Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is one of the most uncommon cardiac malformations encountered in pediatric cardiology. Because of this, most athletes have never heard the term before. Neither had Jack Herman, junior distance runner, who ran 65-some miles every week until he was diagnosed with this life-threatening malady.
“I really don’t like telling people. I don’t want people to feel bad or have pity for me. I don’t seek sympathy and I don’t like it,” Jack Herman, junior distance runner, said. “I’m still a normal kid I just can’t play any sports, it’s not like anything’s wrong with me.”
But something was wrong. HCM is a disease in which a portion of the heart is thickened without any obvious cause, and Jack Herman is in the small percent of people who have it. The best distance runner in the class of 2014 was benched with an uncommon disease that puts an end to all distance running, leaving doctors, a team, and a boy in shock.
Although Herman is a reserved teen when it comes to talking about his disease, his eyes light up when he talks about running and remembering the highlights of his days as a runner. The 5’10”, 140 pound athlete looks, more or less, like a distance runner, sporting Asics running shoes and running shorts, although he has not run in months.
In fact, his freshman summer he participated in basketball camp instead of cross country camp. But following a semi-successful freshman cross country season, Herman delved deep into the distance running life. As his workout ethic improved, so did his performance. By his sophomore cross country season, Herman’s outstanding talent in running was clear, according to his teammates.
“Jack was our top sophomore distance runner before he stopped running. He was running times comparable to our current all-conference and all-state seniors, Jared Ripoli, Trevor Kuehr, and Alex Milner. He broke five minutes in the mile as a freshman and had progressed his training as high as fifty-five miles per week,” JB Hanson, boys’ cross country coach, said.
Herman’s future as a promising runner seemed certain when he joined the varsity team at State as an alternate his sophomore year. But when the school offered EKG testing to all students last February and Herman’s heart defect was detected, he was deferred to a cardiologist.
Following a series of doctors appointments with different specialists, Herman’s problem was still unclear. Initially, the doctors told Herman he was allowed to run as long as he “took things easy,” he said. This rested uneasy with Herman, as he was forced to lower his 65 miles-a-week schedule to 10-15 miles. Herman’s motivation to improve made it hard for him to accept what the doctors were asking of him.
“The first thing they told me to do still haunts me; I could not believe what they were telling me. I still remember the doctor looking at me and his face when he told me something that you never want to hear as an athlete. He said, ‘don’t become a better runner than you already are.’ And I still to this day can’t grasp my arms around how they could tell me to not get better,” Herman said. “How could you just do something and put so much heart in and not want to get better?”
Following five more hospital visits, Herman’s condition was officially diagnosed as HCM, and he was told that he could no longer run.
At first, Herman had trouble coping with the new way of life that had been so suddenly forced upon him. However, he still found himself going to all the team practices and meets.
“When you think about talking to someone every day for two and a half hours a day, you develop close relationships, so you can’t just stop showing up,” Herman said. “It didn’t feel right to just stop talking to them. I needed to talk to them, so I would show up to practice and do what I could to be with my team.”
Herman helps out the team by doing everything he can to make the team better. This includes taking splits, motivating teammates, presenting logbook sessions, or just being a good friend, according to Hanson.
“The way the team acts, they make me feel like I am meant to be there. They don’t treat me like I’m special or different,” Herman said.
Herman felt, and still feels the strong ‘family bond’ to the team, he says, so he uses that to fuel his drive through his ordeal. The team helped Herman through his struggle, which at some times was almost unbearable, according to Herman, specifically in the first weeks.
“The first two weeks were just terrible. I wasn’t really here. When you do something so much every day two times a day, stopping is just, I don’t even know how to explain it, it must be like a divorce or something. It was just so hard,” Herman said. “I was really mad for awhile. I was mad at the doctor, I was mad at myself and I was mad that this happened to me. Then I was really sad about it and eventually I learned how to deal with it. It wasn’t until the end of this cross country season when I really started to accept it and I was able to see my new role on the team. I just had to come to terms that I wasn’t going to be a star or a state runner or a varsity runner, which is what I had been working for. I was working to be the best runner, but now I can only be the best teammate.”
Herman feels a special appreciation to his coach who, since Herman has been unable to run, he has been spending a lot of time with.
“[Coach Hanson and I] got closer and closer and closer. He’s just a really good adult-life figure and a friend,” Herman said. “First of all, he’s hilarious. He’s also a really good, nice guy. He’s just a really good mentor and teacher and an amazing person to have in your life. He’s just been there through the whole thing for me, and I can’t say enough how much he has helped.”
Through the entire experience, Herman has been able to take the frustration and emotion he feels over the passion he can no longer practice and turn it into positive outlook and inspiration to others. While Herman is no longer able to reach his goals of being the best runner, he looks on the flipside and now strives to be the team leader from a different place.
“When I was running, I always felt like a leader. When I wasn’t running anymore, I was having a hard time trying to still be a leader because that’s the way I knew how to lead through my work ethic,” Herman said. “I had to develop into a vocal leader and eventually I got it, which really meant a lot because I saw that I could still have an impact on the team.”
Beyond contributing to the team as a vocal leader, Herman also occupies his time organizing and putting on games with the middle school runners during summer camp while his teammates are out on their long runs. Herman is also currently competing in an indoor soccer league with his friends. He plays goalie.
“I’m a strong believer that things turn out best for those who make the best out of the way things turn out and that’s just how I have handled the whole situation. I’m not going to live limited. I’m not just going to sit on my couch and say ‘why does this have to happen to me?’ I’m going to go out and teach kids how you’re going to miss it if you stop,” Herman said. “I’ll teach kids that they need running and I think I’ve helped them realize that. I just try to strike passion in kids. I try to teach them that just like running, there are going to be hard times in life and you just have to do your best and make the best out of everything you are.”