27th Foot Locker
cross country championships

the national individual championship
for US high school cross country runners.

National Finals
Dec 10, 2005 Balboa Park, San Diego CA

San Diego Memories – 1983 Kinney Nationals

"The experience was so amazing, I remember it like it was yesterday."

Wow, it’s been 22 years since I ran in San Diego for the Footlocker Nationals! (Some of you may know that back then it was Kinney Nationals). I’m not going to say that it feels like yesterday, because it doesn’t; but the experience was so amazing, I will tell you I remember it like it was yesterday. The 1983 Kinney meet was my first national competition and the springboard for my running career.

I didn’t start running until I was a junior at Palos Verdes High in Palos Verdes, California. That year I made the commitment to hit the trails with Coach Joe Kelly and the rest of the PV High cross country team, leaving behind afternoons filled with tennis and soccer. Running my junior year was a true learning experience with some successes here and there; by my senior year, I had hit my stride. In fact, my senior season I won every meet I ran in, all the way through Western Regionals (held at Woodward Park in Fresno) where I finished 26 seconds ahead of the runner-up. With a record like that I was a favorite going into Nationals, but I sure didn’t feel like I was ready to win at the big show. New as I was to the sport, just making it to Nationals was great. My lack of experience made it impossible for me to grasp the importance of what I was to do at Nationals.

These days, with the evolution of the Internet, news, pictures and video of the competition are readily available. As a high schooler, I would have loved to log onto DyeStat and DyeStatCal each day to see and read updates on the world of cross-country. It’s hard to get a feel for your competition with a weekly news paragraph in USA Today. (USA Today used to list the top marks of high school girl in cross-country every Thursday.) As it was, I had no idea of the level of talent I would see and the sheer number of girls who would be my competitors at the National meet.

During the early years of Footlocker, they used to rotate the national meet between San Diego and Orlando, Florida. Of course, I missed out the trip to Orlando the year I ran, but it was kind of nice to be close to home. San Diego is a two-hour drive from Palos Verdes but I still took the 40-minute plane trip they offered me! The runners stayed at the beautiful Hotel del Coronado, right on the beach. The night we arrived a group of us went for a light run on the sand the – a treat for the girls who came from cold winter states. The hosts of the National meet were very gracious, and they kept us busy with parties and events the entire weekend. The first night we went out on a harbor cruise that served a huge dinner. Sylvia Mosqueda, champion runner and close friend of mine, and I still talk about how we ate too much on that cruise.

The day before the meet the officials organized a group walk of the 5000-meter course located at the Morley Field portion of Balboa Park. This is the same venue that would be used for most of the next two decades. The figure eight course featured a good hill (that was run twice) and enough ups and downs to give the contest a sense of true cross-country. Most of the race was on grass with short sections cutting across cement roads, similar to the course now. Runners would tackle the hill just after the first mile where it would take the edge off of the usually pretty tough early pace. At the two and a half mile point, runners were faced with the hill for a second time. More often than not, it was at this point that the contest would be decided.

I checked out all the girls during the course tour, trying to get some sort of insight on what type of racers I was facing. As I made easy conversation with the girl next to me, I found out that she was Janet Smith from Steven’s High School in Edison, New Jersey, and that she had come out to San Diego the week before to get ready. I remember thinking at the time that it seemed like an extreme thing to do.

Following the course tour we went to Sea World. Usually I would say that going to Sea World is a wonderful idea, but it wasn’t so great that we were walking around all day at an amusement park right before a race. Especially since it started raining while we were there. Not fun.

Sadly, I don’t remember the pre-race introductions or much of the race itself. Senior Janet Smith won with a dominating run that would take seven years to better on the watch with a course record 16:43.7 and a win by over 100 meters. I guess that week of preparation really helped! Sophomore Melissa Straza (Bloomington, IN) ran17:17.5 for second; junior Cathy Schiro (Dover, NH) was third at 17:25.1; senior Kathleen Smith (San Antonio, TX) was fourth at 17:34.1; and I rounded out the top five at 17:38.7. I was thrilled. All American!

Along with the race itself, I don’t remember all the girls that made up the West Team. My memory is poor like that. I wish there was someplace on line that I could go to see all the girls that made the National teams for every region. That would make up a who’s who of running history, for certain. The ones I do remember are junior Marnie Mason – the ex-University of Oregon women’s coach and also my roommate at Nationals; senior Chantel Plante – an eventual teammate of mine at Cal Berkeley; and senior Sylvia Mosqueda, who is still making her mark on the roads and track.

I went on to Cal where I earned five All American awards in cross-country and track. My 5,000 and 10,000 meter school records still stand.

In retrospect, I treasure my experiences that I had at Nationals. I owe much to this race for the introduction it gave me to the big leagues and it readied me for the challenges I would face in college. Running has been a gift to me and has given me opportunities that I never dreamed of. My experience at Kinney Nationals was the beginning of all that.