Tracy Clark

Bryce Alderton

Tracy Clark isn’t concerned about records, times or splits.

Don’t ask her what her personal best for the mile is or how long

it took her to complete a cross country course.

Bill Sumner, her former cross country coach at Corona del Mar

High, has all the answers to those questions, said Clark, 27, living

in Newport Beach after residing in Los Angeles following graduation

from UCLA in 1999.

“He has the most vivid memory,” Clark said of Sumner. “He

remembers every race. It is incredible.”

Clark, a member of the 1992 CdM girls cross country team that

claimed the state title, ran her freshman and junior years at UCLA

before giving up competitive racing. Now she prefers to traipse along

the beach at El Morro or along the Back Bay trail.

Sumner, a coach at CdM for the last 20 years, trained Clark for

last spring’s Los Angeles Marathon, the first race of that magnitude

she has ran. She finished in three hours, 40 minutes and 28 seconds.

“I met with Coach Sumner on Saturday mornings and ran with the Cal

Coast Track Club [which he operates],” Clark said of her training,

which began about two months before the March race. “We built the

mileage steadily and at race time, I was up to 21 or 22 miles. I only

took one day off [during training].”

Clark knew who she was dealing with in Sumner. The two met in the

fall of 1992, her sophomore season, when Sumner took over the girls

cross country team that fall in addition to his duties with the boys.

She immediately noticed a change.

“[Sumner] always told me you could be in the top seven and would

figure out what I had to do to get there,” Clark said. “He is big on

goals and, working hard and celebrating hard. He stressed having fun.

That is the reason I kept doing it. It was fun and made me feel

better about myself. He gave us a source of confidence.”

One of Sumner’s more motivational moments came during the 1994

Orange County Championships, when Clark was a senior.

Courtney Pugmire, a nationally-ranked runner, along with Heather

Garrison, were the two athletes to beat.

Clark approached Sumner with a question.

“She came up to me and asked what would it take to beat those two

girls,” Sumner said. “I told her, ‘Tracy, you would have to have a

high kick and it would have to be a long kick. I told her to get in

the top seven, stay in the race and see what happens.

“Tracy came out the first two miles in fourth and before the top

of the last hill she made her kick. Tracy caught up to [Pugmire]

before the top of the hill and she started a full kick down the hill

with a half-mile to go. Pugmire was with her the last 200 yards, but

Tracy had plenty left. She never died.

“I said to myself, ‘She is the underdog of the year.’ She beat the

No. 1 runner in the country. I was shocked, but proud of her. It was

the best race of her life. The biggest thing was the size of her

heart.”

Clark focused on small goals throughout her push to victory that

October day. But she has a different interpretation of the race’s

final leg.

“I was the underdog with nothing to prove,” Clark said. “I didn’t

have a kick. Pugmire could spring at the end. If I had a chance to

win a race, I needed to get the lead from the starting line.

Something happened. There was a false start and someone fell, so we

had to go back.

“[Once the race started] I got boxed in and had to work my way

back. I didn’t have the front runner in mind, just picking people off

one at a time.”

The steady pace Clark exhibited on the cross country course

transferred to the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races she ran during the

spring track and field season as a Sea King. She was the Sea View

League champion in both events in 1995, her senior season, and

wrapped up her prep career with a fifth-place finish at the CIF

Southern Section Division II finals in the 3,200.

But Clark always preferred the uneven terrain with the rain, wind

and fog that could come with a cross country course opposed an oval

track.

“I liked the hills and there were more variables to deal with [in

cross country] than going around the track,” Clark said.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UCLA,

where she ran cross country and track her freshman year. She took a

year off and came back toward the end of her junior cross country

season, but the competitive fire had subsided.

“I decided it wasn’t fun for me at that high a level,” Clark said.

She suffered a stress fracture in her femur while at UCLA, delaying

her progress.

“I realized I don’t want to go to the Olympics. I just wanted to

run for fun.”

Clark still runs near her home in Newport Beach, where she

returned to after spending time living in L.A. after UCLA.

She spent time in the retail industry and even wrote a business

plan to open a fashion store. But her enthusiasm for operating a

store waned and Clark now eyes a change.

Whatever direction Clark goes, she will take it step-by-step.