Reading 2
Running On Cloud 9
Barringer sets sights on Beijing
By Shannon Shelton
Sentinel Staff Writer
December 17, 2004
Her muscles ached. Pain shot through her body with every step on the hilly course of San Diego's Balboa
Park.
For the first time in her high school cross-country career, Jenny Barringer ran a bad race. She knew it
when she lost ground after a solid first mile in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, the race that
serves as an unofficial high school national championship. She finished 10th, a drop from third place in
2003.
Even with that realization, a smile crept onto her face. She loved this. The speed, the exertion of energy,
the challenge of siphoning every last drop of a depleted physical reserve to somehow fuel her spent body
past her opponents.
This is what she was meant to do.
Barringer, an Oviedo senior, has firmly established herself as one of the nation's elite young runners, after
completing a cross-country career as the most-honored top female long-distance racer in Florida high
school history. Although her Olympic aspirations will force her to eventually shift her focus to track and
field, she is eager for the opportunity to compete in collegiate cross country.
Barringer aims to make the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and throws around the idea of potentially competing in
four Olympic Games, likely in her specialty of 5,000 meters. The marathon intrigues her for the future --
"How does one get to such an elite level to run five-minute miles over 26.2 miles?" -- although that's not an
immediate goal.
"Cross country is my thing," she said. "Unfortunately, as far as the big international meets go, track is more
prominent. I do plan to race internationally, but I'm 18 right now and I don't have to commit to one thing.
It was cross country, after all, that brought her to this point. In a nation where long-distance running
registers nary a blip on the sports radar, Barringer's talent has afforded her a celebrity rarely achieved by
young athletes outside of football, basketball and baseball.
She juggles homework, running and extracurricular activities with interviews from national outlets such as
Sports Illustrated, Runner's World and Running Times. College coaches ring the Barringer household
phone constantly, hoping to get five minutes to pitch their program to the six-time state champion.
"As a parent, you just take a deep breath when you hear what some of these coaches have to say," said
father Bruce Barringer, an associate professor of business management at UCF.
Speed genes might be present in the Barringer DNA, but that discovery was accidental. Her father's sports
resume consists of participation on a high school diving team and a non-competitive marathon run . Her
mother Janet, a nurse, never played sports .
At Partin Elementary in Oviedo, a teacher noticed Jenny's energy on the playground and asked her if she
wanted to participate in a running group. She said she joined only make friends at her new school. The
Barringers moved to Oviedo from Columbia, Mo., before Jenny's third-grade year for Bruce to take the
UCF job.
Today she literally shudders to think how different her life would have been if she hadn't started and
continued running.
"I cannot imagine what I would have been doing without cross country," she said. "I might have just been a
mediocre volleyball player or something."
She continued running at Chiles Middle. Her attitude was that running was a fun hobby, just another activity
she hoped to continue when she went to high school.
But Ken Rohr, the coach of the middle school team, saw something else. When Jenny was in eighth grade,
he told his old college roommate and UCF cross-country teammate, Jay Getty, to watch for the bubbly girl
who would be coming to Oviedo that next year.
Getty had already decided to give up coaching cross country during Barringer's freshman year to devote
time to his new job as athletic director -- but he complied with Rohr's request and observed her from afar.
In her first year of consistent training, Barringer placed seventh at the state meet in 19 minutes, 24
seconds.
That fall, Foot Locker held the national championships at Walt Disney World and Barringer volunteered at
the race. She remembered marveling at the speed of the runners and hoping that someday she could, at
the most, win a state championship.
The next year, however, shifted Barringer's mind-set and training regimen as Getty came back to be her
coach. The path she took transformed her to an elite international competitor.
She never lost a cross-country race in Florida again and went on to finish third and 10th in national races
and earn a place on the junior national team.
Besides the recent removal of the braces she wore for two years, the 5-foot-5, 116-pound Barringer
doesn't look much different today than she did as a sophomore overwhelmed by the emotion of winning her
first state title. She considers herself a typical teenager, one shuffling schoolwork, a steady boyfriend,
extracurricular activities outside of running.
Barringer's words and actions indicate a newfound confidence, even a swagger masked by her
ever-present smile.
Her behavior after a big victory is more that of a prizefighter than a tired runner, as she pumps her fists,
yells in exultation and bobs up and down after finishing.
While ordering her sixth state championship ring after winning the 2004 cross-country title, she talks about
the other two ring styles she'd like in the spring as if they're already a given. She's got two track titles to
defend in 2005.
"It's a part of the struggle -- I go to every race in Florida and feel that I'm the best runner there," she said
about her desire not to cross the line between confidence and arrogance. "I go there to win. But I think that
the biggest thing for me is that I genuinely appreciate and like my competition. I never underestimate them."
Along with running, her 4.175 grade-point average and 1,320 out of a possible 1,600 on the SAT has put
her in the position to pick almost any school she wants. She's narrowed her choices to Duke, Notre Dame,
NC State, Colorado and Columbia. She's picked March 1 as her decision deadline.
If she ever stops racing, "running" for political office is her secondary ambition.
That is, if she tires of running on the road. Which right now, seems impossible to imagine.
"Even after San Diego, I left feeling that even if I have a bad race, I'm still one of the best," she said.
Copyright (c) 2004, Orlando Sentinel