IT’S ANOTHER CYCLE OF LIFE : Shari Bowen Gives Up Distance Running in Favor of Competitive Bicycle Racing

As a teen-ager growing up in the small town of Cambria, Calif., Shari Bowen was an outstanding distance runner. But by the time she was a high school senior, she had accrued so many injuries from running that she was forced to abandon the sport she had long enjoyed.

Not wanting to give up athletics entirely, though, she began looking for an equally demanding sport she could participate in without being hindered by leg injuries.

The librarian at Bowen’s school and a good friend of hers, Alan Wallace, encouraged her to take up the sport he had been so avidly involved in for years--bicycle racing.

She took his advice, and in the seven years since, she has developed into one of the top 20 road racers in the country.

Bowen, who lives in Santa Ana, is a member of the U.S. national team and holds several titles, including the California district championship. During the past two weeks, she finished fifth in the road race at the National Sports Festival, seventh in the national time trials, and managed to recover from a collision in the road race of the nationals to place 12th.

She credits Wallace’s influence as being instrumental in her development.

“He was a racer, so he knew what he was talking about,” Bowen said in a telephone conversation from Indianapolis, where she was competing in the cycling track events of the nationals last week. “I went on training rides with him, and really learned a lot. I think you really need someone like that to get you going, because of the mechanical and tactical things involved. There aren’t a lot of people around who know a lot about competitive cycling.”

Especially in Cambria, which isn’t exactly America’s center of attraction for any sport, much less cycling. In order to fully develop her cycling skills, then, Bowen realized she had to learn in an environment which was more conducive to doing so.

So, in 1979, she moved to Southern California to take advantage of the many cycling activities and competitions which occur year round. Soon after, Bowen earned herself a sponsorship, and began competing regularly in events throughout the country.

She also discovered a new mentor, Glen Baldwin, who has been her close friend and coach for the past six years. Having also been a competitive cyclist for several years, Baldwin had the necessary knowledge to hone Bowen’s talents.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Bowen said. “It really helps that he knows me, too. He helps me not only mechanically, but psychologically also. He tells me the things that I need, and what I can do without pushing myself too far.”

While Baldwin can push her, the hard work needed to keep in top racing form is strictly up to Bowen. And the training regimen required in competitive cycling is a demanding one indeed.

During the racing season, which runs from March through October, she rides in 30 to 40 races and adheres to a stringent daily workout routine. She rides a stationary bike for an hour or two, three times a day, including during her two-hour lunch break at the physical therapy office where she works.

Every Wednesday after work, she spends 40 minutes or so having Baldwin “motor pace” her--that is, he rides a moped at speeds up to 40 m.p.h. while she keeps pace riding her bicycle.

In addition, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she rides a 45-mile circuit over hills in the mornings, and in the evenings rides a flat course through the streets of Long Beach. Then on the weekends she goes on training rides, usually including an organized road race on Sunday.

Despite her efforts, however, Bowen, 23, still hasn’t quite reached the level of the best road cyclists in America. Last year, she finished 18th in the Olympic team trials, which wasn’t nearly good enough to earn herself a berth in the 1984 Games.

And, in national competitions and other major races, her role is usually what is known as a domestique. It is the domestique’s job to try to slow down the pack at appropriate times during the race in order to help one of her teammates win.

For example, in the national and Sports Festival road races, it was Bowen’s duty to be a domestique for Katrin Todin, who is one of the finest racers on The Winning Club, Bowen’s cycling team.

Bowen doubtless could have fared somewhat better in those races had it not been for the role she was assigned, but the purpose of a racing team is to work together to give its top one or two riders every possible advantage.

“A lot of people don’t realize it, but you have to do a lot of team work,” she said. “It’s a little frustrating sometimes. Only one person goes up to the podium. You work for somebody, and only two will get recognition. People don’t come and say, ‘You know, you really did well helping your teammate out.’ ”

However, Baldwin says Bowen has tremendous potential, and believes she can become an Olympian if she applies herself towards that goal.

“If she wants to dedicate all of her time and energy into it, she can compete in the ’88 Olympics,” Baldwin said. “But it takes a total commitment.”

Bowen had no doubt in her mind she is capable of attaining that goal, but she isn’t sure whether she is willing to make the necessary sacrifices.

“It’s tough to give up four years of your life,” she said. “And usually you give all that up and end up not making the team, but coming real damn close. It would be something to give up all that time and energy and not make it. I’m giving up a lot right now, and I’m not at that level (of Olympians).

“And there’s so many things you have to give up that people just don’t realize. Like right now my sister just got in an accident, and I feel I should be there with her. Things like that happen all the time. It’s not only devotion, you have to be real selfish. I guess I have to decide how selfish I want to be.”

For now, Bowen would rather just worry about her immediate goals, such as qualifying for her first world team as a road racer. Also, in the future she would like to concentrate more on her track events.

“I’ve been doing road racing longer, so I’m better at it,” Bowen said. “I would really like to get more into track racing, though. I’d like to get accomplished at it. I’ve just dabbled in it. For next year, I’d like to do more pursuit (a velodrome event lasting just over a minute).”

But she realizes it would be impossible to attempt to become a top racer on both the road and the track.

“You really can’t do both,” she said. “It’s like trying to be a marathoner and a sprinter at the same time. (Cycling) sprinters are usually very strong--weight lifter types. You know, simple-minded folk. I wouldn’t want to change that drastically to do that.”

Apparently, the move from running to cycling is the last change of sports Shari Bowen wants to make.