In Her (Running) Shoes...
By Jesse Newell
Originally published 02:53 p.m., May 23, 2008
Updated 02:53 p.m., May 23, 2008
Luke Rodina’s Marine cap is one of many mementos Jonel Rossbach keeps close to her as she competes in her final season at Emporia State.
Jonel Rossbach holds a photo in each hand, crossing her legs as the sun sets behind her.
There’s a story behind each picture. Jonel’s eyes come to life as she discusses each one.
Here’s Luke Rodina, the night he came to see Jonel run in cross country Nationals last year. He was there less than 48 hours, flying all the way from Virginia to Missouri. He needed permission from his higher-ups to do so.
It didn’t matter. Seeing Jonel run meant that much to him.
And here’s another, this one of Luke running for Emporia State.
The months before, he woke up and the first thing he read every morning was a simple sticky note: “Outdoor Conference. 10K, 5K.”
It inspired him to run 60-80 miles per week in 100-plus degree temperatures.
He’s sleeping now, of course, but Jonel knows his love of running hasn’t faded. And that’s why he sent the package in the mail a few weeks ago.
She knows running is his escape. It’s his way out of the constant thoughts about being so far away from his loved ones. It keeps him from trying to figure out why the people around him hate him so much.
It’s his way of dealing with the hardships of being a Marine stationed in Iraq.
Jonel knows the struggles he faces daily.
Because, as it turns out, it’s pretty hard on Mrs. Luke Rodina as well.
VVV
Jonel will never forget that day out in the country her sophomore year.
It was just before the conference cross country meet, and the plan was for her to do a faster-paced six-mile run with one of her teammates.
Just as she finished, she saw a blur fly by her.
It was Luke in his first workout with the team back from his first tour in Iraq. He had just completed his six-mile run.
And he had six more miles to go.
“This kid is crazy,” Jonel thought.
She turned to her teammate.
“What is he doing, thinking that this is fun running 12 miles?” Jonel said. “I can’t believe it.”
Her teammate just laughed.
A few months later, one of Jonel and Luke’s first dates came at Papusa El Mexicano, the rail car diner on Commercial Street in Emporia.
It didn’t take long for Jonel to figure out she was falling for the down-to-earth country boy from Ottawa.
“We balance each other out really well,” Jonel said. “He is really hard working, very humble.
“Just one of the best people I’ve ever met.”
VVV
Dave Harris admits he didn’t exactly know what he was getting when he signed Jonel Rossbach.
During her first year, Jonel struggled to train like a college athlete.
Harris sat down with her after the season and told her she had to improve.
That offseason, Jonel made up her mind that she wasn’t going to settle.
“Mainly, it was just realizing I don’t like to get beat,” Rossbach said. “I don’t like to be towards the back of a race or mid-pack. I don’t like to think that I can’t score points for my team — that my team doesn’t need me to help.
“That was a big thing for me. I didn’t want to feel like I was running just to run.”
She dedicated herself in the summer months. She also admitted she was driven by fear.
Jonel began to wonder: What if I go out to that party and get injured and can’t run? What if eating that junk food costs me a half-second, and that half-second costs me a trip to Nationals?
She came back her sophomore year in the best shape she’d been in since coming to college.
Suddenly, the girl who barely cracked the top seven on her team was running right behind ESU’s best cross country runner in every single race.
Now, two years later, Harris has nothing but high praise for Jonel, the one who didn’t make much of an impression during her first year in school.
“I think she’s the very best distance runner ever to come through Emporia State,” he says.
The numbers speak for themselves.
The improvement started her sophomore year. She moved from 32nd at conference to fifth. She recorded an 8-second personal record in the 800-meter run.
Her times only improved a year later. In cross country, she went from 17th in the Region her sophomore campaign to 17th in the nation her junior season.
She also became a three-time All-American that year, earning the distinction in cross country, indoor and outdoor track.
This year, she’s gotten even better.
She ran a 4:50 in the mile this year, dropping 46 seconds off her time from her freshman year.
Last year, her 5,000-meter time was in the 17:30s. This year it has fallen to 16:51.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to take a step back and look at it and be like, ‘Wow. I can’t believe how this has all happened,’” Rossbach said.
Her workouts now include running to McDonald’s, but not the one on Sixth Avenue or even the one on 24th.
In her training, she runs all the way to the McDonald’s on the Turnpike.
This outdoor season, Jonel has qualified for Nationals in the 800-, 1,500-, 3,000-, 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs.
Harris, during his 16 years at ESU, says he has never seen a female runner so versatile.
“Could I have seen that as a freshman or sophomore? No,” Harris said. “But it’s evolved to that because of her desire to be that.”
There’s only one problem going into this, her final collegiate meet at outdoor Nationals.
Jonel’s biggest fan is a half a world away.
VVV
Jonel pauses to wait for his response. Oftentimes, it takes a few seconds for Luke’s laugh to come through the phone.
Because he works an office job in Iraq, the two talk to each other nearly every night. That doesn’t mean the communication is perfect.
The phone call is delayed. Jonel gets done with a story, then pauses a few seconds before his reply.
She has waited for his call all afternoon. And, once she gets it, it’s usually too short.
