Cate Peters is a rising senior on the Stanford University track team pursuing her master’s degree in journalism.
The blast of an official’s whistle signaled that it was time for me, Sydney Barta and three other runners in our heat to approach the starting blocks. Anyone watching Sydney compete for the first time would reflexively look at her left leg — at the angled, carbon fiber prosthetic blade that powers her to sprint 200 meters in under 27 seconds.
I focused instead on her hot-pink fingernails. A day earlier, she had shared with me the significance of that color. As I took my place in Lane 2, with Sydney five lanes over in a matching Stanford University uniform, I also knew a couple of things almost no one else did: Her usual strategy was to take advantage of any opponent who underestimated her; and this heat would mark the close of her college running career and the end of a race she started at age 6…