Sofia Voss was in position to be the next great Durango High School distance runner in the long line of talented athletes coached by Ron Keller. She was stopped in her tracks when she realized the pain in her calves wasn’t just normal soreness or tightness.
Voss had no idea that would signal the start of a medical battle spanning multiple years, a battle that would result in her having six surgeries in eight months. After such a long journey, she’s finally ready finish her high school running career strong.
As only a sophomore, Voss placed 29th out of 156 runners in the Colorado 4A cross country state championships. She would have an equally successful 10th-grade track season, qualifying for state in the 800 meters and 1600. She had already established herself as one of the top Durango runners.
However, during the 2023 offseason, Voss realized something wasn’t right with her calves. That summer, however, she couldn’t run six miles and her feet would fall asleep after only 15 minutes of running. She became worried, given she could normally run 10 miles relatively easily.
On Aug. 23, 2023, Voss was diagnosed with chronic exertional compartment syndrome, also known as CECS. The fascia (a thin layer of connective tissue that surrounds organs, muscles, blood vessels and nerves) of her calf muscles was too tight, causing suffocation of her muscles. Voss had twice the safe level of blood pressure in her lower legs. She had surgery on each leg in November of 2023.
Voss thought she recovered from the surgeries and she kept running into 2024 and her junior track season. At Durango High School’s Ron Keller Invitational on April 20, Voss was running her first 1600 of the season when things took a turn for the worse.
“I ran the first two laps fine, and then going around on the third lap, my world just went black,” she said. “The pain that I was in brought me to my knees. In all my surgeries, the pain hasn’t been worse than it was at around the end of April.”
The following week, she was diagnosed with popliteal entrapment, or compression of the main artery that runs down the calf. In the words of the doctor, her artery was so compressed that there was an “obliteration of blood flow.” Whenever Voss ran, the blood flow in her calves was decreased to 40% of what it should be.
Doctors said her season was over. Voss had other plans. She ran at the Southwestern League Championships in Grand Junction on May 3 and 4, knowing the girls 4x800 and 4x400 meter relay teams needed her to qualify for state. Thanks to her, both of them would compete at state a few weeks later.
Five days after her heroic effort at SWL, on May 9, Voss had emergency surgery to address three problems that were causing the lack of blood flow. Her calf muscle was layering on top of her artery, but it was also too large and covered with scar tissue. She elected to have both legs operated on at the same time. Voss was sent home after a seven-and-a-half-hour surgery and five days recovering in the hospital.
Voss’ condition worsened in June. She couldn’t walk a mile and would have bruises all over her lower legs after walking upstairs. It turned out that her artery was trapped further down her calf, an extremely rare phenomenon that hadn’t been addressed by the May 9 operation.
“I was so heartbroken,” said Voss. “I could not stop crying. Just the betrayal. I qualified for nationals in the mile and 800 and I couldn’t run nationals.”
She would have three more surgeries, but none of them addressed her problem. Operation after operation, recovery after recovery, she was told the problem was finally fixed, only to still be in pain or have imaging show a lack of blood flow.
“It turned embarrassing for me to say it didn't work,” Voss said. “I didn't know what was wrong. I didn’t know what was happening. I try not to blame myself, but there was a time I thought I should quit. I try not to get angry at the doctors. How could they not catch this? What's going on? You told me that I'm fine and I'm not fine.”
On Aug. 30, after her sixth surgery proved to be ineffective, Voss’ doctor dropped her case. He said he didn’t have the skills or expertise to take care of her and she was sent to Stanford University to meet with Dr. Jason T. Lee, the leading popliteal surgeon in the United States.
After redoing all the imaging, Dr. Lee found that Voss did have blood flow and was healthy. According to Lee, she was part of a population of people who simply don’t appear to have blood flow on imaging.
Lee also told Voss that she’s part of the one third of runners who will always run with pain and that she should take up road biking.
“I left that meeting in disbelief,” Voss said. “I believe in science, but for whatever reason, I knew I could run again. I’m a runner. I will always be a runner.”
On vacation on a beach in California, Voss resolved she would do whatever it took to get back to running. She set up weight training to gain back the 10 pounds of muscle she had lost, along with calling the recently-retired Keller to get back in shape, scheduling weekly appointments with a sports psychologist to work on regaining her confidence and starting intensive physical therapy to break up the scar tissue that had formed on her calf muscles.
Voss would have a long road ahead of her if she wanted to get back to her presurgery form. Her hemoglobin and iron levels were still recovering from their crash on July 5, meaning she was extremely anemic. Whenever she tried to run, she felt extremely tired and dizzy.
She slowly felt her strength return. Using the motivation to compete again, Voss worked her way back to where she wanted to be.
As Voss worked to get her physical fitness back, she worked as hard to regain her confidence.
“It's been hard to kind of relearn how to have that hope when I've been betrayed by my body so many times,” she said. “I had to relearn. ‘Is this pain normal? Is this pain not normal? Am I injured? Am I healthy? Am I fine? Can I actually do this? Can I trust myself?”’
Voss also had motivation from her family. Her younger brother Caden is a freshman at Durango High School and ran cross country. Hearing him talk about his performances and the meets he went to was difficult, but it showed Voss how important it was for her to get back on the track.
Going into her senior track season, Voss aims to return to where she was as a sophomore. Her focus has shifted to shorter distances, but her goal of competing at the state meet is the same. She wants to qualify in the 800, 400, 4x800 and 4x400.
Voss is also looking forward to running in college. She received an athletic scholarship and has committed to Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. She chose CMU for the team culture and the unwavering belief that head coach Travis Floeck has in her.
After such a long road to recovery, Voss’ teammates and competitors will be watching to see what she can accomplish in her senior season.
“I ran these really fast times with 50% of my blood flow,” she said. “What can I do with 100%?”
