by Harry Hall

This article is a continuation of the feature on Michelle Hurn in the July/August issue of ITR. For more details on the career of Michelle Hurn, pick up a copy of the July/August issue of ITR.

Michelle Hurn's high school running career began in the ninth grade after getting cut from the basketball team. The following year, she lay claim to a 5A state title at 3200 meters, and would eventually set HS PR's of 5:13 and 10:45 for 1600/3200 respectively. But her rising star tarnished.

Injuries and personal problems interrupted her training, and she never won another state level race. In fact, she ran only one more high school track race before her graduation from Plano East High School in May 2001. As a result, most big NCAA Division I schools lost interest in her. But last Fall, she enrolled as a walk-on at the Univeristy of Arkansas, and surprised almost everyone with her success.

She can revel now. She can bask in the glow of the athletic achievements of earning All SEC honors she earned after her freshman year as a walk-on at the University of Arkansas.

Not that she didn't have talent. Her high school PR's of 5:13 and 10:45 for 1600/3200 meters respectively - not to mention a Texas state 3200 meter title during her '98 sophomore- year should have seen a parade of top-line NCAA coaches waiting in line like teenagers seeking tickets to an N'Sync concert.

But a series of injuries, overracing and an eating disorder nearly ended her career, leaving her relegated to also-ran status during her senior track season.

"That was tough," she says of those dark days, "I had always been tough, and thought I would succeed. Still, there was uncertainty there."