Thursday, May 6, 1976
University Daily Kansan
9
Running in track's toughest race. Lanter endures distance, distress
By KENSTONE
Associate Sports Editor
For lack of a more graphic adjective,
they call the race "grimping."
The 400-meter intermediate hurdles—10 menacingly spaced barriers set around a quarter-mile track—is in transit. The "bear" of fatigue lives there.
THE 400-METER hurdles is what Sheri Lanter likes to run.
"No matter how bad it hurts you have to keep going," Lanter said yesterday. A woman with a prosthetic foot, a women's track team, Lanter is now training for the ALAW national championship.
Ralph Mann, a former world record holder in the event, says you have to be crazy to run it. Coaches and track exponents are forced to assault on an athlete's mind and body.
“You just have to put the pain out of your mind,” she said. “It’s just a matter of getting power up. At the beginning of the season (women’s coach Gay) Pein (mothers (hurdles) is your race. That’s what I think is going to be your best race.”
"Before each race, I think. 'This is my race, and this is where it's going to come.'"
FOR A RUNNER who never ran hurdles before this year—she was a high jumper back in Bellville, III.—Lanter's introduction into the world of aching muscles and heaving lungs has been remarkably successful.
In her only three races this year, she has won twice, at Emporia State and Wichita State, and taken a third at the Big Eight championships last weekend at Ames, Iowa. And first in that race was Jared Bolee Esser, the American record holder.
"Running is just a smart thing," she said after practice yesterday. "I hit 5-2 and 5-0 in the high jump) pretty consistently, but I never liked it.
"IT WAS ALWAYS forced on me. Well, she's tall. Let's make her high jump. Sometimes I'd get really nervous. I didn't feel comfortable at all."
It wasn't until she began experimenting with various track events this season that Lanter found her calling
"I feel real comfortable in the 100-meter hurdles," she said of the event she may run in Manhattan in one week. "It's not a big deal." The 100-meter hurdle is a different story."
LANTER TOLD her storv.
"I have to start thinking about that race an hour before time. I think about the first 100 yards of the race. I usually out slow. That's when you lose it. And I
KANSAS BELAYS
Staff photo by DAVE CRENSHAW
Sheri Lanter
The way Lanter usually goes over hurdles is fast. In her three tries at the longer event, she's notched a fine 1:06.3, a school record.
think about the way I should go over the hurdles."
In the shorter hurdle race, Lanter has clocked a 15.0, another school record and a time that qualified her for the AIAW meet. But she might not be able to run
"IVE BEEN GOING to the doctor for two weeks now for a stomach problem."
she said, "They told me it was gastritis or a knot in my stomach. And then they gave me a pill."
That was last Thursday. Because she left on Friday for the conference meet, she couldn't learn the results of the tests. When came when she saw the doctor on Monday.
DESPITE DISEASE, which would have put many athletes in bed in a minute, Lanter competed. Not knowing she was sick, however, was confusing to her. She simply wasn't performing up to her usual level.
"He said I had morn, and that I had had it for a long time," she said. "Last weekend I just couldn't pin it down. I felt good but the strength wasn't there."
'It (her time in the 400-meter hurdles) went back up to a 67, and my 100-meter hurdle did not do it, did what the problem was, she explicated. 'I felt good, but it was like walking. Like today (in practice), the 220's were killing me. I don't know whether I should or not.'
There's no question Lanter would dearly like a chance to compete in the Manhattan meet.
With the emphasis on the word "bear,"
"寒ater said, 'I hear about people runn
and hurt themselves. You don't know what my performance will be,
what's the figure, what if I can run'
"IF I DIDN'T HAVE this, I'd be at my peak. It's a big decision."
Her parents have urged her to stop running for now, and a visit with another doctor later this week will determine whether Lanter is fit for the trip.
But there will be other chances. Lanter's disappointment is eased by the knowledge that her continued improvement is inevitable.
"I saw a girl run the (400-meter hurdles in 61 seconds), and ever since then, that's been my goal. I can run, right now, a pretty consistent 62 in the mile relay. And the first time I ran the quarter I ran a 75. No lie.
"Look at how it's come down," she reported with pride. "More and more it's going to be easier."
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