There was an article in the New York Times last week

Fatal brain injuries in high school sports outside football are exceedingly rare, but post-concussion syndrome — in which dizziness, lethargy and the inability to concentrate can cost teenagers weeks or months of school — is a growing concern, doctors said. They added that it was just as common among girls as boys and even more misunderstood.

[read the whole article]

The article raises important issues about high school and college-aged girls identities as athletes being as strong as those of boys, but taken less seriously. After a ten month bought with post-concussion syndrome, one of the high school athletes returned to the soccer field. “The next evening, having convinced her neurologist and her parents that her remaining symptoms were minimal, Hannah Stohler wore No. 22 and played defensive midfield as Conard High played rival Windsor High.” The article’s author implies this is bad choice. I certainly can’t judge, being neither the soccer player in question nor her doctor, but I can’t help wondering if this was an article about a male athlete, would it have instead been couched as a triumphant return. An abrogation of the self in favor of the team. Instead the choice of the word “convinced” (instead of perhaps “proved” or “demonstrated”) is vague and suggests manipulation or dishonesty, perhaps selfishness.

In more positive news, did you read the results of this past weekend’s Army Ten Miler? I know you wanted to, maybe you were just too busy. Here are the highlights for the top female finishers:

Firaya Sultanova-Zhdanova, 46, a former Russian national team competitor and running for the Atlanta-based Foot Solutions team, led the women’s race from start to finish and won in 58:31. Sultanova-Zhdanova is the oldest winner ever at Army and broke Alisa Harvey’s 2006 masters record of 59:00.

Susannah Kvasnicka, 35, from Great Falls, who won the Marine Corps Marathon in 2005, finished second yesterday in 59:11. “I tried to be conservative early on, so I never saw” Sultanova-Zhdanova, Kvasnicka said. “I felt under control, but the humidity caught up to me the last three miles, and it got pretty miserable.”

Defending champion and four-time race winner Harvey, 42, from Manassas, finished fifth in 1:00:34. “By four miles, I knew I couldn’t go with the leaders,” Harvey said, “so I just tried to stay within myself and not suffer too much.”

[read the whole article]

I don’t feel old and slow anymore. Now I feel young and slow.