Lansing State Journal

Rachele Schulist has run around the track inside Jenison Field House more times than she can remember. She joked that it should be more.

On a snowy Tuesday morning, the redshirt senior on the Michigan State University cross-country team was back on the red rubber again, talking about her goals for the upcoming indoor track season.

They're lofty. After a top-15 finish at the NCAA tournament in November, they should be. She wants to make it to nationals and improve her times. She wants to have fun.

The first two goals should be obtainable. She’s a two-time All-American, one of the most decorated runners in MSU history. The third, well, that hasn’t been so easy.

Schulist never wanted to be a mouthpiece for a movement. She had no desire to be in the spotlight off the course. An Instagram post changed that.

In late November, Schulist posted side-by-side photos of her racing toward the finish line. The one on the left showed a fourth-place finish at the NCAA championships in 2014. On the right, her 12th-place finish this season. There was a noticeably thinner runner on the left.

The opening words of her post read: “Look at the picture on the left. If in your mind this is what a 'good' or competitive distance runner looks like, please, keep reading.”

Schulist announced to the world in that social media post that she had struggled with body image and an unhealthy lifestyle. Simply put, she wasn't eating enough and certainly not enough to be a top competitor in the world of Division I cross country.

That 2014 photo brings back certain emotions.

“I just remember I wasn’t happy all the time or confident,” Schulist said. “There are so many things I think of. It was our national championship year, so I remember that and all the success as a team.

“The biggest thing is, I can still see the success in that picture but not attribute it to that picture. That’s the biggest battle I had to overcome.”

As the Spartans were climbing toward a national title on the cross-country course, Schulist was floundering. She described her machine-like work ethic, which helped to make her the top finisher for MSU that season. She detailed her struggle to maintain relationships with teammates and friends, alienating everyone around her.

“I was just tired from restricting myself. I was just hungry,” she said. “I didn’t have the energy to be social or talk with anyone. I was tired.”

Success masked her pain. Team titles pushed personal problems to the back burner.

►Related: Former all-state runner looks to end 15-year battle with anorexia

“I didn’t realize what kind of spot I was in and that it was so bad,” she admitted. “(Winning) was just encouraging what I was doing, which wasn’t good. I was doing everything so intensely. It takes the joy out of the journey when you approach it as a job.”

Still she pushed on, putting in double-digit mileage every day, no matter the weather. She kept her focus on training, and her brain assured her that everything was going to be fine, even as she grew smaller.

“Once it starts, it’s really hard to stop,” she said.

As the weight fell off, so did race times.

Schulist said she “doesn’t know if she was anorexic.” All she knows is she wasn’t eating the right way. She was uncomfortable detailing what her day-to-day intake was because she said she doesn’t want to set any younger runners up for failure. When she was in their shoes, she saw how thin some of the top runners in the world were. She doesn’t want to be that kind of role model.

Her father, Martin Schulist, who ran for MSU from 1978 to ‘82, said he knew something was wrong with his daughter, but not the extent. He knew she struggled to eat, but she was good about what nutrition she was putting in her body.

It wasn’t until a shopping trip that her dad got a firsthand look at the damage.

“She came out of the dressing room with a dress that was sleeveless,” Martin recalled. “I noticed how thin her arms were. I told her she looked really thin, but she didn’t see it that way.

“In her mind, thin equaled fast.”

MSU head coach Walt Drenth and others warned her of the consequences. It took her time to listen.

After the 2014 season concluded, she sought the advice of nutritionists and sports psychologists, and in the end, was simply tired of hunger pains, mood swings and lack of energy.

Schulist was ready for a breakout 2015 season when disaster struck – she had a patellar stress fracture in her knee. Her year was finished. At first, she thought it was a freak injury. But patellar fractures are relatively uncommon, accounting for about 1 percent of all skeletal injuries, and affect men far more often than women.

How could this happen?

“It had taken its toll,” she said of her unhealthy eating habits. “I mean, my bone cracked because it wasn’t getting enough nutrients. So that shows I wasn’t healthy enough or refueling the way I should’ve or treated my body the way I should’ve. A year later, it showed.”

Spartan Stadium, Jenison Field House getting upgrades

Hurt and sad, an emotional Schulist went into Drenth’s office. He offered words that would set her on a different course.

“He said, ‘You need to figure out this eating thing,’” Schulist recalled.

Drenth won’t take any credit for her progress or motivating her to change. He said sometimes conversations just register with people.

“We were just trying to get this head on but more aggressively once she was injured,” Drenth said. “It’s a maturation process.”

Drenth didn’t know the extent of her issues during her sophomore season, he said, he knew something was bothering his star runner.

“Did I know what was wrong? Certainly not,” he said. “Was she at her best in her entirety? It was pretty obvious.”

Over the next six months of rehab, Schulist added a healthy 20 pounds to her 5-foot-10 frame. She was also working on the mental part of her habits, which was helping her fix relationships along the way. Her father also had words of encouragement.

“He always told me, ‘You were good in 2014 despite what you looked like not because of it,’” she said. “That means a lot.”

Schulist was once again the top Spartan runner this fall, crossing the finish line at the 20:07 mark in the 3.7-mile race at the NCAA Division I Championships, leading MSU to an eighth-place finish.

She was only 12 seconds off her 2014 time.

With a little encouragement from her family and coaches, Schulist decided to take her struggle to the public eye. She wanted to tell her tale and maybe prevent another runner from feeling the same pressures she did.

Drenth wasn’t surprised.

“I am really proud of her,” he said. “This is a personal struggle, so it’s pretty remarkable. Hopefully it will help somebody else.”

Martin knew the post was coming, but not when. After a phone call from Schulist, he thought he'd ask her to sleep on the decision to go public. He was too late.

In hindsight, he said, there was no better time.

“That took a lot of courage,” he said. “She told me that if she can just help one person, it’s worth it. Obviously it’s resonated throughout the running community. I am really proud of her.”

In the 2016 photo she posted, Schulist has a hint of a smile.

“I am very proud of it. It sends the message that strong is better,” she said. “It doesn’t take being unhealthy to be good. I know how much work I put in.”

Contact Cody Tucker at (517) 377-1070 or cjtucker@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @sewyopoke.