“If you ask her about it, she’ll say, ‘No, it’s not hard,’ but I think it’s very hard for them,” Jonel’s mother, Julie, said. “They want to be together. They want to start their married life out. They really haven’t been able to do that.”
It’s 2 p.m. here and 10 p.m. there, meaning that it’s almost time for Jonel to go to practice. He needs to go to bed. She can’t always get in everything she wants to say in a few short minutes.
It’s worst, though, when he doesn’t call. With his job, Luke sometimes will tell her that he can’t call her for a few days.
Because everything he does is top secret, he can’t even tell her why.
VVV
As she flips through the pictures, Jonel comes to one of them both: Jonel wearing a dress she bought originally for baby and wedding showers, Luke in a white shirt that he bought because Julie told him he had to wear something nice.
It was the day they got married — the first, Jonel guarantees, of two.
“He’d rather just not have the wedding, but I’m the girl,” Jonel said. “I want the dress — the whole deal.”
They both had expected that a deployment was coming.
Luke left Emporia in 2006 for Officer Candidate School in Virginia. He then attended Basic School to become a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps.
After going to Infantry Officer Commander School, Luke had the option of ranking the job he would like most.
He chose intelligence officer.
Luke went to Virginia Beach for training. Soon after, he moved to a station in southern California.
He knew they needed people to go to Iraq, and he wanted to help if he could.
Jonel still remembers the phone call she received back in Emporia.
And the five words that changed their relationship all over again.
“I’m going to the desert.”
Luke wanted to be sure to take care of Jonel if anything were to happen to him.
So, over spring break, the two decided to elope.
Jonel’s mother helped with the preparations. She herself had eloped, as had both of Jonel’s grandparents.
On March 22, 2007, the two signed the papers to become husband and wife.
A little while later, Luke’s parents received an envelope in the mail addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Luke Rodina. Inside, they found a marriage certificate.
Until then, they hadn’t even known that their son was married.
VVV
Jonel hadn’t been training for the 800 at all. Just two weeks earlier, she set a school record in the 10,000-meter run in California.
She knew it was going to hurt. She’d already won the 1,500- and 3,000-meter races at the MIAA Championships, and this was going to be her fourth race in the last 24 hours.
Jonel wasn’t the favorite, either. She had the third-best time coming in, which was to be expected considering she was training with long, speed work instead of the short, tempo sprints needed to improve in shorter runs.
“That was the one event — I didn’t know if she could win it,” Harris said. “I didn’t even know if she ran her very best if she could win it.”
Harris told Jonel before the race to try to get a lead with 200 meters to go.
She did. At that point, Jonel was shoulder-to-shoulder with the leader, Missouri Southern’s Alison Walker. Harris knew it was going to be close.
What happened next was something Harris never expected.
As she went into the final turn, Jonel took off. She took a one-meter lead, then took total control, winning the race going away.
Her time of 2:12.96 was a personal record. It also was the third-best time in ESU history.
All this in her third race and fourth mile of the day.
“After the race, I thought, ‘I haven’t even been training her for this. I haven’t been training her to run that fast,’” Harris said. “It was amazing that she ran that fast.”
Rossbach ended her day with a championship in the 5,000-meter run, winning all four events she competed in.
It all made for a proud husband more than 6,800 miles away.
“It is really amazing to see how each year she continues to improve,” Luke said by e-mail. “ ... She has always had a lot of talent, but her dedication is what really moved her up a couple levels above everyone else.”
VVV
Jonel knows there are going to be difficulties. This is the career Luke chose. He wants to stay in the military for 20 to 25 years. More deployments could be on the way even after he gets back.
“It’s what he’s wanted to do for the longest time — since high school. Who’s to say, ‘No, I don’t want you to do this,’” Jonel said. “It’s like if he told me, ‘I don’t want you to run any more.’ It’s not fair. It’s rough, but it’s not impossible.”
He’s due back in the States in late September or early October.
Jonel already is looking forward to that day.
VVV
Jonel sent the package a few weeks ago.
It’s something she likes to do for Luke. While with her mother, there have been times where she’s said, “Oh, Luke would like that,” or “I should send that to Luke.”
This time, she sent him something he really needed.
Underneath the Cheez-Its and Oreos was something that Luke had asked for.
She knows running is his escape. It’s his way out of the constant thoughts about being so far away from his loved ones. It keeps him from trying to figure out why the people around him hate him so much.
So, inside the package, was a brand-new pair of running shoes. She also sent along a note.
“Put them to good use,” she wrote, “and try not to get too much Iraqi dirt on them.”
VVV
Jonel says it wasn’t like goodbye. It was more like, “See you later.”
She flew to Palm Spring, Calif., to see Luke one last time before his deployment to Iraq.
Just before leaving, Luke gave her a kiss and told her he loved her.
He also said he’d see her when he got back.
It’s a promise that Jonel is holding him to.
“I try to be as optimistic as I can about it. He’s coming home. He’s coming home,” Jonel says with a strength in her tone. “People can tell me, ‘But what if da-da-da-da-da?’
“I’m constantly thinking, ‘He’s coming home. He has to come home.’
She pauses.
“He just has to.”
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Posted by equalrights (anonymous) on May 24, 2008 at 12:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
That is a beautiful story. Thanks!
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