Alison Costello was never the girl who whimpered when P.E. time
rolled around in elementary school.
Instead of lazily going about exercise routines and warm-up
laps, she would do her best to keep up with the boys. It was only a
matter of time before the boys were trying their best to keep up
with her.
“I started running in elementary school during
P.E.,” Costello said. “I used to race against the boys,
and I would always win. I didn’t want to lose to
anyone.”
Costello, now a sophomore at UCLA and the No. 1 runner on the
women’s cross country team, currently finds her competitive
appetite unfulfilled after a disappointing season that saw her
team’s national rank fall from seventh at the opening of the
season to 31st, where it stands now.
But Costello knows what to do after a tumble
At last year’s NCAA Cross Country Championships, she took
a fall in the first 600 meters of the race and passed the one-mile
mark looking at the backs of the entire field.
In the remaining three miles of the race, however, Costello was
able to pass nearly 100 runners and finish a respectable 153rd out
of 252 runners, a performance that coach Eric Peterson summed up as
“pretty remarkable.”
While her effort that day may have been remarkable, this season
has been a struggle of meeting expectations.
“It’s been frustrating,” said the first-team
Los Angeles Times High School Track and Field All-Star. “We
were proud and excited at the beginning of the season, but
it’s unsatisfying to know that we haven’t reached our
potential yet.”
The potential, no doubt, was there. The high ranking said it.
Costello’s optimism said it. Coach Peterson’s
expectations said it.
It appeared to be there, but no one could find it.
Costello and her teammates now have just one opportunity left
for redemption. Despite a sixth-place finish at the NCAA West
Regionals last Saturday, the team earned an at-large bid to compete
next Monday at the NCAA Cross Country Championships held in Terra
Haute, Ind. Had the team not been selected, Costello would have
qualified individually by finishing 22nd in the race.
But because she is racing for more than just herself, Costello
must run the race of her season to redeem her team’s previous
shortcomings.
It’s a task Peterson knows one of his most talented
athletes can handle in the final race of the year.
“This is a totally different meet with a much higher level
of competition,” Peterson said. “It’s going to be
good for Alison because she’s able to rise to the occasion.
She’s hungry to have a great race after what happened at the
championship meet last year.”
This cross country season marks Costello’s return to
competition after redshirting the 2004 track and field season. Last
March, Costello was able to travel to Brussels to represent the
United States in the World Junior Championships because of her
first-place finish at the 2003 U.S. Junior Cross Country
Championships. While in Belgium, her 30th place effort propelled
the Americans to a fourth-place finish.
Costello’s prolonged cross country season, however, cut
into the beginning of UCLA’s indoor track season, leaving her
in a poor position going into the outdoor season. Costello, along
with her coach, decided that opening up an extra year of
eligibility was the right thing to do.
“It was frustrating to watch the team win a national title
without me,” said Costello of the defending national champion
women’s track team. “I definitely look forward to
putting on the jersey next season and winning another
championship.”
But Costello’s return to cross country hasn’t been
as sweet as she had hoped it would be. Regardless, there
isn’t a person on the team that’s not thrilled to have
the lead runner back.
“I’m proud of what she brings to the squad,”
Peterson said. “She is highly respected by both her teammates
and me.”
With high expectations set firmly upon her shoulders, Costello
must begin to prepare for her final race of the season, now just
four days away.
“I’m trying not to think about it. I’ll get
too nervous,” Costello said. “I just put it in the back
of my head because there is nothing that can be done at this point.
We’ve already gone through all of the training, now
it’s just about the race.”
And maybe, just maybe, everything will finally click for
Costello and the Bruins for the first time this year. Maybe
Costello will cross the finish line feeling a sense of
satisfaction. Maybe her team can finish ahead of those squads that
sneaked by them earlier in the season.
When she lines up on the rolling, green course, maybe
she’ll pretend that Terra Haute is the elementary school
playground from her past, and the runners beside her at the
starting line are just schoolboys waiting to be beaten.