"People with POTS don't run," says the cardiologist as she reviews the data from my running watch. But I do. I didn't know I had Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, so I didn't know that after five years of training, my heart rate would still settle around 170 BPM every time I ran. I didn't know that no amount of practice would relieve the choking feeling of my heart in my throat, that I would only eventually learn to breathe around it. It's a good thing nobody told me how hard it would always be—perhaps I never would have started.
Christine Reed is a writer, van-lifer, and full-time outdoorswoman. Also the author of the memoir, Alone in Wonderland, and the editor of Blood Sweat Tears.