MANILA, Philippines?It was on mile 18 of a 22-mile run on the historic Route 66 to St. Louis, Missouri, where I got a call that would change the course of my dream to cross America from west to east on foot.

Running on the slanted shoulder of a Kansas highway, I felt what I thought was a pulled muscle in my left thigh. The excruciating pain moved to my groin and then my pelvis.

After treatment from two chiropractors, a cortisone shot from a sports medicine doctor and with the help of anti-inflammatory medication, I felt better enough to run across Missouri.

I would have gone on to Illinois had the two guys traveling with me?my trainer Mat Macabe and photographer Danny Titus?not prevailed upon me to see a doctor in Danny?s hometown of St. Louis.

There, at Washington University Orthopedics, Dr. Heidi Prather had me perform a series of movements?bending forward to touch my toes, raising my knees to chest level?before ordering an MRI of my hip. The next day, she called.

?It?s a stress fracture,? she said. ?I?m sorry that?s not what you want to hear.?

We were inside a fast-food restaurant for a late lunch, but I seemed to be floating. Dr. Prather talked on but the only things I could make out were ?six weeks of no running,? ?1,500 mg of calcium and 800 IU of vitamin D,? and ?If you continue at this point, the fracture could extend and you could break your hip.?

I was stunned.

Mat, Danny and I sat quietly until I broke the silence. ?I?m not quitting,? I said, unable to hold back my tears. ?We?ve come this far and I?m going to finish it.?

Calls were made to our run?s main presenter, Western Union, and Unlimited, the company that executes all of Western Union?s events. The last 4.6 miles to St. Louis were completed in a leisurely walk that took 1 hour and 30-plus minutes.

Danny suggested we head back to Los Angeles, where I could recuperate among friends. I asked the guys: ?When we drive back, can you please take the freeway? ?Cause if we pass the service roads where we ran, I?m just going to get sentimental and cry.??

Injury is inevitable

Any runner knows that injury is inevitable.

When I ran across the Visayas region with Fr. Robert Reyes and his team in 1997, my right knee swelled to the point that I couldn?t feel my bone for weeks.

Painful tendonitis on my feet forced me to walk 50 kilometers a day for several days when Mat and I ran across the Philippines (from Davao City to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte) in 2005.

Running the 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) from Los Angeles to New York would undoubtedly bring about injury so I prepared for it by packing anti-inflammatory patches and pills.

But the stress fracture?in the pelvis, no less?I didn?t see coming. Up until then, the only injuries I had had were blisters.

A stress fracture, or a hairline crack, according to an article on Running Times Magazine, is a fracture that doesn?t go completely through the bone. First noted in the 19th century among Prussian soldiers who marched too far too often, stress fractures are fairly common among high mileage runners.

When Frank Shorter won the silver medal for the marathon in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, he unknowingly ran with a stress fracture in his foot.

Women runners are apparently more vulnerable: Intense training leads to amenorrhea, or the cessation of the menstrual cycle. This lessens the production of estrogen, the hormone necessary for processing calcium to strengthen bones.

As devastated as I was, I also knew I was blessed. For one thing, rest and a calcium-rich diet will heal a stress fracture. Despite the condition, I still managed to cross Kansas and Missouri?two of the largest states in our transcontinental journey?relatively intact.

Steely determination

Call it hard-headedness or determination, but that?s the way I?ve always been. It?s what got me to run across the Philippines, after seven years of planning it in my head and saving my earnings from my work as a writer.

It?s also what got me to run across America, despite rejections from potential sponsors, discouragement from people, and the biggest hurdle, Mat?s open-heart surgery in 2008.

The challenges continued once we took off from Los Angeles on Mother?s Day. There had been internal problems, financial concerns, and difficulties in securing a support vehicle.

As with all obstacles, we worked around each one and moved forward.

And have we been moving forward!

Real highlight of America

I thought that watching landscapes, colors, and climates changing right before my eyes was the thrill of this run. Later, I discovered the real highlight of America is its people.

We met the kindest, nicest individuals. Truck drivers honked their horns, train operators waved and strangers came up to us with cold bottles of mineral water.

In Pagosa Springs, Colorado, Jojo Dideles, a Filipino extreme sports athlete, followed us on the road and drove to our hotel to cook us a dinner of elk and deer that he hunted himself.

Spotting us on his way to work, John Trenshaw, owner of an inn in Missouri, handed me popcorn and three cans of soda on the house, gave a donation to our charity, and booked us in a suite with a Jacuzzi for the rate of a regular room.

The kindness of strangers

The kindness of strangers seemed unreal at first, especially for Mat and I, who only knew of America from what we had seen on TV and in films. But it was not so much what we saw in Americans?it was what they saw in us.

When Tony Kuyper and Lucy Fund, pharmacists at an Arizona health center, fixed us dinner and took us in for the night, I could not get over my disbelief. ?Tony,? I said, ?Why did you invite total strangers like us to sleep in your place??

?Because,? he said, ?I see the purity of your actions.?

Funds for charity

After running across two-thirds of America, I?d like to believe my intentions have remained the same: to reach New York running and to give to our charity, the Social Services Division of the Philippine Heart Center.

Besides resting to heal, we plan to meet with Filipinos in LA and Las Vegas to tell them our story and to try to raise additional funds for our run and charity.

There?s also a book in the works, loaded with pictures, memories and reflections of life on America?s service roads and scenic byways.

Crazy?

Sure, I?m scared, and sure it?s crossed my mind that this could be a mistake. But I?m also sure I am not quitting.

We are so close?only a third of the country left to cover! If I go home now and don?t give this a chance, not only will I regret it, but I will never get the opportunity to do it again.

Crazy, huh, I said to a friend when I told her what I decided to do.

?No,? she said. ?That?s the Filipino spirit.?

(Editor?s Note: The author is a freelance journalist and ultramarathon runner who is attempting to run 5,000 kilometers across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York, a feat no Filipina has done before. Despite a fracture, she is determined to complete her dream run, aptly called Takbong Pangarap.)