Party Spirit Propels Padilla : Cartwheels, Colorful Attire Put Glendale Runner in Properly Festive Mood for Another Victory

It is relatively easy to pick out Grace Padilla in a crowd at a cross-country meet. Just look for a 5-foot-9, 115-pound brunette doing cartwheels during warmups. She will be wearing mismatched fluorescent socks and “custom-designed” racing shoes--self autographed--with neon laces.

“She’s crazy, but in a good way,” said Gretchen Lohr-Cruz, Padilla’s coach at Glendale College. “Going to run is like a party for her. She always has a good time.”

That much seems obvious. But just in case Padilla can’t be spotted before the race, there is a sure-fire way of finding her while it is being run.

Just look for the leader.

Padilla already has victories in the Mt. San Antonio College and Irvine invitationals this season. She also went undefeated against Western State Conference competition, leading Glendale to its first women’s conference title in cross-country since 1981.

Glendale is set to compete in the Southern California regional Nov. 9 at Balboa Park in San Diego. The top five teams and the first 15 individuals among the top 35 will qualify for the state meet Nov. 16 at Sierra College in Rocklin.

Padilla, 20, is expected to earn an invitation. But she is not worried about it. In fact, very little concerns her.

“I used to worry about what I wore or what people thought about me,” said Padilla, who transferred to Glendale from East Los Angeles College after the Huskies’ cross-country program was dropped in early September.

“Now, I don’t mind if people think I am different. People stop what they are doing to stare at me all the time but I don’t let it bother me anymore. I just do things the way I feel.”

The past two years, however, were troubling for Padilla.

Had she not charted her own course after graduating from South Gate High in 1989, Padilla said, she might already be married and working full time in her family’s garment-cutting business.

Three older sisters married within a year after finishing high school. Padilla’s stepfather discouraged her from going to college.

“I wanted to prove my dad wrong and that I was more than just a housewife,” said Padilla, the fourth of seven children.

“He thought it was a waste of money for me to go to college because he thought I was going to be like my sisters and thought I should go to work with him. I loved running and didn’t want to stop. I wanted to set an example and be the first in the family to go to college.”

Now she has attracted interest from such universities as UC Irvine, Fresno State, Northern Arizona and California.

Padilla seems to be getting better with age. After failing to advance past the City Section semifinals in the 800 as a senior at South Gate, she went on to qualify for last spring’s state track and field championships in the 800, 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000-meter races for East L.A.

Padilla, who has a best of 2 minutes 13 seconds in the 800 and 4:32.1 for 1,500 meters, was recruited out of high school by Cal State Los Angeles, but the coach quickly lost interest after seeing her doing cartwheels and wrestling with male teammates before a race.

“They thought I was too immature,” Padilla said.

Lacking the financial support needed to attend a four-year school, Padilla enrolled at East L.A. in the fall of 1989 and found an on-campus job. However, her cross-country season was wiped out by a knee injury suffered during training.

In October, Padilla was a passenger in a car that was totaled in a freeway accident.

She walked away with only cuts and bruises, but a medical examination afterward revealed a blood disorder that was diagnosed as leukemia.

She was hospitalized for nearly two weeks for tests and found to be anemic.

“I wasn’t eating right and I was always tired and falling asleep, but I never knew anything was wrong until the blood test was done,” Padilla said.

With medication and a proper diet, Padilla recovered in time for track season, but an ankle injury--again incurred during training--surfaced that sidelined her for four months after the season had ended.

Despite the injury, she managed to advance to the Southern California finals in the 800.

“I was running injured in all my races and by the time Southern California finals came up, I could barely warm up,” Padilla said.

Last fall, Padilla began training with Lohr-Cruz, who had just been hired as cross-country coach at East L.A. At first, Lohr-Cruz was skeptical about Padilla’s attitude toward running.

“She didn’t seem very serious, but she worked real hard and came to all the workouts,” said Lohr-Cruz, who placed sixth at 10,000 meters for Cal State L.A. in the 1988 NCAA Division I championships.

“She was out of shape when we first started running together, but I could tell she was trying real hard. When she started beating me in all the workouts, I knew she was going to be good.”

Padilla won the Southern California Athletic Conference title and felt confident about advancing to the state meet, but she finished 63rd in 21:40 in the Southern California regional at Irvine Park and failed to qualify.

She covered the same 5,000-meter course in winning the Irvine invitational in 18:13 this season.

“I felt so much pressure because it would be the first time going to the state meet,” Padilla said. “I couldn’t concentrate and remember counting everybody that went by, and when I knew I wouldn’t make it, I just gave up and started walking.”

Padilla trained with renewed determination for track. She developed a stress fracture in her right foot midway through the season but continued to train.

Although she placed third in the 1,500, sixth in the 5,000, eighth in the 3,000 and 10th in the 800 in the state meet, there still was disappointment.

“It was unbelievable to make it to the state meet in four events,” Padilla said.

“It was my dream to make it in just one. If I had not been hurt, I know I could have placed in the top one or two for all four events. Memories of it keep attacking me.

“It’s terrible and I can’t forget it.”

She was unable to train this summer because of the stress fracture, but even more disconcerting was that East L.A. had dropped its cross-country program and Lohr-Cruz had accepted the coaching position at Glendale.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Padilla said. “I wanted to stay at East L.A. but I wanted to keep running with my coach. There was not enough time to make up my mind to decide what university to go to.”

There also was insufficient time to enroll in all the courses that Padilla needed to earn her Associate in Arts degree at the end of this semester at Glendale.

She is taking two classes at East L.A. as well as carrying a full load at Glendale. But Padilla, who hopes to transfer to a four-year school this spring, is happy to be competing for Glendale in the interim.

“I’ve never had a team I could depend on,” Padilla said. “At East L.A., there were only two girls and they were never at practice. It’s been hard doing workouts and going to both schools, but I’m healthy and everything is going great.”

Even her stepfather, Marcos Quintero, is now supportive.

“I’m proud of her and never imagined that she would do as well as she has,” Quintero said. He added that had he not tried to discourage her from attending college, “I don’t think that she would have been as determined as she is to finish school.”

Helping her younger brother, Fred Quintero, a freshman at Long Beach City College, get started in college is as important as finishing school for Padilla. She refuses any financial support from her stepfather so that her brother might be able to attend a four-year university.

“My dad can’t afford to send both of us through college,” Padilla said. “Running has always helped me do well in school and I hope it can help me earn a scholarship and get a degree.

“I want to stand out and be noticed this season.”

That should not be a problem.