Time Travel

The year was 1983.

The meet was the inaugural World Championships of track and field at Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland.

Mary Slaney of the U.S. out-kicked Zamira Zaytseva of the Soviet Union in a homestretch duel to win the women’s 1,500 meters and become a hero in the eyes of Regina Jacobs.

Jacobs, a 1981 graduate of what is now Campbell Hall High, was about to start her junior year at Stanford. Yet that didn’t keep her from getting goose bumps when looking at magazine photos of Slaney’s come-from-behind victory.

“I remember thinking, ‘I want to be as good as her someday,’ ” Jacobs said.

Fifteen years later, Jacobs, 34, is close to reaching that goal.

Slaney holds U.S. records in the 1,500, 2,000 and 3,000 meters, and in the mile. But Jacobs, who lives in Oakland, set a national record of 14:52.48 in the 5,000 in Brunswick, Maine, on July 4 and will be shooting for Slaney’s 1,500 mark of 3:57.12 in the Weltklasse meet in Zurich on Aug. 12.

“I think that [time] is very reachable,” Jacobs said. “It’s very possible in a place like Zurich.”

Jacobs, silver-medalist in the 1,500 in the 1997 World Championships in Athens, will run the mile in the Goodwill Games in Uniondale, N.Y., on Monday.

The field will include Svetlana Masterkova of Russia, the 1996 Olympic champion in the 800 and 1,500, Jackline Maranga of Kenya and Sonia O’Sullivan of Ireland, but Jacobs figures she’s got a decent shot at the $30,000 first prize after breaking the U.S. record in the 5,000 and running a season best of 4:02.29 in the 1,500.

Jacobs’ national record came in the fourth 5,000 of her career, but the outgoing Stanford graduate isn’t surprised by her success.

She points out that several women excel in the 1,500 and 5,000, including Gabriela Szabo of Romania, the 1997 world champion in the 5,000 and the 1996 Olympic silver medalist in the 1,500.

“I really think that a 1,500 runner with good endurance running the 5,000 is a natural,” Jacobs said. “The speed needed to run the 1,500 helps your 5,000 and the strength needed to run the 5,000 helps your 1,500.”

Jacobs originally was not convinced the 1,500 and the 5,000 were beneficial to each other, but she became a believer early last year after talking with Dick Quax of New Zealand, who set a world record of 13:12.86 in the 5,000 in 1977 after specializing in the 1,500 earlier in his career.

“He told me that his 1,500 time improved after running the 5,000,” Jacobs said. “And I said, ‘Great. Let’s go for it.’ ”

Jacobs ran 15:44.50 in her first 5,000 to win the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in April of 1997 and timed 14:58.79 to place fourth in the Bislett Games in Oslo in July.

Her third 5,000 was a 15:32.31 clocking that won the USA Track & Field championships in sweltering New Orleans last month.

Then came the Maine Distance Festival before 1,800 vocal spectators at tiny Bowdoin College on July 4.

Clare Taylor paced Jacobs for the first 2,000 meters, but Jacobs ran unchallenged for the final 3,000.

After averaging 70.4 seconds a lap for the first five circuits around the 400-meter track, Jacobs slowed to 71s and 72s for the sixth through eighth laps and to 73s and 74s for the ninth through 12th circuits.

She was two seconds behind U.S.-record pace with 800 meters left, but she ran the final lap in 66 seconds and the last 200 in 31 to break the previous best of 14:56.04 set by Amy Rudolph in 1996.

“I honestly didn’t think my body would give me two more laps at the pace I needed,” Jacobs said. “But somehow it did.”

Tom Craig, Jacobs’ husband and coach, credited some marathon interval workouts for the record.

One workout involves running 24 400-meter repeats in 67-69 seconds with only a minute rest between each.

“She’s always loved the white hot stuff like five 400s in 58 seconds,” Craig said. “She can do that stuff all day, but she didn’t like the extensive intervals because they’re like a toothache. They take a long time and they’re painful.”

Added Jacobs: “There is a point in the workout when you’re physically exhausted and you’re only halfway through. Your mind is saying, ‘Let’s stop,’ but you just have to will yourself to keep going.”

The ability to keep going has helped Jacobs become one of the most decorated U.S. runners in history.

She won seven national titles in the 1,500 between 1987-97 and the world indoor title in the 1,500 in 1995. She placed 10th in the 1,500 at the 1996 Olympics before her silver-medal winning performance in last year’s outdoor World Championships.

Jacobs and Malin Ewerlof of Sweden led the World Championship race with 250 meters left, but Anita Weyerman of Switzerland set off a chain reaction of pushing and shoving at the front of the pack by bulling her way into the lead.

O’Sullivan grabbed Jacobs’ singlet during the jostling, apparently in an effort to keep her balance, and that slowed Jacobs at a critical stage of the race. Although Jacobs regained the lead around the final turn, Carla Sacramento of Portugal passed her entering the homestretch.

Jacobs was frustrated by the havoc Weyerman’s actions set off, but she cherishes the silver medal.

“There have been a lot of great athletes who have finished their careers without a medal in the Olympic Games or World Championships,” she said. “So I was thrilled with the silver.”

Jacobs’ finish was the best by a U.S. woman in the 1,500 at the Olympics or World Championships since Slaney’s victory in 1983.

It changed her attitude toward racing, according to Craig.

“After last year, she said to me, ‘I’ve become a competitor, but I want to learn to run fast,’ ” he said. “I want to learn to run from the gun.”

Jacobs reveres Slaney and former mile world-record holder Jim Ryun of the U.S. because they weren’t afraid to push the pace in their heyday.

“My feeling now is that I’m being a coward not just going into a race and going for it,” she said.

“I’m tired of not being exhausted after a race. I look at photos of Jim Ryun after his races and you can just see that he put it all on the line. I want to feel like that after a race, like I absolutely pushed my body to its physical limit.”

In doing so, Jacobs hopes to show African Americans that they can excel in distance running.

Black athletes have dominated the sprints in the U.S. for the last 30 years, but Jacobs said there’s no reason why some of them can’t be elite 5,000 or 10,000-meter runners.

‘We’re not just sprinters,” she said. “Like white kids are not just distance runners. . . . The message I’m trying to get through to the kids is that your race, age or sex shouldn’t determine what you think you can or can’t do.”

Although Jacobs will turn 35 next month, she has no intention of hanging up her spikes any time soon.

She plans to run the 1,500 or the 5,000 in the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain, in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and in the 2001 World Championships at a site to be determined later this year.

Stanford is one of the finalists for the 2001 World Championships, but Jacobs isn’t sure if she’ll want to call it quits after competing on her former home track.

She does know the legacy she wants to leave behind.

“I just hope that I’m encouraging the youth to go after my records,” she said.

“When I was young, I thought it would be great to break Mary Slaney’s records one day and I hope others will think the same about me. I hope they’ll think, ‘If Jacobs did it, so can I.’ ”