intent,'' she recalled.
"And I didn't know what was going to happen, whether I was still going to Wisconsin, whether I was still going to be able to run. "The doctors said that they didn't know if I would be able to compete again. "But it worked itself out over the next three or four months. I wasn't back to 100 percent when cross country started that fall but I was getting there.''
Anemia later became an issue while training for
the 2000 Olympics. Two years later, she had a se- rious pelvis injury which cast another cloud over her future as a runner. "They didn't know if I'd make it back from that,'' Butler said.
Although she was on crutches for a month, she proved her resiliency again. "I guess maybe it's a
bit of extra stubbornness that makes you work a little harder,'' she said, laughing. How have such challenges helped mold her as a
coach? "If they're going through a rough patch,'' she said of her runners, "you can talk to them and remind them that they need to have patience. "It doesn't all come instantly.'' Adversity has afforded Butler the opportunity for some valuable introspection. "It's helped me appreciate not only my running,
but my life as a non-runner, too,'' she said. "You're not always going to be a good runner and you can't let it define your whole person. "You have to have other things going on in your life, and a little bit of balance.'' Which she has been able to attain, for now, while tucked away in the Rocky Mountains.
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