Arturo Barrios Finally Running Into His Own

It wasn’t enough that he had just brought 35,000 fans to their feet. That his performance--a 27-minute 8.23-second run in the 10,000 meters--had slashed nearly six seconds off the world record. That, moments later, on the track of Olympic Stadium in West Berlin, he had collapsed--not in exhaustion, but in the sheer joy of a rather incredulous moment.

“It was like . . . I did it. It’s mine ,” he said.

But when Arturo Barrios went to get up off the track on that warm evening in August, the mob of photographers surrounding him demanded more.

“It was crazy. I was trying to get up but the photographers said, ‘No, no, no! Stay down! One more picture! One more picture!’ ” Barrios said.

Once again, a world-class performance wasn’t enough to satisfy everyone surrounding Arturo Barrios.

Since he started running 11 years ago, Barrios, a 26-year-old native of Mexico, has developed into one of the world’s best. Along with his world record in the 10,000, Barrios last summer set Mexican national records in the 1,500 (3:37), 3,000 (7:35) and 5,000 (13:07).

But until about four years ago, Barrios--who is in Orange County this week to promote a Nov. 26 road race to benefit Latino education--was largely unknown.

Victor Lopez, women’s track and field coach at Rice University, met Barrios in 1980 at the Central American Junior track and field championships in the Bahamas. There, Lopez said, he watched Barrios win the 5,000, 10,000, 1,500, and place second in the 800 meters.

“After the meet, I introduced myself,” Lopez said. “And a few months later, I was in a meeting at the Olympic Center in Mexico City, and Arturo came to the office to talk with me. He asked if I could take him to the (United States). I asked him the basic question: ‘Do you know English?’ He said no, but he was willing to learn.”

Weeks later, Lopez told Barrios that Rice men’s coach, Steve Straub, was offering Barrios a scholarship, but he first would have to complete two years at a community college. Lopez helped Barrios settle in Houston, enrolled him at nearby Wharton Community College and helped him get a job as a busboy in a Mexican restaurant.

Although Barrios had a mediocre freshman season, he prospered as a sophomore, winning both the 5,000 and steeplechase events at the national community college championships. After the races, scholarship offers from many of the nation’s top track schools started pouring in.

“But I told everybody no,” Barrios said. “I was certain I was going to Rice.”

But Lopez had some bad news. Straub had revoked the scholarship offer.

“The men’s coach did not think Arturo would be the runner he has become,” Lopez said, sighing. Straub could not be reached for comment.

“(Straub) said, ‘You won’t improve. You’re as good as you’re gonna be,’ ” said Barrios, who eventually transferred to Texas A&M; where, along with earning a degree in mechanical engineering, he placed second in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. 10,000-meter final his senior year.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said of losing the scholarship at Rice. “I won two events at nationals. What did it take?”

Barrios asked a similar question last year after the Seoul Olympics. Before the Games, Barrios said, the Mexican media hyped him extensively. After he finished fifth, the reaction was just the opposite.

“I was crucified by the press in Mexico, they really, really killed me,” Barrios said. “They called me a traitor. They called me all kinds of names. They said I didn’t try. It was very hard for my family, especially my mother.”

Barrios, who lives with his wife, Joy, in Boulder, Colo., said they waited three months after the Olympics before visiting Mexico. And now, even with a world record to his name, he still refuses interviews with the Mexican press.

“Now they’re saying I’m rude and uneducated,” Barrios said. “I tell my mother, ‘Don’t even buy the newspaper. And when you see sports on TV, turn it off.’ She does. It’s become very upsetting for her.”

Barrios seems genuinely modest and down to earth. Asked about this, he said, “I think you have to treat people like human beings. I don’t want people to treat me like a superstar because I’m not.”

Perhaps that helps to explain why Barrios, who is in demand around the world, chose to lend his name, time and energy to the Arturo Barrios Invitational 10K scheduled for Nov. 26 at Santa Ana. The race, which will include a world-class field competing for $20,000 in prize money, is being organized by Barrios’ friend, Tim Murphy, who directs Elite Racing, a sports marketing firm.

Proceeds from the race, which will be run in conjunction with The Times’ Orange County Edition Holiday Parade, will benefit Latino education in Orange County.

“It was Tim’s idea, and we thought it was a good idea, too,” Barrios said. “The main thing is to try to encourage people to do something (with their lives).”

Barrios, who on Thursday will be named Runner of the Year for 1989 by Runner’s World magazine, emphasizes that his was not a get-fast-quick story.

He started running at 15 because, he says, his 5-foot-5, 99-pound frame dictated it. “Everyone said, ‘You’re small. You’re skinny. Run, you’ll be good at it,’ ” Barrios said.

At that point, Barrios said, he never envisioned himself a world-record holder. His dream was to become a petroleum engineer, he said, because in oil-rich Mexico that was where the money was. “Getting my degree, that was always the most important thing,” said Barrios, who plans to pursue a master’s in business administration after retiring from competition.

But after finishing second in the NCAA meet as a senior in 1985, Barrios decided to give running his best effort. He returned to Mexico and asked his family for support.

“I explained to them I thought I could do something in running,” he said. “I asked them if they would help me out, support me for a year. I said if it doesn’t pay off, I’ll start working and pay you back.”

His family agreed. ‘My brother even gave me his car, a Volkswagen,” he said. “He rode the subway.”

A year later in a 10K road race in Phoenix, Barrios, still somewhat of an unknown, set the current world best (27:41) for a loop course. From that day, his reputation as a strong, tenacious road racer has gone without question.

Barrios entered the West Berlin 10,000-meter race Aug. 18 knowing, if conditions were right, he would try to break the 27:13.81 mark set by Fernando Mamede of Portugal in 1984.

Olympians Doug Padilla, the U.S. record-holder at 3,000 meters, and Steve Plasencia took turns setting the pace of 65-second laps in the 25 1/2-lap race.

“They wanted me to go 3,000 meters, 4,000 meters if I could,” Padilla said. “I ended up going nine laps (almost 4,000 meters).” Plasencia took over after Padilla dropped out, pacing Barrios through the 5,000-meter mark.

“At the halfway point, people were yelling, ‘You can do it! You can do it!’ ” Barrios said. “I wasn’t sure. But with three laps to go, I thought, ‘I can do it.’ With two laps to go, I knew I had it. When I crossed the finish line, it was like, ‘What do you say? What do you do?’

“I think it will be one of the most exciting moments for me in my life. I know someone will break the record--that’s what they’re for. But the way I feel is that we--me, my wife, my coach (Tadeusz Kepka of Poland)--have made history. No matter what happens, that’s always there.

“But I’m just another human being, and I was just at the right place at the right time. . . . I believe if you work for it, you can accomplish anything you want. I know because it happened to me. You have to be a dreamer.”