Hillary Barlow limps when she walks. Sometimes, she says, her right leg feels like it will fall off, much like a bad table leg that falls off an old table.

But the leg stays connected. It just hurts worse at different times.

The pain nags her, but it does not stop her. She refuses to let it hinder her.

Injured body and all, Barlow finished in the top 10 at the cross country sectional, regional and semistate.

Now Barlow, a junior, and her Warsaw teammates will compete in Saturday's cross country state finals in Bloomington.

Because her hip bothers her, Barlow trained Wednesday not by running outdoors with her teammates in the crisp autumn air but by swimming inside in the hot, sweaty pool area. Doctors told her to avoid jarring her hip.

"My pelvis is rotated," she said. "When I run, I'm uneven, which caused bursitis. It pulls on my ligaments, which is very painful."

Barlow is not 100 percent certain about what caused her pelvis to rotate, but she suspects a car wreck last spring may be to blame. Doctors speculate the impact from the wreck turned her spine, which in turn rotated her pelvis.

"That's just an idea," she said. "They don't really know."

The injury has not stopped Barlow, nor have injuries stopped her teammates. Senior Summer Boyd is dealing with back problems. Sophomore Melonie Albert has been plagued by stomach problems since spring. Boyd typically is Warsaw's fourth-place runner, while Albert is the sixth-place runner.

Barlow has been the Tigers' first- or second-place runner throughout the postseason, alternating with sophomore Jennifer Finch.

At Saturday's Manchester Semistate, Barlow, who likes to run in bad weather, set a personal record time of 14:57 on a sunny day in late October that saw temperatures climb into the 70s.

But her ideal weather conditions at the state finals would be cold and rainy, because this weather helps numb her hip.

"My hip is either really tight or really loose," she said. "When it's loose, it feels like it will just wobble off. I don't feel like I have any control over my leg. When it's tight, it's painful every step."

Barlow takes over-the-counter prescriptions to deal with the pain.

"(Running) is not having a worsening effect on it," she said, "but it won't get better until I stop."

If Barlow likes running in bad weather, she also likes running on courses with hills. But the hills she sees in Warsaw, Indiana, are not the hills she will see in Bloomington, Indiana, and she realizes this.

"I'm hoping to run my best time, but I don't know if it's possible on a course like that compared to Manchester," she said. "My goal for the team is to be in the top five. I'd like to be in the top 25." [[In-content Ad]]