Drossin Staying on Track for World Championships

One must excel on the track to be a complete distance runner.

Deena Drossin knows this.

That’s why the 1991 graduate of Agoura High is looking forward to competing in the track and field world championships, which start today in Seville, Spain.

Drossin, who resides in Alamosa, Colo., has run in the last three cross-country world championships, but she’ll compete in the track championships for the first time Monday in a qualifying heat of the women’s 10,000 meters.

“I love cross-country because you get to put a lot of strategies to use in a race,” Drossin said. “But I really respect the track because times are very honest.”

Drossin, 26, has run career bests of 4:13.96 in the 1,500, 8:45.13 in the 3,000, 14:56.84 in the 5,000 and 32:00.72 in the 10,000 in the last two months.

The 5,000 clocking placed her third in a meet in Stockholm on July 30, moving her to fourth on the all-time U.S. list.

“I knew she was capable of running under 15 [minutes],” coach Joe Vigil said of Drossin. “It was just a matter of when and where.”

Drossin placed sixth in 15:26.80 in a meet in London on Aug. 7, but her father Paul said that hasn’t dampened her outlook entering the world championships.

“She tried to go out with [Zahra Quaziz of Morocco] and Paula Radcliffe [of Great Britain] in that race and just died,” he said. “She said she knew she was in trouble after the first couple of laps because her legs felt dead.”

Drossin’s career-best rampage has come three years after moving from Fayetteville, Ark., to Alamosa.

Drossin was an eight-time NCAA Division I All-American and a seven-time Southeastern Conference champion at Arkansas, but injuries caused her to lose her enthusiasm for running after her sophomore year.

With her desire waning during her final years in college, she decided that a change in scenery was necessary after graduating with degrees in English and journalism in 1996.

“She contemplated not running competitively after college,” Paul Drossin said. “But I don’t think that lasted very long. I think she knew that she just needed to get into a new environment.”

Myron Donley, a former assistant at Arkansas, put the 5-foot-4, 105-pound Drossin in touch with Vigil, a distance-training guru. She has flourished under his tutelage, running up to 100 miles a week in Alamosa’s 7,500-foot altitude.

“Joe was the first coach I talked to [after graduating from Arkansas],” Drossin said. “But after talking to him, I just felt like he was the one to get me going and keep me motivated. He was so passionate about running.”

Vigil, 69, guided the Adams State College men’s and women’s cross-country and track programs to 25 NAIA or NCAA Division II titles from 1965-93. He has coached post-college runners in Alamosa since retiring and put Drossin on a four-year training plan.

“Her goals were to run 15 minutes in the 5,000 and 32 minutes in the 10,000 by the end of the 2000 season,” Vigil said.

Drossin, a five-time state champion in cross-country and track at Agoura, calls moving to Alamosa, sight unseen, one of the scariest decisions of her life.

And one of the most beneficial.

“Things have worked out great,” she said. “I regained my passion for running and I’ve been able to make running my profession.”

Drossin, who enjoys camping and fishing along the Rio Grande with Aspen, her 3 1/2-year-old Labrador, ran a then-career best of 32:47.44 in the 10,000 in 1997. She also won the World University Games title that summer before winning her first national cross-country championship in the fall. Last year, she lowered her 5,000 best from 15:43.63 to 15:07.83.

She won the 7,800-meter race in the national cross-country championships in Tacoma, Wash., last February before finishing 10th in the 8,000-meter race in the world championships in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in March.

That was followed by a career-best time of 32:17.88 to win the 10,000 in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in April and a third-place finish in the U.S. track and field championships in June.

Drossin faded from first to third in the last kilometer of that race, but her 32:00.72 clocking garnered the final spot on the U.S. team and moved her to 11th on the all-time national list.

“She was on pace to run 31:43 [for the first 8,000 meters],” Vigil said. “But she wasn’t able to hold it.”

Drossin is in better shape now than she was then, but Vigil is unsure if she’ll produce another career best in the world championships because of the heat and humidity in Seville.

Drossin’s first goal is to qualify for the final Thursday.

“This is going to be a real test,” she said. “It’s going to be a big challenge running a prelim and, hopefully, a final in the 10,000. I’ve never done that.”

No matter what happens, Vigil says Drossin has had a “great” season and taken several strides toward becoming one of the best female distance runners in the world.

“She’s training like a world-class 10,000 runner right now,” he said. “It’s just going to take her young body a while to adapt to what she’s doing. But when she does, she’ll be able to go out there and really lay it on the line.”

Drossin says she’s still a novice when it comes to running the 5,000 and 10,000 at the international level, but she has time to gain more experience.

“I’m still learning so much about this sport,” she said. “But I feel like I have at least another eight years in me.”