Older Is Better : Diana Tracy, 37, Mother of 2, Leads El Camino Distance Runners

Diana Tracy says being twice as old as most of her competitors isn’t a problem. She has proven it by succeeding in both cross-country and track at El Camino College.

At 37, the 5-foot-5, 112-pound freshman is by far the Warriors’ top distance runner. She was a star on the cross-country team in the fall, and this spring she’s the Warriors’ ace in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters.

“We had no hesitations about her age,” said El Camino cross-country Coach Dean Lofgren, who is also an assistant track coach. “In 1987 and 1988 we had Mary Hazell, who was a 32-year-old mother of three, and she was a solid performer. We knew Diana would do well. We don’t think her age is at all a limiting factor.”

Tracy says competing at a junior college simply feels like running with her 20-year-old daughter, Lisa, a former cross-country runner at Mira Costa High who attends Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“People will say, ‘How do you feel about running with the kids?’ ” Tracy said, smiling. “Well, I’ll tell you: I feel like I’m with my daughter. It’s like a big family.”

There is a difference, however. Tracy hardly acts like a mother around her teen-age competition. She’s always out to win.

Tracy is intense, dedicated and focused, despite a schedule that’s probably twice as hectic as those of her fellow junior college runners.

“Everyone just sees her as an athlete,” said Carla Swaim, a track and cross-country teammate of Tracy’s. “Being married and having kids and all that stuff just makes it all more amazing.”

Tracy, a nursing major, is up at 5:30 every morning to study; then she feeds and bathes her 2-year-old daughter, Lindsay, before taking her to nursery school.

After that, she goes to class all day, attends track practice in the afternoon, picks up her daughter from school, makes dinner and studies some more.

Twice a week she trains with Lindsay to avoid getting a baby-sitter. Tracy runs seven miles on The Strand in Hermosa Beach while pushing Lindsay in a baby jogger.

“My life never stops,” she said, sitting in the living room of her Hermosa Beach home. “I try to relax, but it’s just not easy. Running . . . it’s an addiction!”

It has proven to be a positive addiction that turned her life around. Ten years ago, Tracy said, she was a completely different person--a heavy smoker and drinker who occasionally jogged with an old boyfriend. She would run a couple of miles, and “as soon as I was done, I lit up and popped open a beer.”

Tracy married at 16 and had her first daughter a year later. Before her second marriage five years ago, Tracy lived with Lisa in a Hermosa Beach apartment near the house she lives in now.

The time in between marriages, she said, was a wild period in which she did a lot of partying.

“I was not a healthy person,” Tracy said, grinning. “I was such a disgusting smoker, my friends used to say: ‘Diana, you smell like hell!’ So I went to a clinic that guaranteed I’d stop for $600.”

That was nine years ago. The former Delta Airlines flight attendant said everything changed after she kicked her 13-year nicotine habit.

Within four months, Tracy had intensified her workouts and finished two marathons, in Bakersfield and the Napa Valley. That launched her competitive running career, which includes several 10-kilometer race victories and a Redondo Beach 10-K baby-jogger division title.

“I found that running was the only thing that gave me confidence,” Tracy said. “The more I improve with running, the better I feel. I’ve never felt so good about myself.”

Tracy is so obsessed, she planned to run intensely up to the moment she went into labor with Lindsay. As it turned out, she had to stop five months into the pregnancy. But 10 days after giving birth, she went on a 3 1/2-mile run.

“I’m just driven,” she said, laughing.

At El Camino, Tracy has been a sensation. She led the Warriors in every cross-country meet she entered after the first, in which she fainted toward the end of the three-mile Irvine course.

She capped the season by leading El Camino with a third-place finish at the state cross-country meet in Fresno. She finished in 18:14, on the heels of San Diego City College’s Donagh Bruni (18:08) and Sue Chek (18:11).

Tracy was named the team’s Most Valuable Player and received a large trophy that sits in her living room.

“She has lots of ambition,” Lofgren said. “She just has a lot of strive and initiative and a strong desire to succeed, to do well.”

Tracy credits Lofgren for her immediate success. “Dean is responsible for me doing so well,” she said. “He always has new goals and he really motivates me. I wish he could run every race with me because I run so much better with him.”

Her solo act isn’t bad either. Tracy has already qualified in both her events (5,000 and 3,000 meters) for the state track meet at Santa Barbara City College in May. Her 17:35.2 finish at the Bronco Invitational on March 17 broke a 5,000-meter school record. That mark is also No. 1 in the state.

“She’s a stud,” said Swaim, 20. “She’s in a league all her own.”

Swaim was El Camino’s cross-country star until Tracy came along a couple of meets into the season. Though she liked Tracy from the start, Swaim said it was difficult to see her No. 1 spot slip away.

“She’s very likeable and we hit it off real well,” Swaim said, “but at first it was frustrating because here I was working real hard and she just came in and did great. I learned from her that if you work hard, it pays off. She’s definitely an example of that.”

Tracy says she’ll continue running as long as her body holds up. She figures that will be a long time, even though she’s much older than the competition.