After lay off, McIntosh returns with US#3 in 600

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

In a matter of a couple weeks, the indoor track and field season is clicking back into place for Suffern NY junior Kamryn McIntosh. 

That's the good news. She ran 600 meters, her best event, in US#3 1:31.90 on Saturday at the New York Section 1 Class A&B Championships at The Armory. And then she came back later and split 56.44 (FAT) on her team's 4x400 relay.

It was the best indication yet that the pain that started surfacing in her right knee more than a year ago has finally been identified and treated. 

Throughout the 2015 sophomore campaign that saw McIntosh break the national high school record in the 600 meters (1:28.78) and then win New Balance Nationals Indoor titles in the 400 and DMR, she was dealing with discomfort in her knee.  

"We had a hard time finding out what it was," McIntosh said. "At the beginning of (last) January I started having this little pain in my knee. It started getting worse and worse and by outdoor states it started hurting more."

McIntosh's outdoor season was sensational in spite of the nagging pain. She finished ran 53.28 in the 400 meters and 2:05.63 in the 800. 

When the season was over, McIntosh was promptly misdiagnosed as having a stress fracture. It was devastating news that essentially wiped out her summer training and prevented her from running during cross country season. Late in the fall, the actual source of the problem was discovered. 

She has an osteoid osteoma. It's a small benign tumor about the size of a pea. Treatment and medicine have done enough to make the pain subside and she will have it surgically removed between the indoor and outdoor seasons. 

In the meantime, as she pondered whether she would have a junior track season at all, McIntosh spent countless hours in the Suffern High School swimming pool to maintain her cardiovascular fitness. She went to every Suffern meet to be present and helpful to her teammates and even held a stopwatch to take splits for her coaches. 

"It was definitely hurting me a lot because running was an every day thing," McIntosh said. "I was doing it every single day. That was my life. My friends are on the track team and I'm always with them. To not be at practice, to not be at meets, to not be celebrating with my friends and teammates and not able to help them go farther ... it's not fun."

The night of Jan. 22, the first session of the New Balance Games, McIntosh jogged for 10 minutes on The Armory track while some of her teammates prepared to compete. They were some of the first running steps she had taken in months. (A snowstorm that night wiped out the second day of the meet.) 

The progress toward resuming at full McIntosh speed has come along slowly, but it has been steady. 

A week ago, she admitted to being "a little scared" as she raced her first 800 of the season and placed third with a time of 2:17. On Saturday at The Armory for the NY Section 1 Class A&B Championships, McIntosh looked much more like the dominant runner who tore through 2015. 

"Once you are out there (on the track) you start to get that feeling back for racing," she said. "I knew tonight would go well because I've had recent practices, during lunch and after school, where it felt OK. I finally feel confident running on it."

McIntosh has a month to prepare for New Balance National Indoor, and will have the New York state championships before that on March 5. 

She's finally out of the starting blocks.