Stay on Course, Barrios Urges : Running: World record-holder, here for race bearing his name, offers stay-in-school advice to Chula Vista students.

Arturo Barrios has a degree from Texas A&M; in mechanical engineering. Steve Scott has a degree in criminal justice. Joe Falcon earned his in exercise physiology.

None has had to use their respective educations, so it was ironic that they spoke to students at Chula Vista High on Friday afternoon stressing the importance of staying in school and continuing through college.

But since few people place engineers, parole officers or gym instructors on cultural pedestals, it was appropriate that Barrios, the world record-holder at 10,000 meters (27:08.23 on the track), Scott, who has run 132 sub-four minute miles, and Falcon, among the top young American milers, tried for the attention of a segment of the local MTV generation.

Did they succeed? No sign of apprehension appeared on any face after the dismissal bell rang and students from classrooms poured into the halls. Those assembled in the cafeteria remained seated and attentive.

Whether the message got through can’t be known, but Art Johnson, who teaches at Chula Vista Junior High, where Barrios spoke last October, thinks Barrios has made his point.

“This year they (the junior high students) have been pestering and pestering, ‘When is (Barrios) coming? Is he coming back?’ ” Johnson said. “If the kids are asking, my feeling is his message got across.”

The three runners are in town for Sunday’s Chula Vista Arturo Barrios Invitational, a 10-kilometer road race along the harbor.

It is the third year Barrios has lent his name to the race, the proceeds of which go to furthering education goals of the immediate community. The $12,000 raised last year bought a van that shuttles students from latchkey homes to after-school programs.

The previous year, when the race was in Santa Ana, $17,000 was raised and divided into 18 scholarships and given to students who otherwise would have been unable to afford tuition.

Barrios has not only used the race to raise funds, but also as a stage from which to preach his belief to stay in school no matter what it takes.

At least one student sensed some irony in what he was hearing on Friday and directed a straightforward question at Barrios:

Did you go to college on scholarship?

The answer was yes.

“I was using my legs to go to school,” Barrios said. “But it wasn’t really a free education because I was doing something for the school and the school was doing something for me.”

Only an hour earlier, Barrios, who grew up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of Mexico City, faced a similar question during a news conference. Where would he be today without that scholarship?

“That’s one of those questions without an answer,” Barrios said. “I don’t know where I would be. Maybe in Mexico without a degree? Maybe in Mexico running?”

Barrios, 28, did not begin running competitively until he was 15 and a junior in high school. He only kept on because he was getting daily encouragement.

“My coach was very relaxed. Some coaches are very demanding and insist you show up every day and run 100 miles every week. But my coach wasn’t like that. He was more like, ‘Look, if you want to come every day, I’ll be here.’

“And since I just started running, I improved very quickly. My coach was impressed so he told me, ‘If you keep training, you’re going to do something.’

“It was one of those situations where I was in the right place at the right time. I was very lucky.”

Barrios realizes his situation represents an aberration--few youths growing up in Mexico City, or anywhere else for that matter, find themselves in the right place at the right time.

“But that’s because they don’t know they have opportunities,” Barrios said. “No one tells them you can become a runner, you can be whatever. No one tells them, ‘You can do it.’

“In one sense, you have to be in the right place at the right time, but you also have to look for those opportunities.”

CHULA VISTA ARTURO BARRIOS 10K

What--A five-kilometer people’s run, a 10-kilometer people’s run and a 10-kilometer invitational. Entries will be accepted the morning of the event.

When--The 5K begins at 7:45 a.m., the people’s 10K at 8:30 and the invitational at 9:45.

Where--Along the Chula Vista Harbor (take J Street exit from I-5). The multi-loop course offers spectators seven opportunities to view the leaders and was the fastest 10K course in California last year.

Who--The men’s elite field includes: Utah’s Ed Eyestone (10K best--27:41), Kenya’s William Musyoki (28:02), Texas’ Harry Green (28:19), Folsom’s Brian Abshire (28:35), Arizona’s Bo Reed (28:11), New Zealand’s Rex Wilson (28:22), Coronado’s Thom Hunt, whose bib number, 33, is the same as his age and the same number he wore when he won the Trib 10K and Tom Sullivan 10K in Torrance (27:59). Women: Bonita’s Jeanne Lasse-Johnson, who won the Trib 10K earlier this year; Canada’s Sue Lee, Washington’s Lisa Weidenbach, Mexico’s Olga Appell and Colorado’s Diane Brewer.

Why--Race promoters expect to raise $27,000 for local education needs. There is a $20,000 prize purse to be distributed among the top invitational finishers, including $4,000 to the men’s and women’s winner.