THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511210293
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Lt. Barbara Kannewurf goes through a pair of running shoes every eight weeks.
It's easy to see why.
An avid marathoner, she runs twice a day, logging more than 80 miles a week through Portsmouth streets and on the sandy trails of First Landing/Seashore State Park in Virginia Beach.
On Saturdays, she wakes before dawn and drives to Washington, where she trains for three hours under the watchful eyes of a track coach.
In October, the routine paid off.
Kannewurf, 26, a Navy pharmacist, qualified for the Olympic trials by finishing a 26-mile course in Chicago in two hours and 47 minutes.
She is now scheduled to compete in Columbia, S.C., in February against 150 other women vying for the same three spots on the U.S. Olympic team.
Kannewurf knows her chances aren't good - this time. She doesn't seem to mind. She plans to try again in the year 2000.
``I've been shooting for this for three or four years now,'' Kannewurf said. ``As far as I'm concerned, it's not so much making the Olympic team. Just to stand on the starting line of the Olympic trials, that's all I've ever wanted.''
Kannewurf, a native of Poplar Bluff, Mo., who joined the Navy in 1993, has already compiled an impressive record.
She's run road races in Spokane, Wash., and Tampa, Fla. She's traveled to Rhode Island and Texas to compete in track meets.
She recently was selected as one of five women from all the service branches to be a member of the U.S. military cross country squad that will be sent to the upcoming world championships in Morocco.
When the Olympic trials for the marathon are finished, she will focus her attention on competing in the 10,000-meter race. She hopes to qualify for the Olympic trials in that event as well because the race will be held in the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta.
Her best time at that distance is 34 minutes flat. The cutoff for qualifying for the trials has been 34 minutes and 20 seconds.
Kannewurf knows she'll have to cut her time to make the team.
So for now, she'll keep running.
``I just love it, I love the outdoors,'' Kannewurf said ``It's a way to venture out and go into different places you can't go in a car. If you feel like jumping over a log, you can.
``It's an adventure. You never know what's going to happen.''
She will rest only five days this year.
Five.
And they're all in a row.
That means on the other 360 days, she can be found lacing up her shoes no matter the weather or her health. She'll hit the streets in the morning, before reporting to work at the pharmacy outside Norfolk Naval Shipyard. In the afternoon, she'll go to the gym to work out or visit a track.
She plans to celebrate this New Year's Eve by running with her husband in a three-mile race through New York City at midnight.
``There are some days when I'd love to go home and not think about it, but then you always say to yourself, how bad do you want it,'' Kannewurf said. ``That's what it comes down to.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARK MITCHELL, The Virginian-Pilot
Barbara Kannewurf, 26, a Navy pharmacist, qualified last month for
the Olympic trials by finishing a 26-mile course in Chicago in two
hours and 47 minutes.
by CNB