'I just want to show everyone what I can do'

For a time it seemed everything — shin splints, broken bones, COVID-19, OHSAA regulations, and ultimately, Hodgkins Lymphoma — wanted to kick Natalie Rakestraw's teeth in.But that quick, easy smile, dazzling even on an overcast day at the Cooper Tire Track Complex, says this girl isn't backing down."I have so much determination to prove that cancer doesn't define you as a person, doesn't define what you can or cannot do," Rakestraw said."I'm out here, just like everybody else, working hard, just like everybody else if not harder trying to be as strong as I was before."Where Rakestraw was before was pretty impressive. A good all-around athlete she competed in a variety of sports. But something always seemed to be holding her back."My freshman year I did cross (country). Then I got shin (splints) and couldn't run, so I had to stop," Rakestraw said."I went into basketball (as a freshman), then track. When I got into track, though, I found out I had a broken fifth metatarsal bone in my foot, from basketball."It was back to the basketball court a year later, but it was on the track where Rakestraw was really coming into her own. She was runner-up in the 100-meter dash in the 2019 Three Rivers Athletic Conference meet and competed on relays that placed third (400), fourth (800) and fifth (1,600) in the league championship. She also qualified for the Division I regional.Healthy, strong and now established as one of the top sprinters in Findlay High's track program, 2020 seemed destined to be Rakestraw's best year yet.It wasn't. Not for her or any other spring-sport athletes.Something called COVID-19 exploded like an atomic bomb on an unsuspecting world, the term "pandemic" began popping up in everyday conversations, and the routine expectations that identified many people's lives changed."Track got canceled because of COVID," Rakestraw said. "That was devastating."As decidedly dangerous as COVID is, was and possibly could be, the worst was yet to come.Rakestraw switched to soccer her senior year, and did well, earning honorable mention all-TRAC honors on a solid team that went 4-1-1 in battling Oregon Clay (5-1-0) and Toledo Notre Dame (4-1-1) in a competitive bid for the league championship.Rakestraw skipped basketball to focus her training on her passion — track. All seemed to be going well, until..."I found a lump on my left clavicle and didn't know what it was," Rakestraw said. "At first, I took some Advil, to see if the swelling would go down. It didn't."I went to my family doctor and he was, like, 'This doesn't look too good. We better get a biopsy of that.'"So, on January 4 of 2021, I had to go get a biopsy. Then on January 12 I found out I had Hodgkins Lymphoma."For someone so young, so fit, so athletically active, the news was devastating."Oh, for sure, yeah," Rakestraw said. "The worst part was, I didn't know what was ahead."Rakestraw's immediate future became pretty hectic."We had to figure out an oncologist, I had to go to a bunch of appointments, I had to get a port put in for the chemotherapy ... there was so much to do," she said.Always optimistic, Rakestraw made some interesting long-term decisions as well."I had my eggs frozen. I had fertility surgery, just to make sure I had the chance of having kids later in life," she said."They don't know how it (chemotherapy) is going to effect you. There's a good chance you still might be able to have your own kids. I absolutely love kids, so I wanted the best chance of having my own."Rakestraw started chemotherapy in February of 2021. Every other week, for 16 long weeks, she went for treatments at the Armes Family Cancer Center.In a Coping With Cancer piece co-authored by Andrew Kneier, Ph.D., Ernest Rosenbaum, M.D., and Isadora R. Rosenbaum, M.A. for the Stanford Center for Interactive Medicine, the group outlines a number of steps, including one that states: "The amount of support available to cancer patients varies across the country, and patients themselves differ in how much they tend to reach out and take advantage of the support. Those patients who have at least a few loved ones available for close emotional support — and who call upon their support or practical help—show a better psychological adjustment to cancer than patients who are largely alone or tend to "go it alone" in coping with their illness."Rakestraw could have written that item herself."The support I've gotten, my family especially, has been amazing," she said."My mom, my dad, my sister. My aunts and uncles, all of them saying good luck, we love you, you'll do great, prayers for you .... The girls and boys basketball teams had shirts made; we had a CaringBridge where we kept people informed every week; I had bracelets made .... When I had chemo, friends would come out and visit and I could see them through the window."Everyone