Six days in the pool, one day running; six days in the pool, one day running. This was not the typical workout for then-junior Amanda Boccio, but she was fighting through a stress fracture and continuing to compete with the women’s cross country team as they went all the way to the NCAA Championships last season.

After a trying junior year, Boccio has come back strong for her final season of cross country to be the team’s No. 2 runner in all but one race this year.

Halfway through the season last year, Boccio began to develop pain in her lower leg. She continued to run, but it worsened. An MRI revealed a stress fracture in her shin. By the time the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championships came around last October she had stopped running with the team and was exclusively training in the pool because of the lower impact it had on her muscles.

“I was doing workouts in the pool every day,” Boccio said.

In the pool she would do her best to simulate what the team was doing that day. If the workout was 6x800 meters on a 5:30 cycle, Boccio would aqua-jog — run in deep water — hard for three minutes then rest for 2:30. If the team was going on a long run, she would aqua-jog nonstop for an hour.

The only running she did every week was the race itself. While her teammates would jog the course beforehand, she would seek out the training room of the college where the meet was held and warm up on a stationary bike.

“She fought through it,” Head Coach Bill Ware said.

Boccio said it was difficult to overcome the injury mentally.

“It’s so hard not being able to see everyone,” she said. “It’s so much easier to motivate yourself and work harder when there are people doing it with you.”

Despite the challenge of being a cross country runner without actually running, Boccio managed to remain fast enough through the cross training to be one of the top seven runners on the team and run in every meet all the way to the Division III National Championships at Hanover College in Indiana. Ware said, despite the injury, Boccio has been one of his most consistent runners during her four years as a Bomber.

“The fact that I was allowed to race kept me going,” Boccio said.

This summer, after fully recovering, Boccio began training harder than ever, adding runs on weekends that progressed to 11 miles by the end of the summer. Boccio was motivated by knowing this would be her last cross country season ever. The training has paid off as she has been consistently in the lead pack of races, helping the team to three wins and a runner-up finish in five meets this year. At the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University on Oct. 2, Boccio ran a 20-second personal record of 22:52 for the six kilometer race. She said she has surprised herself with how well she has run this season.

“It’s almost more stressful [than last year] because I started out this well,” Boccio said. “I need to at least maintain or get better.”

Boccio was elected one of the team’s captains. Junior Cathy Ortiz said Boccio has done a great job overcoming difficulties that come with the captain position.

“It’s challenging to have a leadership position because you have to take into consideration everyone’s individual goals,” Ortiz said. “She likes to keep everyone on top of things.”

Looking to the end of her senior season, Boccio said her favorite race is the Empire 8 Championships, which is run at Saratoga Springs State Park, the same course she ran in high school. But the most important will be the regional championships where Boccio and the Bombers will have the chance to qualify for the national championships for the 10th year in a row, and for Boccio, it would mean running at nationals all four years at Ithaca.

“I want to bring it full circle,” she said.

 

Women's Race - 5K - Hamilton