Two months removed from heart surgery that may have saved her life, Kamryn McIntosh remains dedicated as ever to get back on the track.
In particular, the Suffern (NY) High senior, who in 2015 set a national indoor record in the 600m that has since been broken, is eyeing up one last goal before she graduates.
Competing again.
"I know I won't be in 100-percent shape like I was before," the Clemson University signee said. "But at this point, it doesn't matter. It's the idea of being back on the track. That's what we run for."
Which is why you can call McIntosh an idealist. How else would you describe someone so positive, even after she was diagnosed with a rare condition called anomalous aortic origin of the coronary artery?
It's not like she doesn't have fear.
McIntosh hasn't had a healthy season since her sophomore campaign. A part of her wonders whether she'll be able to run at the national-caliber level she used to perform at regularly.
"I guess you could say it's anyone's constant fear, that if you take too much time off you won't be able to get back to where you were," she said. "But once I start running, I know I will give it my all. I'll get back to the track, and I'll be determined."
More than that, McIntosh has an added purpose now: raising awareness for the condition so that others won't have to go through the same thing she went through.
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Let's rewind to the beginning.
Ultimately, at the worst of it, McIntosh was running on less than a full tank, receiving 70-percent blood flow because her right artery was pressed up against a vital valve.
The condition, often referred by its acronym, AAOCA, and rarely diagnosed in less than 1 percent of the population, is mostly known because of its potential for tragedy -- it's the second leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young competitive athletes.
McIntosh feels grateful that she and her parents caught it so quick after two separate visits to the doctor.
Her symptoms began in the fall during cross country.
"I would feel completely drained," she said. "I know that's something everyone feels after a race, but I would be miserable. My head would pound, I would have migraines, my stomach would cramp, I would swell up and wouldn't be able to move my legs. I couldn't open my eyes."
McIntosh went to the doctors and was given an anemia diagnosis. Medicine helped briefly, but it didn't erase her main concerns.
So she battled through the pain. And she still ran well over the fall, finishing third at the Section 1 Championships in 19:28.70 and 20th at the NYSPHSAA Championships in 18:43.20.
Because a misdiagnosed stress fracture had mostly erased her junior campaign, McIntosh was hopeful she could reclaim the fitness that made her one of the best runners in the country as a sophomore. She persisted into the indoor season.
The crazy part is that from a bird's-eye view, it looked as if she was doing it.
McIntosh was running nationally recognized times in the 300m (U.S. No. 14 in 39.20), 600m (U.S. No. 2 in 1:30.98), and 1000m (U.S. No. 16 in 2:53.40).
She was just two seconds shy of tying her former national-record effort of 1:28.78 at the New Balance Games in January -- Rush Henrietta's Sammy Watson later beat it in February at the Armory Track Invitational in 1:27.13.
But by then, it was too much. McIntosh went to a cardiologist and was diagnosed with AAOCA. Within a month, she was getting prepped for surgery on Feb. 23. She was hospitalized for five days.
"I'll try to draw a mental picture," she said. "You can look at my artery as a straw. Where my blood was supposed to be coming out was at the end of the straw, but it was instead at the top. So what they had to do is make an incision and make a hole in the artery so the blood could come out in the right spot. Now I have two blood flow points."
While McIntosh was in the hospital, she read about another case of AAOCA that ended in tragedy. Three days after her surgery, an 11-year-old boy passed away after a practice, she said.
"Most people don't know about problems like this," she said. "Most of the time, sudden deaths go unnoticed. No one knows why."
Because of her surgery, McIntosh has a newfound respect for the medical profession. She had already planned to enter Clemson on a pre-med track, but now, she says, she hopes to become a cardiologist one day.
"Considering everything that's happened, I find it interesting now," she said. "I feel like in the future it would be nice to be in the field, because I can relate to people what I went through."
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In the weeks after surgery, McIntosh's persistence couldn't hold her back.
She hopped on a treadmill and started walking, from a very slow pace to jogging in a span of two weeks.
"That's when I felt something was wrong," she said. "I went to the hospital the next day, and they found that I had fluid in my heart."
Doctors drained 33 ounces that day.
In the time since her surgery, there have been obvious ups and downs. McIntosh knows they will come.
But part of her still wants more. Doctors have cleared her to jog. Soon enough, she'll be running again. Maybe she'll even compete in her last meet of the season, which potentially could be a section qualifier.
Hope is what keeps her going.
And she says there's no doubt: she'll continue to work as hard as she can to make her dreams become a reality.
"I want to have my four years in Clemson, and I really want to make my mark there," she said. "I don't have any specific goals right now. I'll always have something in front of me to catch. That's my whole thing. When I see them, I'll go after it."
