I've finished the race...

I admire the guts here, but as a former runner in high school and college, I cringe at what must have gone on for this girl to get to the point of snapping both bones in her lower leg. Sorry, but cross country isn't exactly football here, and she definitely wasn't floored by Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson, to put it mildly. To get to this point, she more or less had to eliminate all sound nutrition from her diet and ignore a stress fracture for months. There is a place for guts & finishing the race, and there is also a place to remember that running well requires training well. Sadly, I've seen this happen at least once; on a cold & icy day, I came into the fieldhouse to complete a few more miles before going back to the dorm, and I met a guy who was trying to put a few miles in on a stress fracture because he'd won a small prize in a road race. He thought he was on the way to riches this way, but reality was that he was running his 400s at a pace where any decent high school runner could keep up with him due to the injury--more or less six minute mile pace. Sometimes a good rest and a good meal is more important to running well than another workout, I dare suggest.