This could be Penelope Gracey’s year.
The Woodlands’ runner has persevered through substantial adversity. Gracey has dealt with dyslexia and ADHD since the first grade. Her freshman year, she was diagnosed with anemia and celiac, spurring doubts about if she would ever compete again.
She did, and continues to do what she does best. Run. Push through. Fight. Stay positive. Lean on the spirit of her passion for running—its therapy, its pain, its all.
With her senior cross country season on the horizon, Gracey is in the best state of mind she’s ever been.
“I feel more confident,” Gracey said. “I know what I’m capable of. I’m ready. I’m not going to hold myself back from achieving my full potential.”
As a sophomore, Gracey finished ninth at the Class 6A state meet with a personal record of 18 minutes, 7.10 seconds. It was a revelatory campaign for Gracey, a remarkable comeback after missing almost all of her freshman season battling anemia—when the body does not produce enough healthy red blood cells, causing fatigue and weakness—and celiac, a digestive ailment.
Gracey started feeling worn and lethargic around the start of school in August of 2020 after a strong summer of training, when she was doing long runs at incredible paces. All of a sudden, however, she could not finish workouts or even easy runs without being out of breath.
When Gracey alerted others, she was told it was all in her head. Or, they said, she needed to eat more.
“After so many months or weeks, something was wrong,” Gracey said. “Physically wrong. I knew it wasn’t in my head.”
Ups and downs
Gracey was diagnosed with anemia that November on her 15th birthday. She had to put the running shoes away for a month and take iron pills three times a day.
A few weeks later, Gracey had an endoscopy, revealing large ulcers due to gluten intake. She was told she had celiac, which stems from damage in the small intestine because the body is preventing nutrients from foods.
“I definitely had a lot of doubts,” Gracey said. “I’d been training so hard, waking up at 5 a.m. and putting in so much work. And then it was messed up. I basically had to start over after all of that. I just never gave up.”
She would not allow herself to.
“I look back and think how easy it could’ve been to just do a different sport,” Gracey said. “I was so committed and so passionate and knew nothing was going to stop me from being what I wanted to be.”
Her reward was her sophomore season.
Gracey won the District 13-6A cross country title with a time of 18:27.40. She followed with fifth place at the regional meet (18:27.00) and the impressive top-10 finish at state.
“It was like a fresh start,” Gracey said. “I was just so happy to be running again after everything I’d gone through. There was no pressure, no expectations. Nobody knew who I was. I was just running.”
Gracey was at ease running at state, amazed she had even made it that far.
But more adversity loomed shortly after, this time taking more of a mental toll.
“After that, my junior year, there was an expectation to do it all again,” Gracey said. “Instead of it helping me, knowing I’d already done it, it hurt me because I wanted to reach that level and those times so bad. I was so scared to go all out and it not be what I wanted.”
Gracey finished second at the district meet last year. But she was eighth at the regional meet, failing to qualify for state.
A fear of failure and not living up to her sophomore season haunted her all year.
“Coming off that super strong sophomore year, when I didn’t know my comeback would be so strong, I kind of hit this whole thing where I felt I had to run because people knew who I was and now my team knew I was good, other people knew I was good,” Gracey said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. A lot of my races, I didn’t go full out. I paced it to where I knew I could run without failing. I was so scared of failing that I did what I could without pushing myself.”
Another comeback
But, again, Gracey never gave in.
During the spring, competing in track and field distance events, she set personal records in the 1600-meter run (5:07.71) and 3200-meter run (10:47.09). She made it to regionals in both events, placing fifth in the 3200 and sixth in the 1600.
“I broke out of that mental block and decided I wasn’t going to let other people’s expectations, or even my own expectations, stop me from going my fullest, going all out,” Gracey said. “(The Woodlands) Coach (Juris) Green told me I have to be all in to go all out. I had been easing myself and not pushing myself, so for my track season I was hitting great PRs and training really hard.”
Per the nature of Gracey’s athletic career—life?—it didn’t come easily.
Debilitating shin splints flared up midway through the season. The pain was at its worst during the regional meet.
Gracey ran through it. She iced her shins prior to meets so that they were numb and went out and competed.
She had a fuel to keep going.
Gracey was where she always wanted to be, ever since she was watching the varsity girls compete without her while sidelined as a freshman. She wasn’t about to take any opportunity to run for granted.
“I wanted so bad to be in the position I am right now,” Gracey said. “It’s so crazy to have a goal and then reach that goal and realize you hit it. It’s happening.”
Gracey is surer of herself this year, on and off the course. She is confident. She is poised. And she understands her role as a senior and four-year varsity letterwinner, taking more of a leadership role.
She has plenty to offer others.
“I want to be a role model,” Gracey said. “I want to show that you can go through different things and all these challenges and still overcome them. You can break a mental block and still do great things. You have to have bad races and bad experiences and rough patches to have those great races and great experiences and those giant comebacks.”
‘I’m just moving’
As a child, Gracey competed in gymnastics, dance, taekwondo, cheerleading and soccer. But she never enjoyed herself more than doing the Fun Runs, Turkey Runs and holiday runs.
In elementary school, during “Healthy Heart Days” in P.E. class, Gracey was all business when she took the PACER tests that measured aerobic capacity. She loved beating the boys. She loved earning the reward for being the first to finish after seven laps.
She loved running.
“It’s just something different from any other sport I’ve ever done,” Gracey said. “I loved the environment and the people and the spirit of it. I loved the goals. I loved to medal. Little things like that, I really enjoyed. I love that it’s a sport you can do forever.”
Gracey, the only runner in her family, wants to run in college. She’s dreamt of it ever since she started running competitively in the seventh grade at McCullough Junior High.
She welcomes the catharsis of running. She admires that, in spite of ADHD or dyslexia, or having to still take iron pills daily and watch her diet closely, she doesn’t have to worry about proving to people how smart she is or that she’s good enough.
“In cross country, it doesn’t matter what’s going on in your life, you can run,” Gracey said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you have, your background, or what shoes and clothes you have, you can always run. I always found strength in running.”
Gracey is a runner’s runner. She prefers the diverse, unknowing courses of cross country meets over the cushioned oval of track and field meets.
She is comfortable with the uncomfortable. Prefers it, actually.
Gracey lives for the finish line at a cross country meet, muddied or sweat-stained. Dirty or scraped, from arm to leg. Winded and cramping. Beaten, worn, empty.
And, mostly, accomplished, after another journey conquered.
“When I run, I’m not anxious or nervous or stressed,” Gracey said. “I’m just moving. And I love never knowing what or where your next step will be.”
