Boulder – If Jenny Barringer hadn’t been inadvertently spiked by another runner at the NCAA Track and Field Championships in June, she would be deep in the “dark hole” of high-mileage cross country training with the University of Colorado.
Instead, the mishap set in motion a sequence of events that have taken her to Osaka, Japan, where the CU junior will run the steeplechase at the world championships Saturday (tonight Denver time).
“I have to be one of the youngest people going,” Barringer said shortly before leaving for the Orient. “I’m celebrating my 21st birthday over there. I feel almost giddiness.”
Barringer earned the trip by winning the steeplechase at the USA Track & Field championships, where she set the American collegiate record with a time of 9 minutes, 34.64 seconds. She wouldn’t have been there if not for the bad break 15 days earlier at the NCAAs, where she was the defending champion and favorite.
“If I had done well at NCAAs, even if I wouldn’t have won, there’s no way I would have gone to USAs,” said Barringer, who was runner-up at last year’s NCAA cross country championships. “I really wanted to (finish) a successful collegiate season and then go into the dark hole of cross country summer training.”
About 600 meters into the race, another runner caught Barringer just right, and the heel of her shoe slipped off her foot.
She ran a few strides, thought about kicking off the shoe and running barefoot, but decided the risk of injury was too high. She decided she had no choice but to stop and fix the shoe.
“It was tied so tight I couldn’t get it back on,” said Barringer. “I struggled with it for what seemed like an eternity, probably 10-15 seconds, and by the time I got back in the race I was probably 30-40 meters behind the last-place person.”
She would finish seventh. After the race, she and CU coach Mark Wetmore decided to go to the U.S. championships because she was fitter than ever and didn’t get to show it at NCAAs. At the U.S. championships she edged the NCAA champion, Anna Willard of Michigan.
“I’m so glad we did it,” Barringer said. “I ran a 10-second PR. We knew I had this really great race in me that I hadn’t been able to execute.”
But that left Barringer with another decision. She could go to Osaka and gain valuable big-event experience a year before women’s steeplechase makes its Olympic debut in Beijing, but that would mean compromising her training for the fall cross country season. Cross country was no small consideration, because the Buffs are a perennial power with national title aspirations.
“(We) really thought this was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up,” said Barringer, who is from Oviedo, Fla.. “I wanted to be a really good ambassador for my school and a good ambassador for the United States. Going to worlds and being an ambassador for the country, who could pass that up?”
