Deborah Maier and the Ride to Eugene

The crowd of crazed cross country fans blared as runners hurled themselves into the finish chute.  It was the 2011 NCAA West Region Championships at the Stanford golf course and the race was coming to an end.  My team, the Cal Bears were finishing one by one with Deborah Maier leading the charge in the runner-up position. Deborah covered the course in a time of 19:51 with the highest finish of any Cal female at the meet. All of my teammates gathered into the chute, some more pleased than others, and were attempting to find each other in the sea of people.

After finishing, our teammate Taylor Bryson had hidden herself underneath one of the tables in the chute. She hadn't had her best day and was ashamed of her performance, hoping that nobody would find her.  Amongst all the chaos of the race and fans congratulating her on her amazing day, Deborah saw Taylor from underneath the table and grabbed her hand to pull her out from her hiding spot. With her arm around Taylor, Deborah brought her back to her teammates and reassured her that it was just one race and there would be many more great ones to come.  

This is one of my favorite moments with Deborah, not because she finished 2nd at West Regionals that year, but because Deborah took the time to find her teammate who she knew was in trouble and needed her. But that is just the kind of person Deborah Maier is. 

Deborah has had an amazing run while competing for Cal over the past four years, and thankfully she is not done just yet. She will have both indoor and outdoor track seasons next spring to cap off her career as a Golden Bear. Deborah is arguably one of the best female distance runners to ever wear the blue and gold, and now she is in Eugene gearing up for the 10k at the 2012 Olympic Trials.  It's almost game time.

"Right now remembering right before we came to Cal, the 2008 Olympic Trials were before school started and seeing Christine Babcock, Jordan Hasay, and Shalane and watching them, it just made me want to be there one day. Four years from now I wanted to be there. I was just thinking, I'm gonna be graduating college in 2012 but more importantly, I want to be at the Trials," said Deborah looking back on the past four years we've been at Cal.

From her first year as a Golden Bear, Deborah was the athlete who made a statement. At this point in her career, Deborah has earned All-American honors six times in cross country, indoor and outdoor track, is a three time member of the USTFCCCA Division I All-Academic team, and holds the third fastest collegiate 10k time in NCAA history. Deborah has also gone through numerous struggles with injury as many great runners do, and this season has been no exception as she tore her glute at the end of the indoor track season.  Since the injury began, she ran her first 10k ever, ran the third fastest collegiate 10k of all time, and finished 3rd at NCAA's. 

"It was a constant cycle of up and down training. I would aggravate it for while and then I'd let it cool down and it was difficult to balance that. But it was the week before Payton when I started to seriously think I needed to try to run. I needed the qualifying time, but it was still hurting before Payton. I would go on a few runs and start to cry like 5 minutes in but then I sat down with Ann and talked with her. She told me that I needed to make a decision to either race it or not because emotionally it would be way harder. I then made the decision that I was going to race and once I decided that, it really helped me mentally. I made the decision right then that I was going to stick with it," said Deborah when asked about how she managed her injury throughout the season.

It's almost time for her to toe the line for what will be the biggest race of her career and Deborah is ready to go, reflecting on the day that lies ahead.  

 "I think I honestly just feel really fortunate at this point knowing that I have all these injuries, and I've still been able to pull it out. I don't have a lot of expectations, and not a lot of people are expecting a lot out of me, but I'm in a good position to put it out there. I know this sounds cliche but I have nothing to lose. I want to go out there and compete hard and soak everything in. I think it'll just be an overall fun time. That's something I've learned about myself. I race my best when there's not a lot of expectations and I'm the underdog. I like being the unknown, just out there for the ride."