The education of Tina Bowen

  MINDY ROSS/Daily Bruin Senior Staff In addition to being
the team captain, fifth-year senior Christina
Bowen has been UCLA’s top runner in all of her squad’s
races this season.

By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Christina Bowen sat on the stairs leaning forward. Her head
perched on her forearms, which were folded across her knees. With
her head slightly tilted, Bowen looked curiously at a teammate on
the cross country team, Katie Nuanes, who had been asked to
describe her.

“Tina Bowen is…” Nuanes started. She stopped and
glanced at Bowen sitting next to her. Their eyes met and they
giggled.

“Well,” Nuanes said, straightening her face out.
“She’s a very individual character. Everything about
her is very unique. It’s very… Tina Bowen…”

A few moments later, their teammate (and roommate) Gina Donnelly
walked through the door of their apartment.

“Are you doing an article on Tina?” she asked. When
told that was the case, Donnelly gushed, “Oh, that’s so
cool, Teens.”

Bowen turned red, grinned and glanced to the side.

“Tina is the most wonderful person,” Donnelly said.
“She puts it all on the line and goes for it. Her energy
level is just…”

“Yeah!” Nuanes cut in. “The energy!
That’s it!”

Donnelly continued, “She puts a lot of emotion into
everything. She gives everything her all.”

Bowen, the top runner on the UCLA women’s cross country
team, says she has always been that way. When she started running
at the Orinda Track Club near her home in Danville, Calif., as a
sixth grader, she used to cry when she didn’t win or get a
time she was shooting for.

“There were times my mom used to shake her head and say,
“˜It’s okay, one race won’t kill
you,'” Bowen recalled, laughing. “I was really
competitive.”

Bowen, who was a sprinter at first, graduated to the longer
distances when she went to high school. While she had a productive
prep career, it was a chaotic time for her.

She went through eight different coaches, and in addition, was
involved in just about every student activity imaginable. She was
the head of student representatives, an organizer of rallies, a
volunteer at an elderly house, a bingo coordinator, the sports
editor of her school newspaper, and a yearbook staffer. And
everything she did, she wanted to be good at.

Still, Bowen ran well enough to receive full scholarship offers
from several schools.

UCLA could only give her a partial ride, but Bowen took it. Eric
Peterson, whom she knew from running workshops she had attended
since she was in middle school, had earned her trust, and Bowen
thought he could be the reliable coach she never had. Peterson
became more than that. He helped Bowen find herself.

On her first day of practice, Bowen stopped in the middle of the
workout. Not having eaten breakfast, Bowen was hungry and told
Peterson she did not want to continue.

Peterson looked at her sternly and said, “You better
never, ever quit again. That’s unacceptable.”

“From that first day on, I knew Eric was business,”
Bowen said.

And from that day, Bowen started growing up.

Peterson, she said, taught her what was important. She decided
she wanted to be “Tina Bowen, the runner” and began
channeling almost all of her energy into the sport.

“Until then, I really wanted everyone to like me,”
she said. “I started doing what would make me
happy.”

Soon, Bowen saw the effects.

As a sophomore, she placed fourth in both the 3000 and
5000-meter runs at the 1998 Pac-10 track championships.

In the cross country season that followed, Bowen was the
team’s top runner, and in the spring of 1999, she ran
personal bests in the 1500m (4:25.17), 3000m (9:25.59) and 5000m
(16:3.21).

Nonetheless, Bowen remained likeable to her peers. Those around
her say she still gives a lot of herself in her relationships with
people.

“She’s our therapist,” Donnelly said.
“She’s so caring. She’s supportive in every area
of life and gives us advice on everything.”

At the same time, she continued to do well in school, receiving
Academic All-Pac-10 honors at the end of each season.

All seemed to be going well until Bowen developed a back injury
last fall that kept her out of the cross country season.

“I felt like I couldn’t contribute to my team and
felt really bad,” she said. “I felt empty as a person.
I lost my identity. I’m a runner. I run. If you can’t
do what you do, you feel helpless.”

Bowen, however, recovered well and came back strong for spring
track.

So far, Bowen has been the squad’s physical and emotional
leader. She has been the Bruins’ No. 1 runner in each of
their races except one, and as their captain, has kept them
together.

“She inspires everyone,” Donnelly said. “She
leads by example. She goes above and beyond what is
expected.”

Bowen is aware that running ““ competitive running, at
least ““ will be taken away from her soon. After the season,
she plans to compete in the U.S. Track and Field Cross Country
Championships. When that’s done, her career will come to an
end.

Bowen knows she will no longer be “Tina Bowen, the
runner.” For the next few years, she says, she plans to find
something to replace running, though she has no idea what that will
be.

Walking back to her apartment one night earlier this week, Bowen
talked about her future.

“I haven’t found that passion in my life yet,”
she said. “But I have figured out who Tina Bowen is.

“I can do whatever I want to do and I know that if I want
to do it well, I can’t do too many things. I have to simplify
my life.”

Bowen paused, looking up at the few stars that were visible in
the Los Angeles sky. She smiled.

“I just have to find something that makes me
happy.”