The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Laurie Porter was not sure she would get much out of running in circles.

After competitive success as a marathoner, the Hockinson mom, coach, and running devotee recently decided to shift gears from road races to the track.

“I just wanted to do something different than being on the road,” she said. “I thought I would be bored with it, but it was exciting.”

That it was also rewarding is hardly a surprise to anyone who knows Laurie Porter or her family’s devotion to footrace competition.

On Saturday in Sacramento, Porter earned her first national championship. She was the 10,000-meter winner for women in the 45-49 age division during the USA Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the A.G. Spanos Sports Complex on the campus of Sacramento State University.

“It’s pretty exciting. It’s only the second 10K I’ve run on the track,” she said.

Her only other 10K on the track came in early April, when Porter finished sixth in the Willamette University Invite, a meet of mostly college athletes. Her daughter Shannon, running for Treasure Valley Community College, finished second in that race.

Porter, 48, did not run her best race in Sacramento. She has a personal best of 37 minutes for the 10 kilometers — on a road course — but needed almost 40 minutes to circle the track 25 times.

She was a bit disappointed with her time of 39:59.61. But that was three minutes faster than the closest competitor in Porter’s age division.

Masters track and field meets are for athletes 35 and older. The meets are a celebration of longevity as much as they are a testing ground. Masters competitions extend the competitive window for elite athletes, and provide a place for those who weren’t stars in younger days to push themselves toward gold-medal performance.

On Saturday, Porter was a striking example of both the competitive spirit. The only runner quicker to the finish line was 35-year-old Rye Palen, who finished a half-minute in front of Porter.

And the other 25 women — most of them older than 50 — who shared the track?

Porter lapped most of them, some more than once.

That is one aspect of racing on a track that Porter enjoys. A task-oriented individual, having someone to chase down — even if that someone is a lap behind — means having a goal to pursue throughout a race.

Another treat of racing around a track that Porter discovered was the audience. Marathons and other road races are sometimes lined with spectators, but she said having spectators to offer encouragement throughout the race added a spark to the experience.

Saturday’s race started at 8 in the morning. Temperatures were around 70 when the race started. Not steamy. But not the 50-degree climate Porter prefers.

Saturday’s victory was her first individual gold medal at a national meet. She won a national team gold medal with her Club Northwest team last fall.

Now that Porter has a national championship on the track, she plans to refocus on cross country.

For one thing, she is now the head cross country coach at Hockinson High School, where daughters Sarah and Shannon and son Matt were champion runners not long ago. The coaching duties figure to keep Porter on her toes.

She also has an eye on the USA Track and Field Masters Cross Country Championships, which on Oct. 23 will be conveniently located at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

Later this week on the same track where Porter became a champion, much younger athletes from Clark County will be chasing medals at the USA Track and Field National Junior Olympics. For some of the young athletes, just traveling to a national meet is a dream come true.

It is the finish line to a season’s worth of training, a year’s worth of preparation.

But, it’s not the end of the line.

At age 48, Laurie Porter continues to prove that.

Full speed ahead.

Paul Danzer covers Community Sports for The Columbian. Reach him at 360-735-4521 or at paul.danzer@columbian.com.

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