"Coacher (Coach Curtin) always says that long distance running is too difficult to just be average at, and running is a sport where you get out of it what you put into it."

Much of Tru Powell's freshman year as a runner would be one of incredible adversity. When Tru first got onto the Emory Cross Country team, she didn't know if she was cut out for the team. The longest run she did before joining the team was only 7 miles and she never ran more than 25 miles every week. After the first race of her freshman year, her coach told the team to go for a 30 minute cooldown.

"I wondered whether I was cut out for this or whether I could handle it," she said. "But I enjoyed the challenge of running so much more than I had before."

But the massive uptick in training took a toll on Tru: she would be hit with a shin injury that would sideline her for a long time, and later, a quad injury kept her out of competing and running for most of the track season. Through the entirety of Tru's freshman year, she would only run three Cross Country and three Track races.

"That semester was really tough because I felt disconnected from the team, and I had already started to value running and view it as a big part of who I was," Tru said.

The summer between her freshman and sophomore years would be a careful, but deliberate buildup in mileage.

"When I finally was able to run again, which I believe was around finals that spring, I was just unbelievably grateful for every run I went on."

She would peak at 50 miles a week and was painstakingly focused on not doing anything too crazy in her training to prevent any further injury. Her hard work and passion for the sport paid off: her sophomore year, she ran monumental personal records of 22:59 in the 6k, 18:14 in the 5k, and 4:51 in the 1500 meters.

"My sophomore season just went better than the one before it. It's not like I had some big revelation or anything," Tru said. "I was just in better shape and I was focused on really training instead of just running around."

"Rather than allowing the obstacles in her path to defeat her, Tru embraced her passion for the sport and Coacher's mottos," said her best friend and teammate, Gabby Stravach.

Tru's junior season of running would be where the hard work truly paid off and where she exceeded every expectation of her coming into college. That summer going in, Tru would study abroad in Ireland and in London and have to train completely alone. In Ireland, Tru would have to run for 3 miles before finding a track. In London, she would have to be on a bus or train for 45 minutes to an hour before she could find any soft surfaces. Despite all the obstacles, she did it regardless, peaking at 62 miles.

"That commitment over the summer and knowing how much work I had put in gave me the confidence that carried me through my junior season," she said.

Tru would have a goal of simply making the Nationals roster when she came back - just being one of the top 7 runners on the team. But what she never expected was how well she would do that season - Tru would finish as the team's number 2 or number 3 runner at every meet that season, establishing herself as a leader of the team. She would finish the year with a personal record of 22:23 - nearly 40 seconds better than her time from her sophomore year and two and a half minutes better than her time from her freshman year.

She went into her senior season incredibly excited to build on the upward trend she developed starting her junior year, determined to make an even bigger mark than she already had. However, she would soon be faced with adversity again, and this time it was in her control.

"I went into the summer prepared to work my ass off and knowing that the goals I had set for my mileage were risky, but two years of being mostly injury free made me a little arrogant," Tru said.

In her last week of training before coming back to campus and in the best shape of her life, she ran 7 miles of rooty trails in Chattanooga that left her calf with a nagging soreness.

"I was going to break 70 miles for the week if it killed me so I just stuck to my plan and kept running," she continued. "I limped around on it for a few days, thinking my calf was sore but it wasn't a big deal, with no idea that I had torn it and would have to take a whole lot more time off. "

At the beginning of the season this year, Tru would be in a boot and unable to run at all due to her torn calf. She wouldn't toe the line until midway through the season. Despite being afflicted with injury yet again, Tru ran a personal record of 22:20 at the NCAA South Regional meet. However, she would finish the season with many regrets about some of the later meets in the season.

"I feel like I let the team down at UAAs and Nationals, and I had some big goals that I'll never know if I could've achieved them if I had just taken a step back when my leg started bothering me," she said.

“The cross country team has been central to my college experience and it's something that I greatly value,” Tru said. “Running has become a large part of my identity, and I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to grow as a runner here.”

When Tru first came onto the Emory cross country team, no one expected her to accomplish everything she did as a runner. Her constant growth and improvement from start to finish has been the most compelling narrative of her story, despite all the setbacks and adversity she has experienced since.

“Tru was not one of the fastest recruits coming in, and unfortunately spent a majority of her first year injured,” Gabby said. “Rather than allowing the obstacles in her path to defeat her, Tru embraced her passion of the sport and Coacher’s Mottos”

Her unrelenting work ethic through the years have evidently paid off – but this year, she was also named captain of her team and able to impart everything she’s learned in her journey to the younger members of her team.

“Over the years, Tru has developed into a very intelligent racer as well as a strong team-oriented runner, always putting the needs of the team first,” Gabby continued. “As a senior and a captain, Tru is an exceptional leader both on and off the course. Her mix of compassion and determination allows her to be the leader, teammate and friend that everyone respects and loves.”

Running for Tru has gone from something that was just something she did for fun to an integral part of her identity, and Tru has developed from someone who didn’t know if she had a place on her team to being the core of her team’s culture. For now, as a Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and a Computer Science double major, she still doesn’t know what to do, but one thing is for sure: she has the work ethic and drive to succeed at whatever she’s passionate enough to put her mind to.

“It's really important to me that the work that I do makes a positive impact on society in some way, and at this point I'm just trying to accept that it might take me a little while to figure out the best way for me to do that,” she said.

For Tru, perspective is always there because she remembers the hardships she has undergone and lucky she is to be in the situation she is in now.

“I'm just trying to remind myself that running is a gift. I love this sport so much. Practice is usually my favorite part of every day, and the fact that I'm even physically capable of going for a run every day, let alone doing it with some of my best friends beside me is honestly incredible,” she said.

“Tru’s journey serves as an inspiration to any runner or person who is hoping to take the next step and reach the next level in whatever field they choose,” Gabby ended. “She embodies the notion that hard work pays off, and I can’t wait to see all of the incredible things she will do in the future.”