For better or for worse, online message boards and chat rooms have become a gathering point for running fans from around the U.S. Sometimes the commentary is well-educated and insightful, other times it’s a cesspool of ignorance.
Take the reaction from the women’s race at Monday’s NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., where pre-race favorite Jenny Barringer of Colorado faltered midway through the race and wound up in a disappointing 163rd place. Reactions ranged from heartfelt feelings of sympathy to the cruel reality that she choked under pressure to foolish suggestion that she took a dive on purpose.
The following is a brief look at the series of events that led up to Barringer’s disappointing race at the NCAA meet, some of which offer a few insights as to what might have happened from physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual point of view. In the end, she should be able to gain from her lowest moment, and what she went through can certainly be a warning to other runners — world-class competitors to first-time marathoners — about the importance of keeping everything in check as a big race approaches.
The Bottom Line
Jenny Barringer has been running fast as a cross country runner and in the 3,000-meter steeplechase since her freshman year in 2005-2006. She was fifth in the Pre-National cross country meet as a freshman and was the runner-up at the NCAA meet as a sophomore and junior. It was no surprise that she made the U.S. Olympic team as a steeplechaser in 2008, and even though she wasn’t expected to bring home a medal, she ran well enough to finish ninth. The bottom line was that 2008 was the beginning of a huge breakthrough as a runner after several years of training under heralded Colorado coach Mark Wetmore, but it was also a year when running fans and the national media started to find out who she was.
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Knowing she needed a break after a long 2007-2008 season that culminated in the Olympics, Wetmore, CU assistant coach Heather Burroughs and Barringer agreed that Barringer needed a break and smartly decided she should redshirt the 2008 cross country season. Physically it would allow her to rebuild a base and return to the track as a whole new runner, but it would also set up the opportunity for Barringer to have one final season of cross country in 2009 without nemesis Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech, who was the only runner to beat Barringer at the 2006 and 2007 NCAA cross country championships. Barringer has closed the gap on Kipyego since her freshman year, but having the chance to come back after Kipyego had graduated was certainly enticing.
Rising Talent
By the time Barringer stepped on the track during the 2009 indoor season, Wetmore knew she was a completely different runner. With three and a half years of progression under her belt and a revamped aerobic base, Barringer was primed to run fast times. But no one knew how fast or the range of events she was capable of running, mostly because she had primarily focused on the 3,000m steeplechase. An NCAA record 4:25.91 in the indoor mile, a collegiate record and an NCAA indoor 3,000m title and an NCAA indoor 5,000m record (15:01.70) were just the start of things to come.
Legitimate Star
Nothing cemented Barringer’s status as America’s next golden girl like her aggressive 1,500m race at the Prefontaine Classic in May. Her second-place, 3:59.90 performance in the nationally televised meet not served as her coming out party among U.S. running fans, but it also serve as a motivating wake-up call for other American middle-distance runners. That’s not to say that Anna Willard, Christin Wurth-Thomas, Shannon Rowbury, Maggie Vessey and Morgan Uceny wouldn’t have had great track seasons anyway, but Barringer’s at the Prefontaine meet was certainly a seminal performance for what turned out to be quite a year for American women.
More Than a Runner
For most of her college career, Barringer quietly devoted her non-running time to schoolwork (she’s graduating in December as a double-major in political science and economics, carrying a 3.67 grade point average), her church, tutoring high school students and volunteering, among other things. (She also plays piano and guitar and shes’s been a sign language interpreter.) If you know Jenny at all, you know that she’s sincerely committed to everything she does and has big aspirations outside of running. Sure, she’ll continue progressing on the track as a well-paid professional and more than likely run in the 2012 Olympics in London. But she also wants to go to law school and pursue a legal career and perhaps enter politics some day. To top everything else off, Barringer is engaged and plans to get married later this year. So to say that she has had a lot on her plate — even if by choice — is an understatement, especially when you consider how much effort she puts into everything she does.
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Barringer took more big strides this summer when she placed fifth in the 3,000m steeplechase at the world championships in Berlin. Previously she had been on the cusp of being able to compete with the world’s best, but with her strong finish and a huge PR and new American record of 9:12.50, she solidified that notion that she’s got the potential to run on the world stage. Although she raced sparingly, her competitive season stretched from mid-January until late August, and her brief respite before the cross country season was just a means of carrying her fitness into the fall as opposed to taking a real break and ramping up again.
