Change of Altitude

Ask a geographer what’s special about the San Luis Valley and you’ll be told it’s the highest Alpine valley in the world.

Pose the question to distance runner Deena Drossin and the 1991 graduate of Agoura High will tell you that it’s a scenic plateau in southern Colorado with the town of Alamosa near its center.

Alamosa, population 8,500, has a special place in Drossin’s heart because she has lived there for the past year.

It’s where, under the guidance of distance guru Joe Vigil, she has rediscovered her zeal for running.

Drossin, who will run in the 10,000 meters in the World University Games in Palermo, Italy, on Friday, was an eight-time NCAA Division I All-American and a seven-time Southeastern Conference champion in cross-country and track during her career 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 Fayetteville, she decided that a change in scenery was necessary after graduating with degrees in English and journalism last year.

“I knew if I was ever going to run well again, I needed to get into a new environment,” Drossin said.

Enter Mylon Donley, a former assistant at Arkansas who put Drossin in touch with Vigil.

Vigil guided the Adams State College men’s and women’s cross-country and track programs to 25 NAIA or NCAA Division II titles during his tenure from 1965-93 and continued coaching post-college runners after retiring.

“Joe was the first coach I talked to,” 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.”

The coach has helped spark Drossin to a slew of career-best performances.

She placed sixth in the U.S. trials for the World cross-country championships in February and was the second American--and 29th finisher overall--in the World meet in Turin, Italy, in March.

In track, she has lowered her bests to 9:10.80 in the 3,000 meters, 15:43.63 in the 5,000 and 32:47.44 in the 10,000. The 10,000 time placed her fifth in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in April and cut 83 seconds from her previous best set in 1994.

She ran 32:53.18 in June to place third in the national championships in Indianapolis.

That effort earned her a spot on the U.S. team that competed in the World track and field championships in Athens earlier this month, but Drossin didn’t run in the meet because her best time was short of the qualifying standard of 32:30.

“We were all set to go over to Finland for five weeks and get in some races,” Drossin said of her post-national championships plans.

“But I thought it was best to go back home. I’d had a really busy schedule and I felt like I was just too tired to chase a time in Europe.”

Instead, Drossin set her sights on the World University Games.

“She decided that she wouldn’t go to Europe and that’s fine,” Vigil said. “She’s only 24. She’s got plenty of time to run in Europe in the years ahead.”

Vigil and Drossin are excited about her future because she has improved so much this season after struggling her final three years at Arkansas.

Finishing fourth in the 10,000 in the 1994 NCAA championships and fifth in ‘96--she missed the ’95 season with injuries--would have been highlights of many runner’s careers. But not for Drossin, who placed second in the NCAA cross-country championships and ran 15:52.80 in the 5,000 as a sophomore.

“I try not to consider my last couple of years of college racing,” said the Reebok Racing Club member. “I was really just going through the motions.”

Injuries forced Drossin to miss the 1993 outdoor track season after she finished second in the 5,000 in the NCAA indoor championships. They also sapped her enthusiasm for running and forced Razorback Coach Lance Harter to handle her with kid gloves for the rest of her college career.

“We were probably too cautious,” Harter said. “Maybe we ran her at a workout level a little bit higher than what she did at Agoura, but because of the injuries, we never pushed her like we would have for fear of her getting hurt.”

Drossin, who won three state Division I cross-country titles and two state 3,200-meter track championships at Agoura, has flourished in Alamosa.

She is running 70-90 miles a week at 7,500 feet after logging 40-50 miles a week in college.

“The whole environment has been good for her,” Vigil said. “She is very positive about things. . . . The hardest thing lately has been slowing her down.

“She’s running well and when athletes of her ability do that, their aspirations become very high. They want to get to their goals fast and sometimes you have to slow them down so they don’t overdo it in a short period of time.”

Drossin calls moving to Alamosa, sight unseen, one of the scariest decisions of her life.

And one of the most beneficial.

“I’m more excited about running than I have been in years,” she said. “The move has refreshed my enthusiasm for running. It has been a refreshment of my mind and my body.”

Adjusting to life in Alamosa wasn’t hard for Drossin, a writer and lover of the outdoors.

She works part-time as a waitress and spends much of her free time camping and fishing along the Rio Grande with Aspen, her 1 1/2-year old Labrador.

She is working on two books. One consists of children’s poems that she writes and illustrates. The other is a series of short stories about a fictional cafe in New York city.

“I enjoy the solitude,” Drossin said. “I just like to have quiet times during the day where I can escape to my own little world.”

Vigil said Drossin doesn’t need a lot of things going on around her to be happy.

“She has her writing and she enjoys the scenery around here,” Vigil said. “She knows what it’s going to take to become a better runner.

“If you want to be a good runner, you have to live like a runner. You have to live kind of a spartan existence. You can’t [party] all the time. You need to get your rest, eat right and be willing to put in the work.”

In addition to her work ethic, Drossin is adept at staying focused during times of physical duress, which comes in handy for an aspiring world-class distance runner.

“Deena has an uncanny, very unique ability to focus,” Harter said. “When most athletes are trying to get a race over with, she is trying to come up with a better way of improving her performance.”

Vigil won’t make any predictions, but he expects Drossin to become a fixture on U.S. national teams.

“If she continues to maintain her intensity and enthusiasm for running, I think you’ll see her make significant strides in the years ahead,” he said. “I think you’ll see her develop into one of the best runners in the nation.”