RUNNING / BARBIE LUDOVISE : Whiteley Will Put Aside Pain Today in Germany

All Greg Whiteley was looking for last month was a little R & R: running and relaxation. With the biggest competition of his life--the World Championships--only weeks away, Whiteley figured a trip would do him good.

So the former University High School star hopped in his car with his hound dog, Lucy, and drove from his home in Eugene, Ore., to his parents’ vacation cabin near Mendocino for a quick training getaway.

If only he had taken the bus.

Whiteley says the four-hour drive, along twisty, hilly Highway 1, left him with severe tendinitis in his shin, thanks to his continual use of the clutch. He didn’t realize the injury’s severity until he was 10 miles into an easy, 11-mile training run later that afternoon.

“It came on in the last mile--just boom ,” Whiteley said. “It’s the most bizarre injury ever.”

He’ll try to block it out of his mind today, though, as he competes in the first round of the men’s 5,000 meters at the World Championships at Stuttgart, Germany.

Although the tendinitis made it too painful to run during the final three weeks of July--he tried to keep in shape by running in the pool--Whiteley is thinking positive.

“My goal is to make it to the finals (scheduled for Monday) and get some real world-class experience,” said Whiteley, 26. “I have nothing to lose. I’m going to step on the line and give everything I have. That’s why I run. This just makes it more of a challenge.”

However Whiteley fares, it will be impressive by Orange County standards. Other than Mary Decker Slaney, who attended Orange High, Whiteley is the only runner from a county high school to compete in the prestigious meet.

He is considered by many to be among the nation’s most promising runners. At the U.S. Olympic trials in 1992, Whiteley barely missed qualifying for the team, finishing fourth in the 1,500. In February of this year, he set a pending American 5K road record at the Grand Bahamas 5,000 in 13:26. (The record won’t be official until it’s ratified at the USA Track & Field convention in November). At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene in June, Whiteley ran a career-best 13:24.55, meeting the qualifying standard for Stuttgart by 2 1/2 seconds.

Despite his success, Whiteley says he doesn’t let running control his life. When he traveled to the Bahamas in February, he did so to earn his diving certification as much as he did to race. And although he’s taking a semester off from law school in at the University of Oregon, he is working toward a real estate license and a pilot’s license, just for fun.

“I need it,” Whiteley said. “It’s the only mental challenge I get.”

Whiteley, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brown, where he was a five-time All-American, says he is looking forward to joining the work force. But running is his career for now.

“I have sort of realized if I want to be the best I can be, I can’t work,” he said. “I despise the running lifestyle, but to compete on the international level that’s what you have to do. That’s what everyone does.”

“I think I’m two years away from being real competitive.”

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They have gobbled nearly a ton of lasagna. Floods in the Midwest have forced the runners to detour180 miles.

Yes, we’re talking the Trans-American Footrace here. The latest update on the second annual Huntington Beach-to-New York City ultra-ultramarathon:

As of Friday, the 64-day race had entered its 55th stage, with six of the original 13 runners still competing. Most of the drop-outs were because of to stomach ailments, none particularly serious. Race director Jesse Riley said the greatest problem so far has been the massive flooding in the Midwest.

“The Mississippi was 12 miles wide. It was huge ,” Riley said. “It looked like an ocean out there.”

Ray Bell of Hudson, Fla., is the overall leader. Thursday night, he finished Stage 55 (60 1/4 miles, from St. Clairsville, Ohio, to Monongahela, Pa.) in 11 hours 33 minutes 8 seconds, giving him a 16-hour 14-minute overall lead over Patrick Farmer of Sydney, Australia. Lorna Michael of Wausau, Wis., is in third, almost 98 hours behind Bell. She is followed by Ed Kelley of Long Beach.

Bell and Farmer are on pace to break the Trans-Am record, set last year by Huntington Beach’s David Warady. This is bad news for Warady, who promised Farmer a dinner “at the restaurant of his choice,” if he broke his record.

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Olympic marathoner Jeff Galloway will be in Orange County today and Sunday to offer an orientation to his six-month marathon training program, geared toward first-time marathoners. Galloway will be at Newport Ski Co., 2700 West Coast Highway, Newport Beach, from noon to 3 p.m. today and at A Snail’s Pace, 8780 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

The six-month program costs $99 and includes a T-shirt, a racing singlet, clinics on everything from nutrition to mind control, personalized training programs and a copy of “Galloway’s Book On Running.” Runners will meet once a week for training runs, gradually increasing their mileage until they are properly conditioned for the marathon distance.

For more information, call Newport Ski Co. at (714) 631-3280, ext. 78, or A Snail’s Pace at (714) 842-2337.

Notes

Local coach/race director/masters runner Bill Sumner of Irvine is hoping to get 1,000 local runners to join his California Coast Track Club. Sumner hopes the club, which currently has 289 members, will help unite the local running community with scheduled fun runs, track workouts, etc., at four sites county-wide. It is open to all levels, beginner to elite, from ages 8 to 80. “But if you’re over 80 and still want to run, we want to talk to you,” Sumner said. For more information call (714) 854-3266. . . . Brian Slingsby of Newport Beach qualified for the World Triathlon Championships at Manchester, England, Aug. 22. Slingsby, who will be a junior at Corona del Mar High in the fall, is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation for ages 15-17. . . . Heather Killeen, Steve Frisone and twins Andrew and Michael Tansley, all of Cal State Fullerton, took off Aug. 6 for three weeks of high altitude training/camping through New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and the Sierras. They plan to average 100 miles a week and run up Pikes Peak (elevation 14,110 feet) on the way.