Local Star Beckford Runs On

In her freshman year at Cambridge Latin High School, Darlene Beckford was afraid to go out for cross country because no one on the team knew her.

Four years later, Beckford has established herself as a world class runner, and the fleet-footed freshman required little introduction to the Crimson track team.

At Harvard Beckford has confirmed her reputation by slicing 27 seconds off the Franklin Park 5000 meter course record for college women, and remaining undefeated halfway into the season.

Always a First Time

Until this year, Beckford had never competed in a 5000 meter race and spent most of her time concentrating on the middle distances.

"I've never really been into cross country," she says.

Increased distance training for experience and strength combined with Beckford's natural speed and endurance enabled her to capture the first meet of the season against the University of Massachusetts at Franklin Park in 17:42.

But this performance proved to indicate little of Beckford's ability as the yardling finished the same course two weeks later in a record-breaking 16:49.

While Beckford clearly dominates New England cross country, she prefers the other two-thirds of the track season, although she says she doesn't know why.

However, Harvard's assistant women's track coach John Babington, who has coached Beckford on the AAU Liberty Club since 1977, has an explanation: "Darlene's temperament is such that she'd rather concentrate her efforts over short, intense races than over 18 minutes. She just doesn't get as much spontaneous enjoyment out of running cross country."

Beckford however views cross country more as a means to an end than as an end in itself.

"If I have a good cross country season it will help me for my indoor and outdoor seasons," she says.

Since Beckford began running seriously in her sophomore year of high school, she has achieved great success running indoors.

In 1977, Beckford filled in at the last minute for an injured member of the Liberty track club's two-mile relay team at the indoor Senior Nationals in California where the team came in fifth--an impressive performance considering that all four Liberty runners were juniors.

The next day of the meet, Beckford blazed through the age group mile in 4:51.2. just missing the gold medal by one-tenth of a second.

Though she had to settle for second, the race marked a turning point for Beckford as she drastically cut 24 seconds off her best high school mile and decided to devote most of her energies to running with Liberty.

"It wasn't that I was getting any better training, it was just that Liberty went places where people were running. In high school you ran against people doing six minute miles, so you did six minute miles; but the way you get fast times is if someone's out there really running and you're trying to keep up with them."

That season Beckford reset her mile record at the Mason-Dixon Games at 4:45, crossed the tape only one-tenth of a second behind Jan Murdoch for a silver medal in the 800 at the Milrose Games in New York and took third place at Senior Nationals in the same event.

"Darlene has a lot of natural sprinting speed compared to other long-distance runners. She has a smooth and efficient style which is the equivalent in human terms to maximizing miles per gallon," Babington says.

At the start of the outdoor season, Beckford began to train exclusively with Liberty: "I wanted to do well at Junior Nationals in June because that year the first and second place finishers were going to Russia and Germany."

Beckford's strategy paid off as she glided to victory in the 800 in the Junior category, while the two-mile relay team moved up three notches from their finish the year before in the Senior race.

After spending two weeks in Russian and Germany, Beckford travelled to the Squaw Valley Olympic training camp but the second day there she injured her foot, which forced her to sit out the cross country season.

It took us six months to find out that my foot was hurting because my second toe was longer than my first," she said.

Beckford returned to training, but not for long, as a hip condition kept her from running seriously and continues to send Beckford to a chiropractor twice a week.

After missing half a year, Beckford hit the track again, winning the 1500 at the summer Junior Nationals.

The high point of the season, however, came at the Kendall Classic when Beckford finished second only to Olympian Francie Larrieu, lowering her mile time to 4:41--almost 34 seconds faster than the Harvard record set at 5:15.4 by Sarah Linsley in 1978.

While Beckford hopes to make an Olympic team someday, she figures her best shot will be in 1984, although she is not ruling out the possibility of the upcoming Games.

"I expect to go to the trials in June, and maybe I'll surprise everyone and get the third spot in the 1500 and then again, maybe I won't," she said.

This attitude reflects Beckford's level-headed approach to running and her ability to be highly competitive in a low-key way.

"Darlene has a serious logical mind," Babington said. "She's even-tempered and emotionally stable and these good personal qualities translate into good qualities as an athlete."

In assessing Beckford's athletic and personal attributes, women's track coach Pappy Hunt was not as subtle as Babington: "Kids like Beckford come down the pike only every 25 years or so."