Sometimes, no matter how hard someone works, things don’t turn out the way they should. No one needs to tell that to Laura Bishop’03.

At the NCAA Division III National Cross Country Championships, Bishop competed with enough spirit to become an All-American. However, fate came between her hopes and reality, as she couldn’t finish the race.

On November 17, with less than a mile to go on Augustana College’s home course in Rock Island, Illinois, stomach nausea forced Bishop to drop out of her final race of the season.

"I don’t know why I got sick," said Bishop, who had nursed a stress fracture through the end of the season. "I didn’t do anything differently. Maybe I caught a bug or got nervous, but it’s really just frustrating and annoying."

Up until that point, Bishop’s race went almost perfectly. Despite her small size, she came out very strong at the beginning and improved her position throughout the race. From the first mile onward, she never dropped out of the top 30. When Bishop did become sick, she was in 18th place, which would’ve easily made her an All-American.

"Laura had moved up to about 25th at the first mile, which was exactly as we had planned," said coach Kirk Reynolds, who accompanied Bishop to Illinois. "Basically, she went with the race we had talked about until she started to feel sick."

When Bishop had to stop, she put her hopes of becoming an All-American on hold until next year. The race became a definite let down. Success in both the conference and regional competitions made her wonder what had happened.

"Before the race, I did everything I was supposed to do," Bishop said. "I slept and ate well, but I guess I can’t control everything."

Afterwards, Bishop talked with Reynolds about the race. While he couldn’t find a substantial reason for her sickness, Reynolds gave a likely possibility.

"Nothing was drastically different," he said. "But some days your body isn’t going to work the way you want. Laura just needs to accept that and continue to run through physical challenges. She’s pretty new to cross country and is just now learning that distance running is more about mental preparation and fortitude than about physical training."

While still a weakness, the fact that Bishop has only run cross country for two seasons proves quite incredible. She has competed in track and field since sixth grade but only started to run long distance during her sophomore year at Pomona.

"I still really enjoy track a lot more than cross country," she said. "To run on rocks and sticks without specific splits or laps feels so abstract to me."

Despite any difficulty Bishop has with the logistics of the sport, no one can deny her strength as a distance runner. Not only did she help Pomona-Pitzer to compete on a league and regional level, but she also earned recognition for her own achievements.

After the district championships on October 27, Bishop became a two-time SCIAC Runner of the Year. A couple weeks later, Bishop had a personal record while at the regional competition. She won second place and ran the 5000-meter race in a remarkable time of 17:59.59, breaking the 18 minute barrier.

"Regionals definitely became my favorite race of the season," said Bishop. "Last year I couldn’t finish, which was such a hard way to end the season. So I wanted to make this a great race."

Her efforts at Regionals qualified her for the national championships. Though her final race didn’t turn out the way Bishop would have liked, the fact that she made it that far became even more incredible because, through most of the big races, she had a stress fracture.

"After the first SCIAC meet I got injured, and I’ve barely run since," she said. "Coach Reynolds put me on the elliptical machine, and I’ve only had a couple of actual running workouts."

"For the last four weeks of the season, Laura actually ran only six days, and three of those were in races," said Reynolds. "As for the national competition, I don’t think this training regimen affected her race at nationals."

To nearly become an All-American under these circumstances leaves much hope and speculation for next year.

"Laura’s still just learning the basics of distance running that others learned in high school," said Reynolds. "Even after only a year of experience she has developed rapidly because she’s bright and highly competitive."

"Last season she didn’t finish the regionals race, but this year she did very well and took second," he continued. "This time Laura didn’t finish the nationals race, so I think she’ll do very well in 2002."

Whatever happens this season or next, Bishop doesn’t plan to leave cross-country behind.

"To get sick at the national competition frustrated me," she said. "But anytime you finish a race and you know you’ve run your hardest, you feel such a sense of accomplishment. That’s why I run."