A change of tune

Distance runner Fairchild is finally free of sport's, life's demons

Lynn DeBruin, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 18, 2007 at midnight

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As the tug of war raged within, Melody Fairchild knew she needed to decompress, to get away from it all.

At the time, that meant blazing a trail, not through Oregon and the NCAAs, but one much closer to home, at The Colorado Mountain Ranch, an idyllic camp in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area west of Boulder.

"A lot of people were wondering, 'What happened to Melody? She fell off the planet.' In a way, I kind of wanted to," said Fairchild, the greatest girls distance runner in Colorado history.

"It was sort of a safe haven for me."

That was 15 years ago, when Fairchild was struggling with injuries, body image, adjustment to college life and her mother's death.

When she returns to the high-altitude retreat this summer at age 33, it will be with a new mind-set and new goals - not to mention a new body that's stronger and more in tune than ever.

She hopes that her Melody Fairchild Running Camp will help teenage girls avoid some of the pitfalls she endured or witnessed throughout the years.

"This is really a dream that's been in the making for a good five years or more," said Fairchild, who also is training to run the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The dream crystallized about three years ago when she was running up Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder and passed a slower group.

"As I ran by, this woman turned and said, 'That's Melody Fairchild, the runner.' I laughed out loud. How is it that 15, 17 years later, people still remember my high school running?" said Fairchild, whose all-class state meet records in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters once again will be the target this weekend at the state track and field championships.

"At that point, I said, 'OK, it's time to do something more than just blush and shrug my shoulders.' "

She needed to embrace the fact that what she accomplished as a prep star - becoming the first girl to break the 10-minute mark for two miles and winning back-to- back national cross country titles - was something special. And she wanted to use it in a way beyond her own ego, to give back.

The camp's mission, she said, is to empower girls to discover their potential through running - and to help them through specific issues that affect female endurance athletes such as amenorrhea, osteoporosis and eating disorders.

"I saw a disturbing trend as a college athlete - of young women coming in and not even finishing their college careers," she said. "I want to change that. I want to be a part of that change."

Growing up

Fairchild's journey through life hasn't been much different than the peaks and valleys she has traversed on foot throughout the years.

In 1990, she made Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" after winning the girls division of the Kinney National (now Foot Locker) high school cross country meet.

A year later, as a senior at Boulder High School, she broke the course record in defending her title and also became the first girl to break 10 minutes for two miles - an accomplishment comparable to a schoolboy cracking the four-minute mile.

But after settling on the University of Oregon, where some thought she might win a dozen NCAA titles in cross country and track, the autopilot she seemingly was on sent her off-course.

Within weeks of high school graduation, her mother died of cancer, a hip injury ruined her freshman season and she returned to Colorado to work as a summer camp counselor, then took the next year off to regroup and recuperate.

While her collegiate experience would be five years of more downs than ups, she finished on a high note by winning the 1996 NCAA indoor title at 3,000 meters - her time of 9 minutes, 7.25 seconds in Indianapolis was nearly 10 seconds better than what she posted in high school.

"I went back to the hotel room and punched the wall and did a back flip off the bed, I was so happy," Fairchild recalled.

"I had people tell me, 'You will not run faster in college than you did in high school.' I finally had gotten this monkey off my back . . . showed it doesn't have to be that way."

This wasn't the 5-foot-2, 95-pound teen talking, the one who writers flippantly described as waiflike or nymphlike as she won race after race in high school.

This was a strong woman, one whose body had grown and matured during the time she took off at Oregon, a woman who refused to believe the talk that she'd never run like she once did or that the extra weight meant her career was over.

Far from it.

Now, at 5-foot-4 and 125 pounds, Fairchild never has felt better.

"She still has the same determination and the same heart and the same motivation to achieve her dreams. It's just her dreams have changed along the way," said coach Margo Jennings, who also has trained Olympic double-gold winner Kelly Holmes and Mozambique's Maria Mutola, arguably the world's greatest 800-meter runner.

Kay Porter, a Eugene, Ore., sports psychologist who first encountered Fairchild in the 1980s at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, remembers her as a very intense runner but always wise beyond her years.

