CATHLAMET — She was nervous, scared and had nowhere to run. For Jasmine Bingham, who had been sprinting past nearly everyone since the seventh grade, it was unfamiliar territory. Not to mention unwelcome.

It was about 15 months ago and the Wahkiakum High School track star was sitting in her doctor’s office, waiting for someone to break the news to her.

For no apparent reason, Bingham had lost 15 pounds and was “feeling tired pretty much all of the time.” She knew something was wrong, but put off making an appointment to find out exactly what it was.

“I was a pretty good weight-lifter, even broke some records at school. But I was losing a lot of strength. Finally, my weight-training teacher told me, ‘You really need to go in and get checked.’ So I did,” said Bingham, 18, now a senior at Wahkiakum.

“I was there three or four hours. I was scared. I was hoping it wasn’t something really serious, like cancer,” she said. “The doctor came in and was pretty somber looking. When I was told it was Type I diabetes, all I could think of were big, big needles.”

For a premier athlete, one who competed in the Class 2B state meet as a freshman and sophomore, hearing that she had an incurable disease shortly before the start of her junior track campaign was devastating.

And then the caveat.

“The doctor told me I should put my season on hold,” Bingham said. “But I worked hard and got back. My times weren’t as good as they could have been, but I felt good about what I accomplished.”

After receiving insulin shots for three weeks, Bingham was fitted with an insulin pump that she wore everywhere — even to track meets. The only time she took it off was when she competed.

“I checked my blood sugar four or five times at the meet, then twisted off the pump when I ran,” she said. “When I was done running, I put it right back on.”

With the diagnosis still ringing in her ears, Bingham went on to finish second at the state meet in the 100 meters, was third in the 200, and helped the 400 and 800 relays to second-place finishes.

As a freshman, she was third in the 100 and fourth in the 200, and also ran on both relays, which took eighth and sixth, respectively. She flip-flopped individual finishes as a sophomore (fourth in the 100, third in the 200), and helped the relays take a pair of seconds.

Add it all up and Bingham’s individual portfolio includes a second, three thirds and two fourths.

But no state titles.

She hopes to change that this weekend, when the 2B state extravaganza is held at Eastern Washington University in Cheney on Friday and Saturday.

With Tacoma Baptist nemesis Amber Finley finally graduated and running for the University of Washington, Bingham is one of the favorites to capture the 100 and 200. Her busy weekend won’t be complete until she runs on two relays for the Mules and participates in her third-best individual event — the long jump.

“I try not to think about it too much or it makes me really nervous. But I really want to get a state title,” said Bingham, whose brother, Shay, qualified for state in the pole vault. “When I was a freshman and went to state, I was in awe. My sophomore year, I kind of got the feel of it. But my junior year, it was a really big goal.

“Now that I’m a senior,” the 5-foot-7 speedster added, “it would be a great way to end my career. My mom and dad (Rhonda and Scott) and my grandparents haven’t missed any of my meets all these years. I know they’d be thrilled to see me win. I just can’t wait to get there and compete.”

Coping with a disease

When the doctor entered the room with that telling look on his face, Bingham thought it might be anemia. After the initial shock of being told she had Type I diabetes faded, she went in search of more information on a disease that had robbed her of strength and that precious speed.

“Type I mostly is diagnosed in juveniles. It’s where the pancreas stops producing insulin. In Type II, people kind of eat themselves into it, but it can be controlled by weight,” she said. “My aunt has it, but other than her, there is no history of it in my family. It’s something I am going to have to live with the rest of my life, unless they come up with a cure.”

Bingham knew she could get past the physical challenges of the disease. It was learning to live with it each day that created the most obstacles.

“I knew nothing about it, so I had to learn. I took the classes they offered and I knew I had to change my life around. I had to get back to the important things — family, friends, school and track,” said Bingham, who no longer wears her insulin pump.

“I had to deal with it, just suck it up and deal with it,” she said. “Once I started to get the hang of things and figured out how to keep my blood sugar levels from fluctuating, I started to feel better about how it was going.”

Imagine doing all of that and still maintaining state-caliber times on the track.

“It’s a credit to how strong Jasmine is,” Wahkiakum coach Mike Riley said. “She’s an impressive kid. She has a natural gift, but she also has put a lot of work into it. She’s very teachable and listens to criticism, because she wants to improve and get better. She has the desire to succeed, which is something you really can’t teach.”

Blazing a trail

Bingham remembers playing tag with the boys during recess in elementary school. They couldn’t catch her.

There were kickball, flag football and racing games during gym class, when she was typically one of the first kids chosen.

“They’d yell, ‘Pick Jasmine! Pick Jasmine!’ I guess it was because I was fast,” she joked.

In the fifth and sixth grade, she raced against the boys and beat most of them. She also played in a boys soccer league with other girls, and recalls “how shocked all the boys were when they saw how we played.”

She began running competitively in the seventh grade because, well, everyone knew she possessed an extra gear.

“I was always the fast girl in my class. I was naturally fast, so I became a sprinter,” she said. “I love the excitement of it, the thrill of it when you’re in the (starting) blocks. You need good reflexes, because especially in the 100, whoever gets the best start will typically win the race if you’re all evenly matched.”

Bingham prefers the 200 over the 100 because it’s slightly more demanding.

“Whoever wins in the 200 is mentally strong,” she said. “And when you come around that stretch on the corner, it’s very exciting.”

Bingham owns Wahkiakum’s school records in both races. She broke the mark in the 100 as a sophomore, then added the 200 at the district meet last week. Her time of 25.97 seconds eclipsed the old record of 26.10 by Megan McCoy in 1991.

“I’d walk into the gym, see that record on the wall and wonder if I’d ever get it,” she said. “When we only had a few meets left, I thought maybe I wouldn’t. But it felt good to finally get it.”

Records are fine. But standing atop the medal podium at least once this weekend in her final meet as a high school athlete would trump everything else — at least for now.

Bingham will attend Brigham Young University in Utah next fall, and plans to compete in track as a walk-on.

As for her main course of study, away from the fast lane?

“Some field of medicine,” she said. “Who knows? Maybe I can help cure diabetes some day.”