Fleshman’s Pain Is Toughest Course

Lauren Fleshman of Canyon High has one wish when it comes to running Saturday morning in the girls’ individual sweepstakes race of the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational cross-country meet.

She wants to run pain free.

Not free of the pain that comes with running six-minute miles over a hilly, three-mile course. But free of the gut-wrenching stomach pain that forced her to drop out of the Woodbridge and Kenny Staub invitationals earlier this season.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” Fleshman said of the recurring cramps, for whichdoctors have been unable to find a cause. “I don’t know what causes it and I can’t tell when it’s going to happen.”

There’s no ignoring the intense pain when it occurs, however.

That was evident Oct. 4 at the Staub meet at Crescenta Valley Park in La Crescenta. Fleshman was near the front of the pack after the first mile of the Division I race, but she slowed to a walk a half-mile later and then doubled over in pain, unable to finish.

“It’s frustrating because I think I could run some pretty fast times if it didn’t happen,” Fleshman said.

So does Canyon Coach Dave DeLong, who points to the Bell-Jeff Invitational on Sept. 27 as an example of what Fleshman can do when she’s healthy.

Fleshman, a junior, ran conservatively for the first 2 1/2 miles of that race, but still clocked 17:08 over the 2.9-mile course at Griffith Park to win the Division I race by 44 seconds and move to third on the all-time course list.

“If you looked at what she did and how she did it, you know that she is an elite runner and in phenomenal shape,” DeLong said. “This has been a frustrating season because she’s in great shape, but she hasn’t been able to show it too often. I’m frustrated not for myself, but for her because the sport isn’t paying her back for what she’s putting into it. I always tell the kids that they’ll get out of running what they put into it, but that’s not happening with her.”

Fleshman, who is unbeaten in the five races she has finished this season, has remained upbeat.

When a reporter spoke with her after she dropped out of the Staub meet, she quickly pointed out that teammate Erin White, who was standing alongside her, had been Canyon’s top finisher.

Ask her what she enjoys most about running and she’ll tell you it’s her teammates’ success.

“I love seeing our fantastic freshman, Vicky Duffy, do well,” Fleshman said. “I love seeing her improve every week. I also loved seeing Erin White do so well in the [Santa Clarita Valley] invitational.

“No one expected her to get second in that race and yet she beat Rachel Guerrero of Highland. Guerrero had run [11:14] in the 3,200 during track and I don’t think Erin broke 12, but she beat her Saturday.”

“Every kid on the team just loves her,” DeLong said about Fleshman’s enthusiasm for her teammates. “Lauren has a sense of confidence about her, but she also has a sense of humility to go with it.”

Fleshman, sixth in last year’s state Division II cross-country championships, said it’s important to have interests outside of running to keep things in perspective.

An A student who is enrolled in three advanced placement and two honors classes this semester, she taught herself to play the piano five years ago. She enjoys playing Beethoven and Mozart and can also type 70 words a minute.

“She’s one of those kids who succeeds in whatever she does,” DeLong said.

It would certainly seem that way when it comes to running.

Fleshman played softball from the time she was eight until she was 13.

She ran in only a handful of meets as an eighth-grader at Sierra Vista Junior High in Canyon Country but her inexperience didn’t hurt her when she went out for the Canyon High cross-country team as a 4-foot-10, 78-pound freshman in 1995.

She and then-junior Julie Harris were Canyon’s top two runners by the end of the season. Fleshman placed eighth and 13th in the Division I races of the Southern Section and state championships, respectively, to help her team win both titles.

She also finished fifth in the 3,200 meters in the Southern Section Division I track championships as a freshman. As a sophomore she placed second to then-Highland senior Andrea Neipp in the Southern Section Division I championships and the Masters Meet before finishing ninth in the state championships.

“Track gave me a lot of confidence because I was beating people who had beaten me during cross-country,” Fleshman said. “I was beating people who I had never beaten before. It made me more competitive. It was like I knew I had it in my heart to be a really good runner. I just had to let it out.”

Fleshman and DeLong both figured that she could contend for the state title at the Division I level this season, but the recurring cramps could put a crimp in those plans.

“All I want to do is run pain free,” Fleshman said. “If I can run pain free, everything else will take care of itself.”