back!

The day I was scheduled to begin running on the treadmill at physical therapy was a day I had dreamed about for months.  That morning, I was headed to the lake with friends when we were involved in what should have been a fatal car wreck.  We careened 70 feet through the air and the suburban we were in flipped end over end three and a half times.  Miraculously, I was the only person who required treatment at the hospital.  My pelvis was broken in four places, I had holes in both lungs and my sternum was broken.  As I lay in the hospital bed,  I was convinced I’d never run again.  After three excruciating days, I was released from the hospital and essentially back at square zero.  Again, I sat on the sidelines as my senior cross country season went on without me.  

During this time, all of the lessons I had collected over the years became a lifeline.  They would be what I would hold onto as I fought my way back from a place I didn’t know beforehand I was strong enough to come back from once, much less twice.  Two of these lessons stand out above all of the others.  I had no idea that gaining mental toughness from running that last mile when I thought I had nothing left would translate into finding the strength to get out of bed regardless of how much it hurt and get myself to physical therapy.  I had no idea that resiliency learned from trying my best and failing to place in a race would prepare me in my recovery to keep trying when I felt like there was no hope.

These lessons will drive me to progress in every area of my life.   Hard times will always come and because I’ve faced the fires of my life to this point, I know that I will overcome any challenges put in my way.  I am now at the beginning of my senior season and already performing on par with my times prior to injury.  I am putting in the work to reach my goals, running a minimum of 12 miles per day.  I have never felt better in my life and I’m happy to put the past behind me and show the world what I’ve got.  This will be the best season of my running career to this point.  I’m focused, I’m driven and I will achieve greatness.