Interview with Caroline Bierbaum
by Peter Gambaccini

Caroline Bierbaum finishes third at the 2004 NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana. (Both photos by Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

Bierbaum finishes ninth at the 2001 Foot Locker Northeast Regional as a high school senior.

For a young woman with slim national credentials and a tardy start to the autumn season, Columbia University junior Caroline Bierbaum's third place at the NCAA Cross Championships on November 22 in Terre Haute, Indiana, was a revelation and a bit of a shock, even to her. Often reduced to a walk in her summer distance runs, Bierbaum considered bypassing the entire 2004 collegiate cross country season. But when a doctor suggested an over-the-counter medicine that elevated her low iron levels, she very soon began to work her way into shape, first testing herself in a pair of local 5K races in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Then, on October 16, while the Columbia varsity was away at "Pre-Nationals," Bierbaum won the Lafayette Invitational in Pennsylvania by 52 seconds in her collegiate first race since the previous November's ECAC Championships — in which she'd been 43rd out of 61 runners. Bierbaum continued her rise and became 2004 Heptagonal Cross Country champion, and subsequently placed fourth at the NCAA Northeast Regional. Her third place at the NCAA Championships was the highest finish ever by a Columbia athlete.

Bierbaum, 21, previously competed for Duke and was 34th in the 2002 NCAA Cross Country Championships. At the Groton School in Massachusetts, Bierbaum won the small school NEPSTA (New England Prep) Division III Cross Country and ISL (Independent School League) Cross Country titles four years in a row, and finished ninth at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional as a senior, missing out on a trip to nationals by one spot.

On January 22, in her the first track race of her entire life, Bierbaum won a 3,000m at Dartmouth College in 9:18.02. She'll run a 5,000 at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the New Balance Track and Field Center at the Armory in New York City on February 5. Bierbaum was interviewed at a New York Track Writers' Luncheon January 24, in front of a gathering that included New York Road Runners staffers.

Fast-Women.com: Tell us about your history as a cross country runner.
Caroline Bierbaum: My whole running experience, up until last weekend, has been cross country. I started freshman year at Groton, which is a private boarding school in Massachusetts. Like most runners, I started off in soccer, basketball, and did everything. Actually, tennis was my big sport before running, and I continued doing that in high school. I was at soccer and I saw a bunch of cross country runners doing their workouts and I thought, 'That doesn't look too hard, I can do that,' because I would run with my mom — she was just jogging for exercise. So I tried out for that my freshman year, and competition is not very good at all at private boarding schools. I was definitely a big fish in a small pond for four years. Groton doesn't have a track; it doesn't have indoor or outdoor [track teams], so I played tennis in the spring season. I did some winter training, but basically, it was cross country and tennis all through high school. I wanted to go away to a southern school [for college] — not too southern, but I wanted to get out of New England. I'd been there for five years; I went to Groton starting in eighth grade, so I just really wanted a change of scenery, just something new. That's what drew me to Duke, and I ran cross country there. I did well. I made all-American my freshman year. But I didn't enjoy the running atmosphere so much there. I missed home and I realized that going to North Carolina wasn't such a great idea as a freshman. I'd been away from home for five years before and it was probably about time for me to be close to home. I decided to transfer. I really wanted to be in New York. I applied to NYU and Columbia. I never really talked to NYU. That was sort of an, 'If worst comes to worst..." It's a great school, but Columbia at that time, their cross country team was better than Duke's. And I remember in November (2002) at the national championships, I was looking at teams and said, 'That would be fun, I could do well on that team (Columbia), and they're doing better than Duke right now.' So that's how I got interested in Columbia.

FW: And you are from New York.
CB: Yeah, I am. I've lived in London a little bit, and also Bronxville in Westchester County (New York City's suburbs). During high school, my family moved to Bronxville, and that was one reason I wanted to go away to boarding school, because I didn't like the change from New York to the suburbs. And I knew Groton was good. In my senior year of high school, my family moved back to the city and they've been in the city ever since.

FW: And you never ran track until last weekend.
CB: Yeah. I stopped running for Duke in January (2003), and last year at Columbia, I didn't run any races after cross country season. I just ran this Saturday at Dartmouth in the 3K. I ran 9:18. I was happy with that. It's a good debut for me. It was my first track race ever.

