Katie Dale

Residence: Warrensburg, Mo. (formerly Colonie)

Age: 32

Family: Husband, Chris

Career: Writer and Mental Health Advocate

Primary Sport: Running 

Using Faith to Build a Better Life and Overcome Obstacles

By Tom O’Grady

Katie Dale describes herself as being raised in a home full of faith, where she was given support, and was taught to seek a path of truth. Katie also grew up in a small Colonie neighborhood full of boys. At a young age, she was regularly out playing sports with her older brother and the other neighborhood kids. This competition served as a valuable outlet and toughened her up, as she states, she “never lost a race to any of the girls in her grade during elementary school.” Katie was not aware that later in life, her faith, inner strength and exercise would be tested to its limits, and ultimately help her out of some of the darkest periods of her life.

Katie transitioned from running against the neighborhood kids to training with the cross country and track teams in middle school. Having already established the value of conditioning her body, and enjoying the challenge of distance running, Katie anticipated continuing cross country in high school. For the first two years everything hummed along smoothly academically and athletically as Katie ran cross country and track & field. Then things started to go awry as Katie explains how her mental health “derailed.” Katie switched from a large public school setting to a smaller private school her junior year.

Unfortunately, Katie’s new school did not have a running program and Katie instead joined the soccer team. Although still participating in athletics, the change in environment was not helpful, and Katie’s mental health continued to deteriorate. Katie ultimately had a depressive episode, then a full-blown manic-psychotic episode that required an admission to the juvenile psychiatric ward for three weeks at Ellis Hospital. Katie returned to Colonie for her senior year, but the adjustment back to a large environment and her regiment of psychiatric medicine made participating in cross country difficult but not impossible, describing “The weight gain and grogginess slowed me down.”

After graduating Katie decided to improve her academics by staying in the Capital Region and attending Hudson Valley Community College. Katie joined the cross country team where she was the lone member of the program under coach Colleen Ferris. Katie credits coach Ferris with mentoring her to her lifetime best 5K of 20:21. This allowed Katie to continue on partial scholarship for her final two years of school at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester. 

After graduating from college, Katie married Chris Dale who was pursuing a career in the U.S. Air Force. During this period Katie focused her energy on her marriage and building stable mental health. She proved to be a hard worker (bipolarbrave.com/working-with-a-mental-illness) as seen in her blogpost about jobs she’s taken as a military wife to help support their family. Katie also tried to keep running and decided to enter road races to keep her motivated. She competed in several 5Ks, and also completed half marathons, earning a personal best of 1 hour, 38 minutes in the half.

Katie also faced setbacks in her effort to manage her bipolar disorder. This included multiple psychiatric hospitalizations. In a huge act of personal strength, she decided to lean on her faith and become a mental health advocate. Kate decided to start a mental health blog “Bipolar Brave” (bipolarbrave.com) where she chronicled her episodes of mania and depression and her use of faith, family, and medication to manage it.

Katie has continued to run, but noted that in recent years she had found it difficult to maintain a schedule, and also had seen her times become less competitive. I talked to Katie this past summer, and began formally working with her at the beginning of August, and shortly after she chronicled her training on her blog (bipolarbrave.com/how-exercise-keeps-me-sane). The goal for Katie was to get into shape and see how close she could come to achieving a personal best in the 5K at a Turkey Trot in November.

We discussed her current fitness as well as her current training routine. Katie did a mile time trial and we determined that her current fitness was around 25 minutes for the 5K. We decided to place an emphasis on consistency and gradually building up fitness. Although her fitness was a little higher, we focused on workout paces that were achievable, and also allowed for recovery. To encourage rest and decrease the probability of injury, we decided to focus on trying to get in five days of running a week, and also focus on both running and walking in her training routine to start.

Training went smoothly for the first several weeks and then Katie was faced with several setbacks and a piece of good news. First, she traveled to visit her husband and took much needed vacation. Although the vacation was welcome, the combination of a schedule change and venue (Las Vegas) made training difficult. Katie missed several days while away and when she returned home, she had to deal with reestablishing a routine. She also noted an increase in fatigue likely due to the travel and training. She was a little discouraged but we talked about the fitness gains she had made and reestablishing her routine and focus. After discussing how to proceed Katie also shared with me that she was pregnant! 

Katie was juggling a long-distance relationship with her husband, training fatigue and pregnancy, while managing bipolar disorder. We discussed the pros and cons of continuing to train for a Turkey Trot, and after approval from her physician, continued to chart a course forward. After the brief setback with a head cold and lull in activity, Katie bounced back in full force and proved to be a stellar athlete to train. Katie was particularly mature about how her improved fitness was being offset by greater difficulty running as her pregnancy progressed. 

After initially targeting a Thanksgiving race, Katie decided to run on Veteran’s Day weekend due to the logistics and her pregnancy. Unfortunately, the race she was going to run was cancelled. In a bind, we discussed several options and decided to give Halloween weekend a try instead. Notably concerned about the change in plans, Katie was concerned about whether she would be prepared enough. She also seemed discouraged about her fitness and was afraid of not breaking 35 minutes for the 5K. Believing Katie was fitter than she gave herself credit for, we discussed racing strategy. We settled on a strategy of running faster for four minutes and slowing down or walking for one-minute intervals. Katie reported back that she ended up running 31:44 and was surprised how good she felt. 

Afterward, we discussed how Katie established an exercise routine while pregnant that improved her mental health and fitness. This was good for her and her baby. Katie noted that training while pregnant was challenging but her recent race invigorated her. She thinks targeting her 5K personal best in the future is doable now!

Katie’s faith has allowed her to be a strong advocate, and blogging about mental health has given her passion and purpose over the past several years. She is particularly happy to be adding a baby to their family, as she and Chris were not always sure kids were a given for them. She is open about dealing with mental illness while pregnant and her communication with the healthcare professionals. She attributes her current sound mental health to her medication, regular running, and the grace of God. 

In addition to welcoming a newborn in 2020 and possibly training for another 5K, Katie will be releasing a memoir about her struggles with bipolar disorder. This book is set to be released in March. The memoir itself discusses her major hospitalizations at ages 16 and 24, how they shaped her life, and how she leaned on her faith and family to create her blog and become an advocate for herself and others who cannot advocate for themselves.

Tom O’Grady, PhD, MPH (thomas.james.ogrady@gmail.com) of Slingerlands is an avid runner, hiker and lover of the outdoors.