Running fever has no cure
Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/227124/
FAYETTEVILLE — It’s hard to slow down Catherine White, but it can be done.
Arkansas found that out at the SEC Outdoor Championships when White, the odds-on favorite, sat out of the 10, 000-meter run after becoming violently ill the morning of the race.
Knock on wood, the Lady Razorbacks freshman expects no such bad luck at the NCAA Mideast Regional this weekend at John McDonnell Field. White will run the 5, 000 on Friday night, and a top-five finish would guarantee her a spot at the national meet June 11-14 in Des Moines, Iowa.
White woke up at 3 a. m. May 16 in Auburn with severe nausea and had to be treated by Auburn’s medical staff. Even though she was “green around the gills,” Lady Razorbacks Coach Lance Harter said White still wanted to run the 10, 000 that night.
“It was just random luck, unfortunately on the day of the 10 K,” said White, of Roanoke, Va. “I haven’t thrown up since like third grade so that was kind of different, not in a good way. I thought I was still going to run. I would have ran if they would have let me.”
Harter said White didn’t listen when the Auburn doctor said she couldn’t run and seemed crestfallen when Harter agreed that she had to recover and skip race.
“She would have collapsed on the track,” Harter said. “There was no way she was going to do it. She was physically broke.”
In one of the more remarkable performances at the SEC meet, White returned Sunday to run the 5, 000 and finished seventh. That didn’t make up for the 10 K disappointment because her training and fitness had pointed to a breakthrough in that event.
“I was ready to go,” White said. “Deep down, I knew it was bad luck. There was nothing I could have done to prevent that. I tried to stay positive through it. It makes me appreciate the fact I can run the event in the future.”
White came to Arkansas with high expectations after a storied career in Virginia. She didn’t start running until her freshman year in high school when she went to cross country practice on a lark.
“I thought, ‘What the heck ?’ because it gave me something to do in the afternoons,” White said. “Eventually I figured out I could be pretty good at it if I tried a little harder. I really am a very competitive person.”
The hobby turned into much more than that. White won 15 state championships, earned five All-America honors and was twice named the state’s Gatorade track athlete of the year.
She still played soccer and toured with a summer all-star team. Her father, John, is an assistant soccer coach at Roanoke College.
“She’s a phenomenal soccer player,” Harter said. “It was tough to recruit her because she was never home. She was always either running or playing soccer.”
White’s 12 state indoor and outdoor titles came in the 800, 1, 600 and 3, 200, but she became a 5, 000 and 10, 000 runner at Arkansas. Harter said White’s mentality and physical stride make her a potentially great distance runner.
The move up in distance wasn’t a hard sell to White. She said it took some pressure off her freshman year.
“I never thought I’d be running the 10 K as a freshman, but I’m glad I am because I really like the event,” White said. “I was little surprised he was going to make me run that, but I trust my coaches. I was excited to see what I could do in that. Starting an event you’ve never done before, you can’t go wrong, right ?”
White has the fifth-best 5, 000 time in the regional at 16 minutes, 14. 93 seconds. The time ranks 15 th nationally, so White could qualify for nationals even if she doesn’t finish in the top five Friday.
She also has the 11 th-best 10, 000 time at 33: 52. 06. Harter and White haven’t decided what she would run at nationals if she qualifies in both, although they agree she won’t run both.
“Coach asked me what I would like to do and I said I really didn’t know,” White said. “I like both of them. I just like to run.”