Boerne Champion (TX) senior Molly Breuer didn't let adversity sideline her love for running. Despite having just about every season during high school ended early, she is in position to possibly win a state title with her team.
When you think of an athlete, you normally don't think of them having any deficiencies. They are in great physical shape, they take care of their bodies seamlessly, and they appear to be able to succeed no matter what obstacle is put in their path. For Molly Breuer, this couldn't have been further from the truth. An invisible enemy was stealing her ability to succeed in a sport she'd dedicated her life to and hampering her from flourishing side by side with her teammates.
It all started with severe anemia and a stress fracture in her leg at the end of cross country season her freshman year. Mom noticed Molly chewing/chomping on ice and complaining of being lethargic in workouts. Jenny, her mom was a college cross country/track coach for 16 years so she recognized the symptoms of iron deficiency. Molly saw a doctor and immediately started taking oral iron. She seemed to be improving enough with this treatment that the rest of her freshman year her running and health were on par for what she expected.
Then in her sophomore year during cross country, she had more pain in her lower leg. She went to the doctor again to discover it was another stress fracture in a different bone. Molly and her mom thought it was odd due to the fact she was not running a ton of mileage. Molly said, "it was like it appeared out of nowhere." Sadly, that injury ended her sophomore cross country season.
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Track season that year was when it all seemed to fall apart. Three weeks into training of strictly running on grass and doing half of her usual mileage, she had pain in her other shin bone and was diagnosed with another stress fracture. Mom knew by this time that something else had to be wrong and asked for a full blood panel to be run.
"Being sidelined while watching my teammates win the state championship and the countless seasons and races that I've missed out on has really fueled the fire inside me."Molly Breuer, Boerne Champion senior
Around this time she made a trip to the ER due to unbearable stomach pain which doctors thought was appendicitis. While she was there, all kinds of tests were run and finally, they found the cause of her pain was an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's Disease. This is where the body attacks your thyroid. Molly's thyroid antibodies were really high so they gave her a prescription and names of specialists. Mom wasn't convinced they had uncovered all of the answers because Molly was still suffering from severe stomach pain.
Upon visiting a thyroid disease specialist, they discovered that if you have one autoimmune disease, chances are good that you will have more than one. The doctor told them that Molly's stomach lining had been stripped by gluten and she was fairly certain that Molly had Celiac Disease which is another autoimmune disease. That was when she stopped eating gluten because she said she never wanted to feel that way again. As it turns out, thyroid diseases run in families and Jenny's second daughter is allergic to gluten as well as having high antibodies in her thyroid, but it is not as damaged as Molly's, yet.
They ended up moving to a different specialist and found Dr. Patel a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and he became their lifesaver. Jenny says, "he's a gift from God. I can truly see God's hand in what he does for his patients. He's known as the fixer for finding things that no one else has the patience or resources to do." Molly shares the same sentiment as her mom saying, "after months of searching I was blessed with a doctor that was willing to really find the underlying cause of my injuries and sickness." He did tons of tests to rule things out and started her on two to three-hour iron infusions. He told them that the thyroid regulates so much of the body that if it is not working well it can throw everything else off.
With the diagnosis, Molly had to be more cautious in her everyday training and still feels sometimes that the disease hampers her life and training. She has accepted the fact that she may feel terribly fatigued some days as they are still trying to figure out the correct dosage for her medicine. She has learned to be ok with not feeling good every day. She said it makes her appreciate the good days even more. She feels balance plays a big part in managing the disease. Some days she has to cut down on mileage and take some days for cross-training or swimming laps in the pool. She has learned her body's limits and knows what she can and can't do compared to other people. Through everything she has gone through, she feels this has made her stronger than ever. "Being sidelined while watching my teammates win the state championship and the countless seasons and races that I've missed out on has really fueled the fire inside me," she states. She feels this adversity has made her appreciate every moment and every race even more. Through all of her struggles, she feels that her persistence is paying off and that whatever she goes through she knows it is not the end of the world. It has motivated her to go all-in with running. She wants to run in college but is being patient before making that decision. She hopes to study nursing or anything in the medical field so that she can help make a difference in people's lives.
"As I work past my challenges, part of me does it for me and my desire to finally succeed, part of me does it for my teammates, but the other part of me does it for my parents because I appreciate how much they really do care about me and my love for this sport."Molly Breuer, Boerne Champion senior
According to her mom, Molly is a really good advocate for herself. She knows when she may be overdoing it on the mileage and tries to keep herself around thirty-five to forty miles a week and only runs on grass because she never wants to be injured again. Molly's team is very supportive of her and will often run laps with her around the soccer field in the grass just so she doesn't have to run by herself. She says her parents, coaches, and teammates have been her biggest supporters. She feels her struggles have been the hardest on her parents. She said, "as I work past my challenges, part of me does it for me and my desire to finally succeed, part of me does it for my teammates, but the other part of me does it for my parents because I appreciate how much they really do care about me and my love for this sport."
Molly has to take medication and stay away from gluten for the rest of her life. Mom said, "it's been a hard 2.5 years. It was hard for all of us. No more peanut butter toast like she used to have pre-race and telling a sixteen-year-old at the time that she can't have gluten anymore was so tough." On the thankful side of things, according to mom, "many women do not discover they have Hashimoto's Disease or these types of allergies/anemia until they are of childbearing age. Apparently, if it is undiagnosed you can start to have multiple miscarriages, and often that is when women find out they have thyroid issues." She feels that if Molly had not been an athlete they may never have found out that Hashimoto's Disease was to blame.
After a world of what felt like endless struggles, Molly was glad she stuck with running. A particularly fond memory for her and her mom was during track season of her junior year. It was right before spring break in New Braunfels and her first time back running track since her freshman year. She ended up winning the 3200m and running a personal record (PR) in that race as well as a PR in the 1600m. Mom said, "I cried, the other coaches came over to me giving high fives and hugs because they knew how special this was to us after so many lows." Her teammates were also jumping for joy knowing the battle she'd been fighting. Sadly, her victory was short-lived, not because of an injury but this time it was COVID-19 that was responsible for taking away Molly's chance to redeem herself on the track.
Now she's a senior and after watching her teammates win state last year, Molly is back as the number four runner on her team hoping to help her team defend their state championship. She said, "I have done anything and everything to stay healthy. It's been over a year since my last injury and a year and a half since my last ER visit." She feels strong and knows she only has a few races left until her high school career is over and she plans on making the best of the time she has left to run with her team.
Molly wants others to know if you are struggling with something it really does get better. She had many thoughts about giving up on the sport she loves but ultimately decided to stick with it. "After four stress fractures, I feel as though I finally did make it to the other side," she continued. "If you really love something, like really, really love it, you will do anything and everything to pursue it." She says finding your support group is really important. As hard as this has been on her mental health, she found her true friends and they really kept her going. She wants others to know that it is normal to cry, it's normal to feel discouraged and want to give up. She ended by saying, "I'm telling you that you can do it! Lean on those friends when you have a hard day, keep smiling and you can get through anything!"