All About 75 Hard
Barringer took only about two weeks off after her fifth-place showing at the world championships before joining her Colorado teammates for cross country workouts. She even ran in the team’s Sept. 5 alumni meet time trial, even though she didn’t go very hard in the 5.8K race and instead finished amid a big pack of teammates. She was rounding back into racing form when she broke Kara Goucher’s home course record at the Oct. 3 Rocky Mountain Shootout, but even then admitted that she hadn’t had much of a break from her track season.
Published: Nov 25, 2009 12:00 AM EST
Based on how she re-wrote the NCAA record books, plus her ninth-place finish in the Olympics and her fifth-place finish at the world championships, one could make the argument that Barringer is the best U.S.-born female collegiate distance runner of all-time — or at the very least ranking up there with Suzy Favor Hamilton. Combined with her range (800m possibly all the way to 10,000m) and the fact that she’s smart, articulate, sincere and ambitious, Barringer appears to be a complete package for whatever shoe company signs her to an endorsement deal. And with continued progression and the right agent, she might be able to transcend the sport and earn endorsement deals from national brands looking to associate with a successful, ambitious young woman with girl-next-door charm and attractiveness. That numerous athletes agents visited Boulder this fall to discuss the chances of signing her as a client after the NCAA meet didn’t necessarily make Barringer lose her focus, but it probably didn’t help keep things in perspective, either.
The Build-Up
After dominating the Pre-Nationals Invitational on Oct. 17 on the championship course in Terre Haute, Ind., Barringer became everybody’s favorite to win the NCAA title. With victories at the Big 12 meet and the NCAA Mountain Regional, she looked virtually unbeatable. Still, at a pre-nationals press conference in Boulder a week before the NCAA meet, Barringer looked a little nervous. Typically she’d spoken to the a few local reporters in low-key settings, but for this press gathering she was in front of about a dozen reporters and several TV cameras. Although flanked by Wetmore, who tried to deflect some of the pressure and questions about her legacy and about her future, the event only added to the growing tension inside of Barringer.
The Favorite
As runners were going through a pre-race shag run on the LaVern Gibson cross country course in Terre Haute the day before the NCAA championship race, the talk among coaches, athletes and fans about the women’s race was all about Barringer. At the pre-race press conference later in the day at the Terre Haute Holiday Inn with Florida State’s Susan Kuijken, Washington’s Katie Follett and Illinois’ Angela Bizzarri, Barringer was introduced as the clear-cut favorite based, partially because she had run so well at the Pre-Nationals Invite on the same course a month earlier. Although she deflected the praise and attention and talked as much about wanting to help her team finish as high as possible, Barringer was confident she could do what she came there to do, and almost everyone believed she would.
The Challenger
When Kuijken had the chance to talk after Barringer, she reminded those in attendance that she had finished second last year and the said her only goal for this year’s race was to finish with her highest NCAA finish ever. The reigning NCAA 1,500m champion is known as a brash and bold character and a gutsy competitor, but her deadpan delivery of her goal left many in the room chuckling. “Why are you all laughing?” she asked, a bit irritated with the notion that she wasn’t being taken seriously. The Dutch-born Kuijken wasn’t bluffing, her intent was to go after Barringer with everything she had, just the same way she had gone after Kipyego at last year’s championship race. It wasn’t that Barringer didn’t consider Kuijken a worthy competitor, it’s more that Barringer had focused all season on what she needed to do. But consider, too, that Barringer hadn’t lost a collegiate race of any distance in more than a year (except for an NCAA steeplechase prelim heat) and hadn’t finished behind another runner other than Kipyego in cross country since early in the 2006 season. Kuijken deserves high marks for not backing down from her goals, even if against incredible odds and that no one else believed she had a chance.
The Race
When the gun went off, Barringer and Kuijken were in the lead down the first long straightaway and after the first turn they paced the field through the mile in about 5:02. Illinois’ Bizzarri, Washington’s Kendra Schaaf, Villanova’s Sheila Reid and Virginia’s Catherine White were among those in the chase group, but all seemed content to let Barringer and Kuijken go. The two leaders ran stride-for-stride as they continued to push the pace toward the halfway mark. Keep in mind that Barringer had rarely been challenged in a cross country race since she was a freshman. As a sophomore and junior in 2006 and 2007, she was the second-best runner in the country and almost always chasing Texas Tech’s Sally Kipyego. Based on how she had run all fall, Barringer might have been expecting to be pushing the pace alone at that point in the race.
