Racking Up the (S)miles : As Long as It’s Fun, Julia Stamps, 16, Will Keep Running Toward an Increasingly Bright Future

Julia Stamps, who says she is tired of being compared to former Olympian Mary Decker Slaney, is busy creating her own image.

She dresses in fancy sweaters and skirts, has long, blond hair and would seem more at home at polo games than cross-country meets. Articulate, intelligent and well-mannered, she acts years beyond her age, 16.

Stamps, a sophomore at Santa Rosa High, bombs around Northern California’s wine country in a fancy red sports car with a cellular phone. She considers herself a girl on the go.

“I’m usually up at 5 o’clock in morning,” she said. “There is just so much going on every day. There’s no time to sleep in.”

Although she might not fit the part, Stamps has established herself as one of America’s premier distance runners. On almost any given Saturday, she can be found at one of the most prestigious meets or road races in the country. And she wins many of the events she enters.

Since seriously taking up running three years ago, Stamps has set numerous records. Last year, for instance, her time of 9 minutes 28.5 seconds for 3,000 meters was a national record for freshmen.

She followed that by winning the 3,200-meter run at the California Interscholastic Federation’s state track meet in Cerritos last June, finishing 25 seconds ahead of the second-place runner. She was in junior high at the time.

Her first semester of high school produced similar results. She won the state Division I cross-country meet in Fresno last November in a record time of 17:06 for 3.1 miles. The next best time was 18:01.

Two weeks later, she won the Foot Locker junior national cross-country championships in San Diego by 30 seconds.

At the junior world cross-country championships in Hungary last March, Stamps placed 44th but was the top American finisher. At 15, she was also one of the youngest participants.

“She is a one-in-a-trillion find,” said Doug Speck, a frequent contributor to Track & Field News and the organizer of the annual Arcadia Prep Invitational. “She has a sense about her and a personality that fully understands what is happening. She should finish high school as the most dominant runner in state history.”

Stamps, however, does not dwell on the past or try to predict the future. She runs because she enjoys the exercise and the physical “high” it provides.

Compared frequently to Decker Slaney, one of America’s best-known distance runners, Stamps said she does not think of such things. She also does not worry that running will result in burnout or injuries, which have plagued Slaney’s career.

“I just go out and enjoy myself,” Stamps said. “I don’t think about the negatives. Then it wouldn’t be fun.”

Stamps, an only child, has had an active life. She rides horses and is an avid skier. She took up competitive soccer when she was 10 but turned to running after being cut from the team.

By the time she was 13, Stamps was competing in age-group meets across the country. She found her niche in the distance races after persuading a coach to let her try the two-mile.

Her results rapidly improved two years ago after she hooked up with Dan Aldridge, a two-time national champion in the 1,500 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the mid-1970s. Aldridge, who has run a sub-four minute mile, lives in Santa Rosa and coaches several of the area’s top runners.

His technique is unusual, but the results are impressive. He meets with Stamps only once a week and rarely goes to her races. He does not talk about goals or say how he thinks she might perform. He monitors her workouts but leaves the level of effort up to her.

Stamps rarely practices or competes with the high school teams. She does most of her training alone, running the hills of Annadel State Park, next to the 4,000-square-foot home she shares with her parents, Dan and Valerie Stamps.

Valerie does not like her daughter running alone, so often follows behind on her horse. Stamps’ father sometimes tags along as well, on his mountain bike.

Dan and Valerie try to be supportive without getting in the way. Aldridge made it clear he would not coach Stamps if she had “Little League parents.”

“We’re not living our dreams through our daughter,” Valerie said. “Running was her own idea, and if she decided to do something else, that would be fine as well.”

Valerie has been careful to make sure her daughter stays healthy and does not suffer from many of the problems confronting young girls who train hard. Stamps gets regular blood tests and already has been treated for anemia and iron deficiencies.

Like many distance runners, Stamps carefully monitors her weight but has received counseling to help prevent eating disorders. At 5 feet 7 and 103 pounds, she said she is comfortable with her size.

She knocks on wood when discussing her injury-free career, but Stamps did have a medical scare last year. After complaining of stomach pains for a week, she was admitted to the hospital in October and was found to have been walking around for a week with a burst appendix. That was further complicated by peritonitis, an abdominal inflammation.

Stamps missed two months of school, but while recuperating at home often sneaked out for a run.

“I couldn’t stand not getting any exercise,” she said. “It was bad enough missing the state cross-country meet, but I couldn’t do nothing the whole time.”

Stamps has been on a fast track ever since. She runs 40-50 miles a week, uses a treadmill, lifts weights and does speed work on the track at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Although she has more than two years of high school eligibility remaining, she already is distancing herself from such competition. Except for meets leading to state events, most of her races are against top college and amateur competition.

She will run in the open mile at the Sunkist Invitational Saturday night at the Sports Arena, for example, competing against a field of such nationally ranked runners as Ceci St. Geme, last year’s national 5,000-meter champion, Michelle DiMuro and Sarah Thorsett, and Canada’s Sarah Howell.

With the junior world cross-country qualifying meet the next weekend in Birmingham, Ala., and the outdoor track season starting shortly thereafter, it seems Stamps never gets a rest.

As her high school class president, Stamps also is busy planning a dance and working on getting a date. She is used to criticism that she does not lead a normal lifestyle because of running, but she said she is doing exactly what she wants.

She says she is comfortable with media attention, receives at least one piece of fan mail a day and has become a local hero in Santa Rosa, often recognized in public and asked for autographs. She gets to travel to meets all over the country and world.

But she does not talk about the future, not even the Olympics, and said her only plan is that she has no plan.

“I’m happy and that’s what counts,” Stamps said. “When it’s not fun, I’ll move on.”