"I think a lot of young runners run for other people - their parents, coach, whoever," said Porter, who wrote The Mental Athlete. "As they get older, they run for themselves. My guess is, that's what she's doing now."

Elizabeth Carey, who has worked with Fairchild at Steens Mountain Running Camp in southeastern Oregon, said she

realized early on that Fairchild had something important to give as a coach.

"This is the perfect opportunity for her to open up and share her experience and insights into everything she's been through," said Carey, 23.

"As a woman, she brings a unique side to it. What girls need is positive and realistic and experienced role models who they can look to if they need advice or if they're confronted with situations that make them uncomfortable."

Fairchild had to confront many of those issues head-on.

She recalled experiencing her darkest moment with regard to body image in junior high, when she started depriving herself of food, only to realize she had no energy and couldn't perform.

"I really had a huge wake-up call. I'd been given a gift and I was taking it away," said Fairchild, who discontinued the practice in high school yet still weighed only 95 pounds and, as a result, didn't start her period until she was 19.

"I flirted with that dark side as an adolescent girl, and I do understand what girls nowadays are going through."

The one-week camp at Colorado Mountain Ranch won't be Fairchild's first journey into teaching.

After graduating from Oregon with a degree in English, she went on to coach track one year each at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Simsbury High School in Connecticut and Willamette University in Oregon. She also has worked at Steens Mountain for the past four years and is in her first year as assistant track coach at Churchill High School in Eugene.

"She taught me so much about racing and about how I need to focus, not on winning but on my personal goals," Ashley Gilkey, a young runner at Steens, told The (Eugene) Register-Guard. "I used to focus on being ahead, and now I just focus on myself and my own race."

In Colorado, Fairchild will bring with her a fresh awareness that comes with studying a form of alternative healing known as Cortical Field Re-Education, which looks at the body and mind together.

She recently spent 10 days in intensive classroom study in California, learning more about the teachings so she could incorporate them into the camp.

"I never wanted to quit running," she said in reflecting on her darkest times, "but I wanted to quit running the way I was running."

Cortical Field Re-Education, something she doesn't believe other camps offer, has been a huge catalyst.

It means learning how to approach life, or anything new in life, with curiosity and a spirit of exploration, and learning how thoughts and self-perception affect health and performance.

These days, Jennings almost can hear the smile in Fairchild's voice after a workout.

"She's learned to relax, to not take things so seriously. She's learned to have fun," said Jennings, the coach.

Underlying pain

It wasn't fun each time Fairchild's foot hit the ground as she tried to stay in shape for her first cross country season at Oregon in 1991.

She felt sharp, shooting pain in her left hip, and only after working with a massage therapist three or four months later did she discover that a lower-back muscle was very tight.

"I was wound pretty tight," Fairchild admits. "I was pretty unrelenting and not willing to slow down."

In retrospect, she believes her injury as a freshman had a lot to do with what was going on inside her mind.

Instead of addressing emotional issues, she tried to remain stoic and keep it together despite the loss of her mom.

"I didn't know how to seek help for that on that level. I kept letting them put little electrodes on me and poke around," she said.

Fairchild didn't run a college race her freshman year, then came back to Colorado to live and work, only to return to Oregon again in fall 1993.

A succession of injuries and illness still plagued her - from tendinitis, stress fractures and muscle strains to severe bronchitis and shingles.

When her senior year arrived, she realized it was her last opportunity. She managed to pull herself together to win the 3,000- meter indoor title, the one that sent her into back flips.

Her story hardly would end there. Before she could get to where she is now, there'd be another valley to traverse and another peak to climb.

Memorable Fourth

With her collegiate eligibility exhausted, Fairchild decided to leave Eugene in 1996.

"My friends asked, 'Why are you leaving?' I was happy, but I felt I needed to go back home," she said. "At some point, I was going to have to deal with what happened in high school. I didn't expect it to be that difficult. I love Boulder, and it's home. But I think for anybody, home is a mixed bag."

Part of it was getting a broader perspective on her prep accomplishments. Part of it was dealing with her mom's death.

