Lesson From The Fall. Get Back Up.

Cheryl Bellaire, middle, laboring through the 800 with a concussion. She fell in the moments before the 2000 Steeplechase four days earlier, but that didn't keep her from winning the steeplechase gold medal, or competing in the 800, and winning bronze in the 300m hurdles. Photo by Doug Shaggy Smith.

By Ray Glier

If you go 4,066 miles to compete in a track meet, you are not going to let panic easily invade your consciousness.

Dr. Cheryl Bellaire fell down—hard—and got up and didn’t think for one instant she couldn’t compete after a long flight to Europe. After all, doc was a gymnast in college, and unless you are Simone Biles, gymnasts are accustomed to falling down.

Except this fall was moments before the 2000 meter Steeplechase in Gothenburg, Sweden on August 13 in the World Masters Athletics championships. In a short warmup, Bellaire slipped on the top of the slick, painted, wooden barrier and bruised her left knee, gnarled up her right shoulder so it looked like she came to a screaming stop on asphalt, and suffered a concussion.

She still ran.

She still won.

Geezer Jocks may have a gray whisker or a blue hair, but we are not fragile.

Bellaire, 65, an OBGYN in the Philly area, went 9 minutes, 52.05 seconds to win the gold medal in the Women’s 65-69 2000 meter steeplechase. She held off South Africa’s Lynette Fischer, who finished in 9:55.75.

“My strategy definitely changed from trying to run a good time to just making sure I stayed in front,” Bellaire said.

“They (injuries) weren’t really bothering me, so I just went out and did it. I mean, I went all that way, I wasn’t going to not race. I just told myself ‘I’m alright’.”

Cheryl wasn’t alright. Two days later, Thursday, the affects of the concussion were starting to set in as she prepared to run an 800-meter heat race. Nonetheless, she advanced t the final.

On Saturday afternoon, in the 800 final, she finished 10th at 3:02.79. Bellaire had run 3:03.01 at the USATF Masters Outdoor Championships in July, but considered herself in much better shape in Sweden and expected to break 3 minutes…until the concussion. She didn't understand the full extent of the injury until she got a CT scan.

The 300 meter hurdles Saturday didn’t present as big a problem. Cheryl went 58.76 in the 300 meter hurdles to get a bronze at 10:30 in the morning.

“I was most proud of the bronze,” Bellaire. “There were some really fast girls in that race.”

To be fair, Cheryl had room for error an injury can present. After all, she was No 1 in the world in the W65 2000 meter steeplechase by a longshot with a 9:31.85 she ran in New York on June 15.

But the head slam brought her back to the pack and there was no thought of a record or romping to an easy win. It was 'just win baby'.

At one point in the race she reached up and felt the abrasion on her head. No matter. Run. It was Bellaire’s third gold medal in the World Masters Athletics championships. Cheryl has lost just three steeplechase races in her age group the last 15 years.

Bellaire has stayed off the asphalt roads in recent seasons to save her knees. If she needs a long run, she uses a trail. Cheryl also bought a Zero Runner Elliptical to help her with the week's mileage, which is around 30. And, after Covid, she got back in the gym to lift.

But the physical workouts and mileage didn’t rescue her in Sweden as much as the mental resolve.

“Injuries are part of it at this stage of your life,” Bellaire said. “And when the South African woman came up to me near the end I said ‘Oh no, you’re not going past me’. I have a pretty good kick.”

Even when she gets kicked in the head, Cheryl has a pretty good kick.