Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Stephen Kirschenmann Cross country runner, Jen Gomez hits the ground running on the indoor track during a practice warm-up at Las Positas College. Gomez continues to push herself toward her future, both athletically and in school.

As this last fall semester began at Las Positas, cross country coach Steve Navarro was teaching a rock climbing class at Livermore's Valley Rock Gym when he noticed a student who was wearing an old pair of running shoes, and attacking the wall with a relentless spirit.
"Jen (Gomez) doesn't give up," Navarro said. "She demonstrated strength and endurance."
Although Jen Gomez had almost no team sports experience before joining the Las Positas cross country team, coach Navarro saw the makings of a distance runner in the athleticism and perseverance she demonstrated as a student in that rock climbing class.
Gomez was reluctant at first.
"I was skeptical," Gomez said. "I had no real experience."
However, she put those skepticisms aside and joined the LPC cross country team, which keeps the motto, "Most people need wheels and a tank of gas to get this far."
In Gomez's own life, 'wheels and a tank of gas' would not be quite enough to get her to the places she has been in the past year. In June of this past year, Gomez returned from 15 months serving as an army medic in Baquba, Iraq. After returning, she enrolled in classes at LPC just 2 months later.
It's easy to see why coach Navarro considers Gomez a leader. In a sport that is all about pushing your physical limits, she is a steady source of encouragement for her teammates, setting a positive tone for the team. Gomez hesitates to call herself a leader, but she is very mindful of the lessons that she learned about leadership during her time in the Army.
If there is one time when her enthusiastic demeanor becomes quiet and reflective, it would be when mentioning the places she has been to before starting her career at LPC.
Going from a war zone to a community collage atmosphere in one summer is hardly an easy task.
"It takes time," Gomez said. "And I'm at the very beginning of that." Along with the normal difficulties any student experiences in returning to school after a few years away, there are the additional hurdles related to the fact that she spent her time away from school in circumstances most LPC students may not be able to understand.

Continued...

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