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Rise of a runner Reeves was immediately good at distance running

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Rise of a runner Reeves was immediately good at distance running. As a freshman she was a regional quali?er. That following spring she ?nished seventh in the district in the Sl??—meter run for her high school track team. Her career looked ready to take off. She was still mostly unknown, though so few noticed her absence whll she disappeared early in her sophomore cross country season. She also only missed a few days of school. To those watching casually, which was everyone outside of those closest to her, Reeves apparently overcame what ailed her in time to compete in track at the end of her sophomore year. Reeves then had a tremendous spring. She ?nished as 2(114 state runner—up in the 3,2??-meter run. The state meet was the only meet she didn't win that season. Last fall Reeves was unstoppable. By then a junior, she won every meet through the Division I Regional at Troy. Comparing times of other regional champs, she was a solid favorite to win the state championship. Instead, her body gave out and she ?nished 'Ir'?'j'. As that season wore on Reeves appeared thinner and frailer. Eyebrows rose among those in the running commtmity and others watching her race. She wasn't, it appeared, eating. That safe assumption was off the mark. Reeves was eating plenty. Her inability to rest even a little caused her to over—train and burn too much. The ?nish to the cross country season was devastating. "That was such a letdown," Reeves says. "It was something I looked forward to so much, especially knowing what it felt like after track. It was something I wanted so bad. I just kept going over and over how I could have improved. I have a problem with perfectionism." Winning races; losing pounds The concept of over—training never occurred to Reeves. She ?gured the more she ran the better she'd get at running. And diagnosed as anorexic, she made sure she ate right as much as possible. "I was actually eating a lot," she says. "It's just really hard for me to not exercise. After track that season, I only took two days off of complete rest and I got right back into running. I got my mileage up pretty high that summer. My weight was just going down. I went all the way to Nov. 1 for cross country and I think my body was just exhausted and lwas just mentally drained ?'om pressuring myself. I was just hunted out." Still, as Reeves was losing pound after pound, she was winning race after race. So when she failed to win the state championship, things got even worse. almost as a punishment for not wimiing, Reeves beat herself up over the winter. She continued spiraling downward. She then started eating less, after which she fought depression and anxiety, which was followed by visits to a therapist at the behest of her mother, Ellen Ehlert. Reeves' weight dropped to around 95 pounds, leaving her S—foot, 5.5—inch ?'ame looking emaciated. "l was complaining a lot to my parents about stu ," Reeves says. "And then behind my back my mom arranged for me to be taken to Denver. Strangers in the night For Ehlert the decision to send her daughter away did not come easily. She knew Reeves would resist and suspected, as has happened, the pair's relationship might be wounded, if not mortally. She was a mom, though, and knew what she had to do.