Going the Distance ... Danielle Fillmore

In the course of any race, the serious runner comes face to face with a question: slow down, or keep going. The act of racing over long distances is an invitation to a dance with pain, or at best the management of pain. Discomfort becomes our partner and it is only those who accept this relationship that thrive.

It is the same over the course of time. Years and circumstances can be wearing, and trials leap in our way and shout with real words. STOP. GIVE UP. THIS IS TOO HARD!

As a freshman, she was playfully dubbed "little Fillmore" after her popular older brother who was finishing high school as she entered. Since that rookie year, Danielle has experienced both the valleys and mountain tops of running. She's battled injuries, illnesses and a season that seemed as if it would never end. During that season, she found roadblocks and culdesacs, confounding desire and offering escape from the beaten path.

What Danielle discovered though ... perhaps ... is an inner resolve and strength that she may not have known was there. She was driven to the brink, and the brink didn't win.

As a result, her senior year has been a good one. Good times have returned and success has been tasted. That sweet smile, distant for a time, has returned. In the curve of the lips, one can read the words that mark Danielle, I'M NOT GIVING UP. I WILL FINISH THIS.

There can be no greater reward nor greater achievement. Danielle Fillmore leaves a different and better person than when she came. Little Fillmore, is little no more.