As a child she took up running on her own volition. By age 10 she was running a hilly 5 mile run daily, timing herself to make herself faster each day. By age 15 she was a high school phenom. She won her hometown Bolder Boulder three consecutive times. Between Cross Country and Track, she won eight state titles and became only the second person to defend their title at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, then called the Kinney Cross Country Championships, winning in 1989 and 1990. Her 1990 winning time of 16:39, reputed to be by a quarter of a mile, is the still standing Morely Field course record. She is the first female scholastic athlete to run two miles in less than 10 minutes (9:55.9). a record she held for 22 years. While still in high school, she finished third in the 1991 World Junior Cross Country Championships behind a couple of Kenyan runners (the winner only 13 years old).