Coasters: Heather never wanted to regret

Steve Virgen

Have you ever thought, ‘what if?’ Heather Shurtleff did.

She grew tired of asking the question. When the Orange Coast College

track season ended last year, she didn’t want to ask anymore.

‘What if I let go of everything in San Diego?’ She used to think.

‘What if I actually tried to fulfill my potential?’ ‘What if I stopped

asking, what if?’

And then Shurtleff just did it.

The successful results continue to follow, including her feat Saturday

when she qualified for The State Championships, May 17-19 in Sacramento.

Despite slight nausea and sluggishness, Shurtleff finished third

(39:11.16) in the 10,000-meter Southern California Finals at Mt. San

Antonio College Saturday.

She will attempt to qualify for state in the 5,000 race Saturday, also

at Mt. SAC.

“I just realized I could go places if I tried harder,” said Shurtleff,

a sophomore who won four Orange Empire Conference titles (10,000-meter,

5,000, 3,000 and 1,500) two weeks ago. “It would be stupid if I were to

just waste it.”

She would have been wasting her running talent.

After finishing up at West Hills High in San Diego, Sacramento State

offered her a full scholarship. But, she knew she never wanted to leave

home, plus she says she wasn’t ready. And even when her mother moved to

Orange County, she followed but thought the stay would only be for a

short time.

In that summer of transition, a bit of depression set in. She missed

the free-spirit atmosphere of San Diego. She missed her friends. She

stopped running.

“I just wasn’t happy,” she said. “I didn’t know if I wanted to run

anymore.”

When cross country season came, she competed for OCC, but she was

never really a part of the team, she admits. She would sometimes miss

practice and head for San Diego.

After the season ended, the what-ifs began to surface. What if she had

gone to Sacramento State? What if she went to San Diego State, where she

wanted to go in the first place? What if she just forgot about the past

and would prepare for the OCC track season?

Shurtleff, however, never really prepared for last year’s track

season. She would still travel to San Diego. Before the Southern

California Prelims last year, she went back to her hometown to see a

Blink 182 concert.

Yet, that’s when reality started to set in. She realized, if she

wanted to achieve any type of success she would have to let go of San

Diego. She also received motivation from Zoila Gomez and used the summer

as a season to improve. Gomez, a Costa Mesa High product, finished as the

10K, 5K and 3K state champion last year and now runs for Adams State

College in Alamosa, Colorado.

Summer came and Shurtleff began to train. She ran, ran and ran.

“I just kept running, a lot,” she said. “I just ran everyday,

sometimes twice a day. I would run over 50 miles a week. Mileage counts.

I improved over a minute in cross country because of it.”

Shurtleff won the state title in cross country. This time she was a

part of the team. She made many friends and the successful season set her

up for her recent success in track.

“That meant a lot,” she said of the state title “I tried hard for

that. I had all this pressure. It was stressful. But, then I was so happy

after.

“I never thought I would win state,” she said. “In the beginning, that

wasn’t one of my goals. I just wanted to run. I like to win, but it

wasn’t the reason I was running. When I ran, that just would make me

happy.”

She won the OEC title in the 10K (40:17.0), April 27 and the next day

she grabbed three more conference championships in the 5K (10:18.88), 3K

(10:40.89) and 1,500 (5:02.49). The conference awarded her the Track

Athlete of the Year for distance events.

“There’s not too many really fast people in my conference,” she said

of the OEC Finals. “(Coach Dave Fier) just said to go what needed

possible to win. The 3K was the hardest because it was the last race.”

Like most champions, Shurtleff stopped asking, ‘what if?’. She is

driven by the fear that someone behind her might pass her. She continues

to work so that won’t happen.

Next year, she will more than likely run for Concordia University,

which won the NAIA title in cross country in the fall.

She said she has received offers from NCAA Division I universities,

but she wants to stay focused. She believes the small setting won’t

provide distractions.

At Concordia, Shurtleff will study to become a teacher at an

elementary school, where, it seems to me, some parent will surely say,

“I’m so lucky my kid has you for a teacher.”