After Graduation, Smaller Joys Keep Them on Stride

You accept your diploma, toss your cap in the air, and as that final rendition of “Pomp and Circumstance” fades away, you--the above-average college distance runner--start your march into the real world.

Next stop, athletic nowheresville.

It’s a place many post-collegiate runners know all too well. Suddenly without coaches, teammates or a familiar routine, most runners just out of college find themselves in a void in terms of motivation and development.

Unlike baseball, there is no minor league system. Unlike football, there’s no running equivalent of a Canadian Football League or World League of American Football. And unless you’re among the best of the best, there’s little chance you’ll be running into financial fortunes on the European track circuit or international road-racing scene.

But a few find a way to stick with it nonetheless.

Laura Cattivera and Devon Martin know, like their peers, they might be well on their way to some mover-shaker type of career by now, befitting their Ivy League diplomas and sharp minds.

But Cattivera (Princeton, ‘89) and Martin (Columbia, ‘90) are not interested in joining the rat race just yet. Instead, the 23-year-old roommates from Balboa Peninsula continue to live, train and hope for faster times on the track.

Next week, they will compete in The Athletics Congress Track and Field Championships at Randall’s Island in New York City. Cattivera will run the 3,000-meter preliminaries Thursday. Martin runs the 1,500 prelims Friday. Finals in both events are Saturday.

Although neither expects to win, Cattivera and Martin are excited about the opportunity to compete against the best in the nation. Cattivera has run 9 minutes 17.40 seconds for 3,000 meters, and hopes the fast pace at TACs will help carry her to the Olympic Trials qualifying standard of 9:13.00. Martin has met the Trials 1,500-meter standard of 4:16.70 with a 4:15.96 performance last month.

Not bad for two women who, until a few years ago, were on the verge of hanging up their spikes.

Cattivera ran 60 to 70 miles a week while at Mira Costa High School. The high mileage, about twice the norm for high school girls, produced fast times and injuries. From her sophomore year in high school to her freshman year at Princeton, Cattivera was set back by stress fractures in her legs on five occasions. She considered giving up the sport for good.

By her senior year in college, though, she was healthy and running well. She was fifth in the 3,000 at the 1989 NCAA Championships, earning All-American status.

Martin’s collegiate career was not quite so illustrious. But then neither was the Columbia track program, which had three women’s track coaches in Martin’s four years. Most of the time, she trained alone but managed to improve each year. She qualified for NCAAs last spring, but did not reach the finals.

“Laura and I ran against each other a lot in college,” Martin says. “But it wasn’t like she worried about me beating her.”

“Yeah,” Cattivera says, teasing. “We didn’t get too worried when Columbia came to our school for a meet.”

It’s obvious the two are good friends now, though it probably helps that they’re in different events. The two women--both of whom compete for the Nike Coast track club--say they’re each other’s main support system, crucial in the lonely long-distance runner’s world.

“The day after Christmas, we’re out there on the track together,” Martin says. “That’s not the kind of thing that’s fun to do on your own.”

But they’re lucky. They have a coach--UCI track Coach Vince O’Boyle--to help direct them. O’Boyle invites other promising post-collegiate runners to train with Irvine’s team. It’s a nurturing environment, one that’s difficult to find in many parts of the country.

While they work in not-so-glamorous jobs--Cattivera is a manager trainee at Big 5, Martin a substitute teacher at a private elementary school in Fountain Valley--they are aware that many of their college friends are pursuing careers full-time.

That seems toughest on Martin, who hopes to go back to school to get a master’s and Ph.D. in ancient history of Mediterranean archeology and become a college professor. Last year, she published the “Columbia Guide to New York,” a 140-plus-page paperback restaurant/theater/etc. guide for students. As publisher, she supervised a staff of 35 and was entitled to 70% of all profits from the book sales.

Her take? $33,000.

Why continue training? Cattivera and Martin are used to the question. Sometimes, they ask it themselves. The popular answer would be “to make the Olympic team,” but both know that when only three runners out of thousands make the team for each event, chances are not great--at least for 1992.

It comes down to smaller joys: faster times, the chance of making a national team, the possibility of racing in front of 40,000 fans in Europe, the thrill of beating big-name runners . . .

“There’s a lot more to it than the Olympics,” Cattivera says. “Though sometimes it’s like you have to hang on to this half-life in order to keep competing. My college coach told me, ‘Give it more than a year because you’ll run into all these new (obstacles) once you get out of college.

“I try to keep that in mind.”

Race Schedule:

Saturday: Corona del Mar Scenic 5K. Ocean Boulevard at Jasmine Avenue, Corona del Mar. Men’s race 8 a.m., women’s race 8:30. Limited registration. Information: 644-3151.

Sunday: Mulliken Medical Center 5K. Starts on the track at Cal State Long Beach, 7:30 a.m. Information: (213) 496-4760.

Thursday: Summer Shadow Series four-mile run. Fairview Park (adjacent to Estancia High School, 2323 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa). 6:30 p.m. Information: 540-2368.