WANTING TO try something new after her long dominance of U.S. women's distance running, Regina Jacobs thought she'd take up the steeplechase, a new event for women scheduled to become a World Championship event in 2005.
The Oakland resident and multiple Olympian had no problem with the distance of 3,000 meters. It's those unyielding barriers and that daunting water jump that gave Jacobs a lesson in humility during a time trial recently at Chabot College.
"After the first water jump, I had one thought, 'Why did I do my hair this morning?' " she said. "I was on all fours (in the pit). My image of (Kenyan great) Moses Tanui was of him gliding over the barriers and landing like a cat.
I came down with a thud. It's an event that drains your batteries. It's a strength event."
For the past several years Jacobs has had little competition from her fellow Americans in races from 1,000 to 5,000 meters. She owns American records at 1,000 and 5,000 and has world-best times in both the indoor and outdoor 2-mile run. All told, Jacobs has racked up 21 American championships encompassing indoor and outdoor track and cross country.
So it's easy to see why the steeplechase beckoned at this point in her career. The new event might even prolong the career of the 38-year-old Jacobs.
"For me, a lot of it is the motivation," she said. "What motivates me to keep training hard? Certainly this will help the longevity of my career. It's fresh and new and exciting."
If all goes well in her training for this newfangled event, Jacobs plans to run the steeple for the first time in competition at the USA Track and Field Championships, June 21-23 at Stanford.
"The thing that's so hard is you have to run it so evenly," Jacobs said. "It's not a forgiving event. It's an event of strength and patience. If you go out too fast you pay dearly. If you go out too slow, it's impossible to make it up. You have to be even."
And then there's the water jump, a wooden barrier at the head of a 12-foot sloping pit of water. Not something you normally encounter in everyday life.
"I knew it was going to be tough, but I didn't know it would be so difficult," Jacobs said. "You've really got to fly into it to clear that 12 feet."
GETTING HER KICKS: Trinety White, a freshman long jumper and triple jumper on the Cal women's team, achieved distinction in another sport in high school. While at Marysville High, she became the first girl in Northern California to kick a winning field goal in a boys' football game.
It came her junior year in a game against Golden Sierra High. "It was an awesome experience," said White, a soccer player since her youth. "It wasn't that long, probably about 25 to 30 yards. It was a really easy shot to make."
On being the only girl on an otherwise all-boys team, White said, "It was a really fun experience. The guys were actually really nice to me. I think it was because I could kick farther than them and they respected me."
White has bests of 18 feet, 10 inches in the long jump and 40-11 in the triple jump.
AROUND THE TRACK: Deena Drossin, recently second in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, will attempt to break Lynn Jennings' American record of 31 minutes, 19.89 seconds in the 10,000 meters at the Cardinal Invitational May 3 at Stanford. . . . Some of the top athletes scheduled to compete in the Modesto Relays on May 11 are high jumpers Amy Acuff and Tisha Waller, pole vaulters Stacy Dragila and Jeff Hartwig, decathlete Dan O'Brien, distance runner Adam Goucher and long jumper Savante Stringfellow.
E-mail John Crumpacker at jcrumpacker@sfchronicle.com.