BROOKSVILLE - It was a start-and-stop, touch-and-go 800 meters, but Brittany Guarino saved the best for last.
Starting from Lane 1 at Central High's track, the West Hernando Middle School eighth-grader hung with the field around the first turn, then slowed significantly on the backstretch. Approaching the far turn, she broke into a light jog but was merely shuffling by the top of the front stretch, hands on her hips.
Crossing the starting line for her second lap, Guarino sped up for a few meters only to put the brakes on again. When she had 300 meters remaining, all 10 other competitors had finished. But teammates Sarah Mosley and Ashley Wiedler, assigned to shadow Guarino during the race, pushed her on, using sign language to say "run."
With fewer than 50 meters to go, Guarino did. Pumping her arms and extending her legs into long strides, she charged past friends and family in the stands to a finish line full of dozens more cheering teammates and even opponents from Fox Chapel Middle.
Guarino could not say "thank you" or otherwise verbally communicate her excitement. Yet with a beaming smile, she didn't really have to.
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Michael and Michelle Guarino remember thinking "what kind of a life are we in for?" when their daughter was diagnosed with autism at 2:10 p.m. on June 23, 1993, at the University of South Florida.
The parents had noticed when Brittany's once-growing vocabulary became stagnant, then she stopped talking altogether. Autism, a complex neurological disability that affects the brain in the areas of social interaction and communication skills, robbed Guarino of her verbal skills.
As a young child, she could not communicate to her parents the bizarre feelings that permeated her body. Walking barefoot on a sandy beach was a horrifying experience, her ultrasensitive feet seemingly feeling every grain of sand and responding like they were hot, jagged coals. The countless noises of everyday life rang incredibly loudly in her ears, causing more pain. She would wail uncontrollably.
"She was a very, very unhappy girl," said Deborah Schott, Guarino's speech-language pathologist for 11 years. "She couldn't make sense of her environment."
The Guarinos were told Brittany likely would end up in an institution. They wouldn't hear of it. Brittany was taken back outside, back to the beach, over and over again. Michael and Michelle wanted their world to be Brittany's. With time, she adjusted. Today, she loves running on the beach.
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Michelle instantly saw an opportunity for Brittany in a New Jersey newspaper article sent by friends.
Lauren D'Esposito, a Bergen Record story explained, excelled in cross country last fall despite her autism. Coaches raved about her work ethic, and teammates embraced her spirit.
D'Esposito's autism, as described in the story, was somewhat milder than Guarino's - she introduced herself to the reporter before briskly walking away - but the article inspired Michelle Guarino to approach West Hernando Middle administrators about the possibilities.
The school's staff agreed to it faster than a John Capel 100-meter dash.
"This is the thing she would participate best in," said Cindy Emmerich, an assistant teacher at WHMS.
Brittany is somewhat of a sports junkie. She has been known to swing a golf club when given the opportunity, and Emmerich said Guarino was enthralled during a visit to a local racing garage.
Participating in scholastic sports, however, is a different beast. But track, Michelle Guarino knew, would be a manageable venue for Brittany. Receptive teammates could shadow her during practices. And in an event like the 800, in which multiple athletes can compete for a team, her participation would not force a more capable runner to the sidelines.
After five weeks of practice, Guarino was a part of the squad - part of the group whose 2004 T-shirts read: "Quitting Is Only a Shortcut to Losing." Truth be told, the Guarinos worried about Brittany quitting during her race. She very well could lose interest and walk away. But the word "lose" never entered the equation, even if Brittany finished an expected last.
* * *
How nervous were you before your first scholastic sporting event?
Right.
Guarino could not tell her friends and family how she felt moments before her track debut. She didn't really have to.
On a breezy, slightly chilly afternoon, she bided her time before her race in the bleachers, bundled up in a sweater, nibbling on Skittles and watching wide-eyed as sprinters, jumpers and other athletes competed.
When her event was called, Guarino was escorted to the infield, where she stretched with teammates and anxiously waited out the last few moments before the starting gun. Just another member of the team.
Some six minutes after the race began, Guarino crossed the finish line. Yes, she and her two shadowing teammates finished in the rear of the field, but the roars were unlike anything afforded to the winner.
Her parents, cheering behind a "GO BRITTANY" sign, beamed. But where her daughter finally reached an end of a special accomplishment, Michelle saw a new beginning.
