For Gabe Litzner, it runs a little deeper than that.

Litzner is one of the most dominant cross country and long-distance track runners in the history of the Upper Peninsula and is one of only four cross country runners in the entire state to win individual state titles all four years of high school.

That feat was almost cut short a little more than 18 months ago.

On March 5, 2024, Litzner, a sophomore at the time, was hit by a car as he crossed a street in downtown Sault Ste. Marie while running home from a workout at the Sault High track.

Sault Ste. Marie’s Gabe Litzner, right, is part of the leading pack of what are otherwise all Marquette County runners near the start of the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in Division 1 boys cross country at Pictured Rock Golf Course in Munising on Oct. 18. From left are Marquette’s Peter Argeropoulos, Negaunee’s Henry Plummer (partially hidden) and Marquette’s Rorik Holmquist and Lucas Ballard. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

“Everything went dark,” he recalls of the accident. “I hadn’t been feeling great that day, and I was crossing the road, and I don’t remember anything after that. I went unconscious.

“I woke up in the hospital. I don’t remember getting hit or any of that. I remember waking up and seeing blood all over me and and I didn’t really know what happened at that time. It was just shocking.”

His father, Aaron, was shocked as well.

“He had so many cuts all over him,” he recalled. “All the cuts and the road rash were hard to get past, as well as all the blood.”

Litzner was rushed to DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids after the severity of his injuries was discovered.

Sault Ste. Marie expert runner Gabe Litzner was in no condition for any kind of physical activity when he was hospitalized following a vehicle-pedestrian accident while coming home from a workout at school on March 5, 2024. (Photo courtesy Gabe Litzner)

He suffered a fractured skull, four fractured vertebrae, lacerations to his kidneys, liver and spleen, and also experienced blood clots in both legs. It was also discovered that he was dealing with a punctured lung.

Litzner ended up staying in the hospital for six days before being allowed to come home.

Doctors weren’t sure what Litzner’s future looked like as a runner, but told him that there wasn’t going to be any physical activity for a minimum of six months, with a re-evaluation after that.

Once the immediate danger had passed, Litzner’s thoughts began to turn back to running.

“I thought about running almost immediately,” he said. “And it didn’t hit me for a little bit that I wasn’t going to be running for a long time.

“I told dad in the hospital, ‘I think I’m going to have to take today off.’ Once I figured out how serious my injuries were, I figured it was going to be a little bit.”

On April 1, 2024 — less than a month after the accident —

Litzner laced up his shoes and went to Lake Superior State with his dad and got on a stationary bike. He had been walking for five minutes a day to help with the blood clots.

“The first day I ran, I went about a mile, and it was slow,” Litzner said. “After that, I started going a little further, but in the back of my head, I’m thinking that I’m not going to be fast at all this track season.”

With the track season already underway, Litzner got back into competitive running and made the decision that he was going to try and run in the Upper Peninsula Finals.

“I was at the point where I felt fit enough to run OK,” he said. I had gotten beat by a Marquette kid the week before in Grand Rapids, and I decided to just go out and see what I could do.

“I wasn’t very confident in myself, but I finished second in the mile by a second, and at that point, I thought that I should probably win the two-mile. Winning that felt really good and gave me a lot of confidence back.”

Litzner didn’t just win the two-mile; he set the U.P. Finals record.

Courage is being afraid of something and going out and conquering that fear. Litzner didn’t know if he was going to be able to run again at one point, much less be competitive. As it turns out, Litzner was not only able to show the kind of courage he carries around within him, but is now confident that things are going to be just fine.

Scott Church is a former sports writer for the Soo Evening News and began the online EUP Sports Den in 2023.