FW: What did you think of going 15 laps?
CB: It's just preparation for the 10K. My specialties, I think, are in the longer distances. It was interesting, during that race, doing the faster, shorter race. I enjoyed it. When it was finished, I felt it went by fast. But I was definitely counting the laps. It was a good race to debut in because there weren't too many eyes on me, I wasn't in the Armory with glaring lights.

FW: Was it a competitive race?
CB: No. Columbia, we finished 1-2-3. So I guess that helped, too, not having to worry about facing off against other all-Americans.

FW: What did this race tell you about your future as a track runner?
CB: That I'll be good [laughs]. I thought it was a great experience. I had nothing to be upset about. It was two seconds out of automatically qualifying (for NCAA Indoors). In the back of my head, I was like, 'Oh, two seconds.' But my goal really was just to go out at the pace that my coach recommended. She didn't say anything about the automatic qualifying time or going after a certain time.

FW: Are you running in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory (February 4 and 5)?
CB: Yeah, I'm running the 5K, and for that, I am going to try and go after the auto-qualifying time. It's 16:10.

FW: Outdoors, do you think the 10,000 will be your top event?
CB: Yeah, that's what I'm shooting for. I seem to do better at the longer distances...although who knows? The 3K is working out okay so far. I ran a 20-mile race my senior year in high school on Martha's Vineyard. I did that with two other boys on our cross country team and some teachers. I ran that really fast, in 2:05. Ever since that race, I've sort of figured, the longer, the better. But I don't know if I could do that again. That was pretty intense.

FW: If you ever want to do the New York City Marathon, we have friends with pull.
CB: I want to do one in the fall of 2006.

FW: Are you a junior in terms of eligibility?
CB: Well, [for] track, I guess I have several seasons. But I'm a junior academically and I plan to graduate next spring.

FW: Some people are still surprised that Columbia, an Ivy League school in a city, has good teams. When you ran and got third at NCAA Cross Country, didn't a lot of people think you were part of that other team in light blue, the UNC Tar Heels?
CB: Yeah. I was racing and I heard them say 'There's Carol Henry (UNC's top runner, who actually placed seventh).' Even at the finish line. It was frustrating. I don't think anyone was expecting to see me [in third]. I wasn't, my coach wasn't, and I don't think the spectators or commentators were. My goal was to be 20th or so.

FW: Do you think the big change in your race performance level is mainly attributable to getting your iron level problem under control?
CB: I think it has a lot to do with it. I'm taking Feosol, which is what my doctor recommended. You can get it over the counter. I felt a difference after five days. I could go an hour without stopping, which I wasn't able to do all summer. I definitely helped me get my confidence back. And I guess just being at Columbia for a year [helped]. Transferring is harder than you expect. I didn't think it would be that hard, but I'm tons happier and more well-adjusted than last year.

FW: Is your running workload in the last year or so a lot more than it was previously?
CB: No. Well, I guess last year, since I stopped doing workouts in the winter, it is. I was used to high mileage at Duke, and I ran relatively high mileage through high school. It's different doing two or three workouts a week, which I'm doing now. And I've still never run competitively three seasons in a row, so that's sort of a change. At Duke, we had one really hard workout per week. At Columbia it's sort of two to three — one hard, two moderately hard. We'd have two 13-mile runs a week at Duke, and at Columbia, we have one long run a week.

FW: What are you studying?
CB: History. But I want to go into journalism. I haven't tried sports journalism yet. I worked at the New York Daily News two years ago, for the business section and I was at WNBC last summer (NBC's New York affiliate). I was helping out the investigative reporter.

FW: What kind of history are you studying?
CB: American, sort of by default, because those are the sort of subjects that fall when I can have class and I don't have to go to practice. But I'm taking a mixture of American and European. I like European better.

FW: When you started running, were you aware of the larger world of track and field?
CB: No, I didn't start following college results until I was actually looking at colleges. My [high school] coach didn't tell me anything about professional running. I didn't even know about Foot Locker [the national scholastic cross country championships] until sophomore year. Which I guess is early, but I had no idea really what that was all about. I entered. My senior year I finished ninth [at the Northeast Regional].

FW: Do you have any long-term plans after college
CB: I'm going to just enter as many New York Road Runners races as I can [laughs]. I am a running dork. I like those races. I don't plan on running professionally. I'll definitely stay in New York.

(Interview conducted January 24, 2005, and posted January 25, 2005.)