"I hadn't," she said of the latter. "I just marched on to college and, frankly, running was my way to avoid dealing with it. My relationship with running had to get better."

She pulled herself out of the funk she was in and pushed on toward her goal of qualifying for the World Championships in Greece.

To get to Greece, she needed to shave two seconds off her time, and she had only about four weeks to find a 5,000-meter race in which to do that.

She found one at tiny Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, during the Fourth of July weekend.

She was going to get a boost with acclaimed distance runner Lynn Jennings set to help pace her. Then Jennings pulled out, and Jennings' coach and the race director both apologized.

It finally dawned on Fairchild why everyone was so apologetic.

"They're thinking I'm not going to make it. Well, I was going to make it. I put blinders on and ran a 15:30," she said of the time that broke Olympic medalist Lynn Jennings' meet record by nearly 10 seconds. "I think that was the most gratifying feeling I had running. I really had gone through a lot, dug down deep for six months to pull myself together, and I got my ticket to Greece (and the World Championships)."

Olympic dreams

For now, Beijing, site of the 2008 Summer Games, is the ultimate goal.

First, Fairchild, who logs about 70 miles a week, will run in the 31st Grandma's Marathon on June 26 in Duluth, Minn.

Running a 5-minute, 45-second to 6-minute pace probably will earn her a spot in the Olympic trials, she said.

"Once that happens, if her body holds up and she wants to keep pursuing that distance, then we'll knock (that time) down and make her more internationally competitive," coach Margo Jennings said.

In a sense, it's goal-setting, just like when Fairchild was a little girl and drew a line in the dirt, vowing to run one step farther each day up Boulder Canyon until she had expanded her endurance from 200 meters to five miles.

Though she has grown and matured, it's not difficult to envision the same youthful exuberance she felt on discovering how to run in a Boulder park 25 years ago.

"I felt so good, I thought I was flying," Fairchild said.

And that's how it's supposed to be.

Fairchild's résumé

• Eight-time Colorado state champion in track and cross country.

• All-class state meet record holder in 1,600 and 3,200.

• Finished first twice and second once in national high school cross country championships and set course record her senior year.

• Made U.S. running history when she became the first high school girl to break 10 minutes for two miles, running 9:55 indoors in 1991.

• Won the Bolder Boulder citizens race three times in high school with times that would have placed her among the top five of the elite field.

• Qualified for U.S. teams in track and field, and cross country.

• Won national and Pacific-10 Conference titles and All-America honors at the University of Oregon.

• Twice an Olympic trials qualifier, in the 10,000 meters and marathon.

More Melody

• On why she would not change what she went through: "When we hit a hard time, it's actually a gift that's asking us to wake up."

• On her outlook: "I'm hitting my stride in life, where I'm learning to relax, letting life come to me a little bit, learning how to be present with myself and appreciate the gifts I have and all the opportunities I had. I really could push myself harder and faster than anybody around. It's a big reason why I got as (far) as I did (in high school). I couldn't really tell you I was enjoying the heck out of it. I was really one intense kid. Gratefully, I can sit here 17 years later and, after a lot of growing and looking inside, say it's all been a gift and I appreciate it all. I feel really lucky sitting here still healthy. Running doesn't change. I still put one foot in front of the other, but I'm coming from a totally different place."

• On a 2006 Washington Post article that discusses what to do when girls hit the dreaded time when they start to become women in their bodies and their times slow:"I'm thinking, 'What do you do?' You don't have to do anything. Just tell them not to worry about performance. You need to let your body grow and when you come out on the other side, you'll be stronger."

About the camp

• What: Melody Fairchild Running Camp.

• When: July 8-14.

• Where: The Colorado Mountain Ranch, 10 miles west of Boulder.

• Who: Girls ages 14 to 19.

• What: Weeklong running camp that includes learning techniques for enhancing one's body and mind, including core strengthening, stretching, creative writing and dance. Topics related to health and well-being of young female athletes, including nutrition, body image and lifestyle choices, also will be discussed.

• On the Web: FairchildSportsCamps.com.

debruinl@RockyMountainNews.com

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