was so supportive. That really helped."Early diagnosis and prompt treatment were crucial in Rakestraw's case. During her procedures, she had undergone PET (positron emission tomography) scans, an imaging test that had showed the cancer centralized in her left clavicle and left armpit. Last June, after her 16 weeks of chemotherapy, she was scheduled for another.This time the results were different."I found out I was cancer free," Rakestraw said, breaking into that big smile again."I was so thankful I didn't have to do any more with that. I could finally get my port removed. My hair finally started growing back and, thankfully, it came back curly."Rakestraw set about getting the rest off her life back on track — literally. There remained, though, another hurdle to clear.Facing the uncertainties of undergoing chemotherapy, Rakestraw had taken a break."I didn't know how I'd manage school going through cancer. I didn't now how the chemotherapy was going to effect me week to week, how nauseous I would be," she said."I knew it would be hard for me to keep up with my work, so I thought it best if I, not dropped out, but removed myself from school and finished up the next year."There was a bit of a conflict, though. The Ohio High School Athletic Association allows student-athletes what it considers eight semesters (two per year for four years) of eligibility. Rakestraw entered Findlay High as a freshman during the 2017-18 school year and left as a senior in January of 2000-21. Technically, she had used up her athletic eligibility.Obviously, there were extenuating circumstances. Rakestraw, with the aid of Findlay High School Athletic Director Nate Weihrauch, petitioned the OHSAA and was granted one semester of eligibility to be used either in the fall, the winter or the spring of this year."I could have participated in soccer, but that would have used up my eligibility and I wouldn't be able to run track," Rakestraw said. "I like soccer, but it's not what I wanted. I wanted to be out here running track one more time."Fitness-wise, Rakestraw knew she had some catching up to do. Again, she found a network to help her achieve her goals."I started running last October to be where I am now, getting all the proper things down, making sure my lungs are okay," she said. "I went through a lot of club practices with Dakel Patterson (a former all-American and assistant coach for the University of Findlay affiliated with Push Athletics, a training system). He's really helped me, especially getting my lungs where they need to be. I ran a 5k for the Braden Kramer Foundation last fall, and that was one of my biggest things for me coming back. I told myself I'm not going to walk through this, I'm going to do this and I ran the whole way."Rakestraw plans to continue working with and for groups like the Braden Kramer Foundation, which was established in February of 2016 to "help families fighting childhood cancer." She feels it's her way of giving something back."They helped us a lot as a family," Rakestraw said. "I was able to go to some of their events and want to continue working with cancer programs, maybe be a part of their board one day."Competitively, Rakestraw cleared another hurdle in March when she competed in the Division I portion of the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Coaches (OATCCC) state indoor meet held at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva. She placed 11th in the 200-meter dash (25.75) and 16th in the 60-meter dash (7.95).When the spring season opened, Rakestraw reinforced her comeback bid once again. In a competitive 13-school meet at Piqua, Rakestraw placed second in both the 100 (12.80) and the 200 (27.40). The points she earned in those races helped Findlay's girls earn the meet's runner-up trophy. But Rakestraw's biggest impact on the program, says FHS coach Mark Gleason, comes not in big meets, but every day on the track."Coming out here to practice, to run track, this is nothing compared to what she went through the last 12 months of her life," Gleason said."You know what she went through, and then you watch her out here and I think people realize, you know, that every day you have a choice about how hard you want to work. They see her coming out here and working hard and trying to get better, trying to reach some of her goals and I think some of the girls are like, after what Natalie has been through, this (practice) isn't nearly as bad as they thought."After beating cancer, Rakestraw would be more than happy to just beat-feet around the track for a while."I'm a very competitive person, and I always push myself. It's almost like I have to prove myself to myself," she said."Track is my favorite, and I loving coming here. I feel so much more upbeat because I haven't been able to run for so long. Now I can, and I just want to show everyone what I can do."