From that perspective, you can understand that Barringer might have been uncomfortable when Kuijken continued to run alongside of her and continued to push the pace. As Kuijken surged slightly near the 3K mark, Barringer suddenly looked uncomfortable, broke her stride and slowed considerably before eventually tumbling to the ground. She got up and started running again slowly, but by then she was out of the race and dozens of runners had zipped past her.
Barringer eventually got herself refocused and closed hard down the homestretch, but watching her finish in 163rd place was almost surreal — especially considering she had only finished lower than second four times in her entire college cross country career. Bizzarri won the race, Schaaf was second and weary Kuijken, stung by the hard early pace, hung on for third. No offense to Bizzarri, the reigning NCAA 5,000m champion, but it was an outcome that no one would have expected. Bizzarri said afterward that she hoped she might finish as high as second if Kuijken or Barringer faltered, but realized that third place was probably pretty realistic. But that’s what racing is all about. Anything can happen after the gun goes off. Bizzarri played it safe, but she deserves credit for sticking to the strategy that she and coach Jeremy Rasmussen discussed before the race.
The Aftermath
Barringer admitted after the race she didn’t know what happened. She was delirious and lightheaded during the race and didn’t have precise memory of when she fell. After the race, she admitted she had been quite nervous in the weeks leading up to the NCAA meet and had trouble eating. She had to force down meals and possibly woke up Monday morning a bit under-nourished and/or dehydrated. She could have easily dropped out and she admitted she might have had she seen Wetmore or her fiancé or her parents while she was struggling on the course. Wetmore called it a credit to her character that she finished strong with her teammates on her mind. As the day wound down, Barringer faced reporters’ questions, faced her teammates and faced friends and family members that came with the hopes of seeing her in her finest moment. Never had she experienced such disappointment, but she was holding herself accountable and wasn’t making excuses.
Running in the Cold
You’ve got to admire all that Barringer tried to do, especially how she encouraged and mentored her teammates this fall. The Buffaloes should have a good team next year, based on the nucleus of runners that will return (including super-frosh Allie McLaughlin, who placed fifth in Monday’s race). But Barringer admitted that she might have had too much on her plate this fall, even though it was filled with good things. Had it just been schoolwork and running, things might have been different. But the thought of turning pro, meeting agents, mentoring teammates, her imminent graduation, a pending wedding, decisions about where to live and train next spring, among other things, created the perfect storm. And that ultimately affect the energy and focus she needed to run what had become one of the biggest and (to her) one of the most important races of her life. Certainly no race prior to that carried such high expectations for Barringer.
The Future
While her disappointing (and surprising) result at the NCAA meet probably won’t hurt her with regard to securing endorsement contracts, it’s something she can definitely learn from as she goes forward. Does it raise a red flag that Barringer faltered in what she built up as one of the biggest races in her life? Probably not, but it should make her aware of how weighty of a burden expectations (hers and everyone else who has an opinion) can become. She has raced very well in much more important national and international races and run fast in both low- and high-profile races, but she had never been considered such an overwhelming favorite in a race of this magnitude. Did she believe the hype? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it show that no victory is a given as long as there are fierce competitors willing to put up a challenge.
From a running and racing point of view, as well as a general life outlook, it will certainly encourage Barringer to prioritize her time and help her realize that she needs all of her energy systems — physical, mental, emotional, spiritual — to be fully charged heading into a big race and to be aware that other life events can drain that fuel in different ways. Barringer’s future is bright, just as bright as it was before Monday’s race. If anything, this tragic event, if approached and processed correctly, has the chance to make her a better runner and a stronger person. It’s an indication that talent alone won’t get the job done, especially if you don’t put yourself into a zone of near invulnerability. Barringer is smart enough, humble enough and dynamic enough to move on and put herself in position to achieve future greatness in running or anything she pursues. She might never forget the disappointment of Monday’s race, and that’s a good thing. But she’s not the type that’s going to waste time and energy dwelling on it either.
After all, she’s tasted disappointment before. After winning the NCAA steeplechase title as a freshman in 2006, she was expected to repeat as a sophomore. She might have, she lost a shoe in that year’s NCAA championships and finished a disappointing seventh. Two weeks later, she won the U.S. championship and earned a spot on the U.S. team that competed in the world championships. Her recovery from that initial failure wound up being a catalyst for the next stage of her progression as a runner, so there’s plenty of reason to believe her most recent disappointment will, too.
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