by Andrea Parker (10/26/05)

Bierbaum almost won the NCAA Pre National meet at Indiana State (Kirby Lee)

When you’re an athlete at the top of your sport, it can be easy to feel all eyes on you and the pressure that comes along with being the best, but for top NCAA cross country returnee, Columbia’s Caroline Bierbaum, it’s a matter of displacing the pressure.

Bierbaum, who narrowly missed winning the Women’s Blue Race at the 2005 Pre Nationals meet, knows that many are looking to her to win the NCAA individual cross country title on November 21 in Terre Haute, Indiana. What they may not know is that she thinks that the title is up for grabs.

“I think not winning at Pre Nats took the pressure off and it doesn’t single me out as the clear favorite,” observed Bierbaum. “I think there are four or five of us that have a good shot at it, so it takes some of the pressure off.”

Citing a noticeable increase in pressure this year from last, Bierbaum knows that doing well in last year’s cross country, indoor track and outdoor track campaigns put a target on her back. This doesn’t bother her because she realizes that it just comes with the territory, and it is territory she is happy to be occupying.

“Last year and this year are completely different,” said the native New Yorker. “Last year at this time I was lucky to be on the varsity team going into [Ivy Heptagonal Championships].”

Thinking about the struggle she had faced with a serious bout of anemia last year, Bierbaum didn’t set her hopes too high. Gradually working back into the swing of things with her team, she secured the chance to compete for Columbia at the Ivy Heptagonal Championships.

Bettering the field by over four seconds, Bierbaum won the individual title and helped her team to victory, but she still didn’t want to go too far out on a limb with her goal for nationals.

“After Heps, I just wanted to make All-American again by being top 20 or 30 at NCAA’s,” said the History major. “The thought of being in the top ten didn’t cross my mind before the start of the race. It was never on my goal sheet for the season.”

A third place finish at NCAA’s after having serious health issues only months before creates a storybook ending, but all the hard work in the years leading up to that meet were not forgotten for Bierbaum.

Starting her collegiate career at Duke University, Bierbaum was an All-American with a 34th place finish at nationals as a freshman, but something just didn’t feel right about the Duke running atmosphere and she missed her beloved New York.

“I knew I wanted to go back to New York,” Bierbaum remarked. “I felt like I had a bigger support system there. My family and boyfriend live there, so I could go home and get a home cooked meal if I needed it. I wasn’t looking at a lot of schools, just Columbia, so I contacted the coach and she wanted to have me.”

Bierbaum was happy to transfer where she had a better fit with both her running and academics, but found the next year to be a lot tougher of a transition than she thought. Not running with the team because of her anemia made Caroline branch out and experience more of what non-running Columbia students did each day. She focused on her academic load but still wanted to be involved with the team as much as possible.

“I felt a difference my sophomore year more so than in my junior year when I had still not yet fully joined the team,” said the tennis lover. “I had friends outside the team.”

Having merged into the team after becoming healthy again, Bierbaum joined in on runs nearby Central Park and workouts in Columbia’s home cross country course, Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. These days she finds herself running slightly less mileage than she had at Duke, with mileage usually in the high 70’s.

With limited experience in college, Caroline has still managed to develop a solid race philosophy but continues finds herself nervous before races.

“I definitely get nervous but I try to internalize it because I don’t think it helps to make other people nervous,” said the law school hopeful. “If it’s a 6k, it’s going to last about 20 minutes and 20 minutes isn’t that bad. I remind myself that the rewards after the race after you’ve given it your best shot are worth it.”

Without pre race rituals or superstitions like many other runners at her level, Bierbaum likes to keep her pre race routine in place as much as possible. A 10 o’clock bedtime is the norm no matter what time the gun goes off the next day, and drinking water from a gallon jug ensures that she will be well hydrated come race time.

As tempting as running professionally may sound to many, Bierbaum, a potential 2006 New York City Marathon runner, has said that she wants to continue to train seriously but not necessarily as a professional.

“I don’t want to feel that my income comes from how well I do in a race and I don’t want running to be my sole career,” commented Bierbaum. “I’d like to run in tandem with another job, though I do want to talk to agents.”

With only a month left in the cross country season, Bierbaum is finding herself running lower mileage and reducing the length of her long runs, though she and her teammates are waiting for just the right time to peak.

“My mileage has come down to the mid sixties and I don’t run two times a day right now, there are no morning runs and Saturday long runs used to be an hour and 50 minutes, now they’re 90 minutes,” the determined Bierbaum said. “We want to be well rested for Heps but our biggest taper is for nationals in month.”

With goals set high, and a seventh place national ranking fueling the team, Caroline Bierbaum wants to lead one of the best women’s cross country teams both in the nation and in Columbia school history.

“For Heps, I’d love for Columbia to win for the fourth year in a row and I’d like to defend my Ivy League title,” said the 2004 champion. “I see regionals as a stepping stone to nationals for me and I’d like to have the team automatically qualify. It would be great to win the region as a team.”

As for nationals?

“For me, I want to win.”

It is with that resolve that Bierbaum has gone from barely being able to toe a start line to crossing the finish line in victory.