PORTLAND, Ore. (BVM) — Portland State University runner Luke Ramirez went to the Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at the end of February with an aching pain in his left shin. 

At the time, he assumed it was just a nagging pain that comes on from time to time when one runs 60 miles a week throughout the season. Ramirez made the trip to Pocatello, Idaho despite the pain getting worse before departure and he was able to power through and help his team place eight in the distance medley relay with Ramirez on the mile leg. 

After the meet, Ramirez and the Portland State sports medicine staff knew what needed to be done. The pain was not subsiding, so it was in Ramirez’s best interest to have his shin area looked at. Ramirez had an X-ray and an MRI with the MRI showing that he had developed a stress reaction in his left tibia. A stress reaction is a small weakening or beginning of a break in a bone due to the constant repetitive force of an action or movement. In Ramirez’s case, it was from the pounding of running that creates a lot of stress on the bones, muscles, and ligaments of the human body.

Despite this less than idea news, Ramirez took the news of his injury in stride. He even seemed excited to tackle the challenge that had presented itself to him. Not long after the news of the stress reaction did an even bigger challenge present itself to not only Ramirez, but the entire world.

Ramirez assumed that he would have his teammates to lean on for support and encouragement as he battled through the highs and lows of an injury, but that was quickly taken away from him when the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States at the beginning of March. Suddenly, his teammates were in cars and on planes to return home and he was without the support network that he had grown so accustomed to. It wasn’t long before Ramirez was traveling back himself to his hometown of Medford, Ore.

While back in his hometown, Ramirez went from a novice bike rider to an expert in no time as he recovered from his stress reaction. Ramirez has always been one to work hard and he continued to do so while on the bike. He said it was his father who taught him how to have a good work ethic. 

“That’s the hardest-working person I know,” Ramirez said. “If he wasn’t at his day job he was doing some project around the house. Sometimes he would even pick up a second job around the holidays.”

Ramirez sometimes went out two times a day to train on his bike in order to keep up his fitness level. He even started to enjoy the bike rides he was going on as they allowed him to not only be outside and active but enjoy nature as well. 

Eventually, the stress reaction healed but it had become apparent that a spring track season was not going to happen due to the ongoing pandemic. Instead, Ramirez shifted his focus to a fall cross country season. However, he had another curveball thrown at his plan during his summer training block.

In the southern Oregon town of Medford, Ramirez’s world took an abrupt 180. His training had been going well. He had run a fairly impressive time trial that proved his fitness was slowly but surely coming back. But towards the end of the summer the forests surrounding southern Oregon caught fire.This news was coupled with the news a few weeks earlier that the fall cross country season had been postponed until the spring of 2021. The fires would have been bad enough with the flames and horrible air quality, but the flames ended up hitting a little closer to home for Ramirez. 

“My aunt, as well as people close to me, houses burned down,” Ramirez said. “I was forced to run on a treadmill. I know that’s not that bad in comparison to what other people are going through, but that coupled with everything (was) just too much.”

This threw a wrench in Ramirez’s comeback. The season he had been training for was suddenly taken away from him by something he couldn’t control. The hometown he loves was on fire around him. 

“It feels like the world is collapsing around me right now,” Ramirez said. “Why does it matter if I go get on a treadmill today?”

Despite the circumstances, Ramirez kept working hard. He had moved back to Portland for the online fall term and remained on edge as he tried to navigate his way through the events that had unfolded the previous few weeks. The smokey conditions outside as well as Ramirez’s life scenarios led him to become anxious and a bit depressed. He truly felt there was no reason to continue to run. However, his teammates and his coach drove him to keep on training. 

“The boys (on the Portland State cross country team) would text me every day to figure out a time to run. They were the reason I got out the door most of the time.” Ramirez said.

Josh Seitz, the assistant coach at Portland State since 2017, also kept Ramirez engaged with running by talking him through things and being there for him when Ramirez was struggling mentally.

“He prioritized my well-being over my running and I truly appreciate that,” Ramirez said. “I’m motivated because I have him in my corner.” 

Ramirez has since been back in the swing of things mentally and in his training. Although he still gets discouraged by things going on around him, he is back around a support network that is there to support him through thick and thin. This support network ultimately helped drive Ramirez to a new personal best in the 5,000-meter run in a time trial with his teammates where he ran a time of 15:01, shaving off 32 seconds from his previous best. 

Ramirez will continue to see how fast he can run in the coming weeks and hopes to be back competing against outside competition soon so he can accomplish some of the goals he has set for himself as a collegiate athlete. 

If Ramirez continues to drive forward with his outstanding work ethic and has his support network of teammates and coaches alongside him, one can expect him to accomplish anything he puts his mind to in the next few years. 

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