Odds are you’ve seen her running around campus.
Maybe you saw the 5-foot-10 senior running in place at the stoplight by Burger King, waiting to cross the street.
Or perhaps you noticed her as she cruised by the 7-11 store on 13th and Alder.
You might have seen her blonde ponytail whiz by you as you walked in the direction of McArthur Court.
It is likely you’ve seen the Oregon women’s track team’s most experienced member somewhere, because she’s constantly out there running.
“Oh yeah, I’m always running around,” said Crabb, as she stretches on the floor of the Bowerman Lounge. “Everyone is always like, ‘Oh I saw you running!’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I run… a lot.
“And I live just around here, so on all of my runs, it seems like I see at least five people I know.”
Of course there is a motive behind her daily jogs. The Chico, Calif., native wants to be the best runner possible. It is this discipline that has positioned her as the favorite to capture the Pacific-10 Conference Championship in the 1,500 meters this weekend at Hayward Field.
“I can’t wait for this weekend,” Crabb said. “You can’t beat having the Pac-10 Championships at home at Hayward Field. And I have a shot at the title, so we’ll see.”
But before we go on and on about her chance to win that Pac-10 title, let’s rewind a bit back to the fall. All the way back to the Oregon women cross country’s season opening race on Sept. 25.
It was during that race, the Clackamas Open, that Crabb first began to notice a serious problem with her Achilles tendon. Near the two-mile mark she stepped off the course because of the aggravation in her heel. She did not finish the race.
This was not the way she envisioned the beginning of her year. Especially not after being the team’s top returnee from the previous year’s NCAA Cross Country Championships.
“That first race, I was halfway through, and was like, ‘This is not OK. I’m not going to ruin my season for this race,’” Crabb said.
The next week Crabb admitted she was “very stubborn” in attempting to run at the Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 1. With one mile to go in the race, she was in line for fifth place before her taped ankle cut off her blood circulation. She was forced to slow down and finished 46th.
Running had always come so naturally to her and then suddenly, she was being restrained from doing what she loved. She had two full weeks to rest and prepare for the Pre-NCAAs.
She gutted it out through the opening parts of the race with the Achilles problem coming into effect. But then came the incident that shows the bond Crabb has with her veteran coach Tom Heinonen.
As Heinonen said back in October:
“Katie somehow saw me in the crowd and mouthed, ‘It hurts a lot.’ I hadn’t seen her until that point, and I pulled her out of the race when I did.”
Crabb certainly didn’t want to drop out of another race, but she respected Heinonen. The two share a common respect for each other. It is evident listening to them speak.
“She’s very determined,” Heinonen said. “She knows what she has to do, and she works hard to achieve her goals.”
“Tom knows the ins and outs of running,” Crabb said. “He knows everything. There’s not a better coach in my mind. I trust that the workouts he gives me will help me.”
Which is why she didn’t mind as much going through the intensive rehabilitation water workouts in the fall. But that doesn’t mean that she enjoyed it.
“With my Achilles in the tank, that put me in the water,” said Crabb, emphasizing the word “water” with a backward rolling of her eyes. “Anyone who has been injured and had to go in the water can relate to how miserable it is.”
Crabb proceeds to describe this “12-by-eight-foot square water hole” that she ran in every day for a full month.
“It’s really hard to stay positive, and you just have to make a huge effort and say, ‘OK, I’m going to get through this,’” Crabb said. “It’s not much for kicks and giggles.
“Overall, it was a bummer of a fall. But now it’s track season and I’m making up for it.”
And she most certainly is. During the course of the spring she won the 800 at the Washington Dual and picked up her personal record and Pac-10-leading time of 4:19.88 at the Mt. SAC Relays.
She’ll tell you one of the main reasons for her success is the training she does with former Duck and six-time All-American Marie Davis.
“I’m really happy to have her,” Crabb said. “We push each other in different ways. She’s more distance-oriented, and I’m more speed-oriented. So with the combination of those two, we really compliment each other.”
Instead of practicing with the rest of her teammates, Crabb trains with Davis.
“She’s training with Marie because we don’t really have anyone who can run with her,” Heinonen said. “But she has still stepped forward to be a leader even though she is isolated from the team a lot. She’s not separate by her choice but by the situation, and it’s worked out.”
Still, the youthful Duck runners are appreciative of the leadership Crabb provides.
“Yeah, [she’s] supportive,” said freshman Eri Macdonald, who was also one of Crabb’s cross country teammates.
Macdonald also indicated that Crabb is always there for encouragement and is willing to help out fellow teammates whenever possible.
“They’re all great girls,” Crabb said. “Because we have so many underclassmen, they look for me to be that leader. And I enjoy it. It’s fun.”
Crabb admits it is kind of weird to suddenly be the leader of the pack. She can still remember what it was like as the youngster of the team, looking up to Davis.
“I admire Marie for who she is as a person and how she embraces running,” Crabb said. “She has a good attitude and is really driven. She’s definitely a role model I look up to.”

Davis’ influence on Crabb is evident.
“What I’ve learned from her is that in order to succeed you need to set a goal and work toward that,” Crabb said. “In the past, I haven’t been really good at that.
“But now I am going for it.”
Crabb is talking about the prize she has eyed throughout her college career: To be an NCAA All-American.
As she talked of her deep desire to achieve this, she didn’t present herself as cocky, but driven.
“It’s one thing to want to be an All-American, but it’s a whole other thing to say that I’m going to be one,” Crabb said. “I have nothing to lose, and I’ll be disappointed if I finish my career at Oregon without reaching that status.”
First comes first, however, as the Pac-10 Championships await.
“The dynamics of a track meet at Hayward Field can be paralleled by no other,” Crabb said. “I love track. Track is where my heart is.”
So the next time you see Crabb running around campus somewhere, you’ll know why she is out there. She’s out there to fulfill her daily ritual and to be the best runner she can be.
“If I don’t get out there and run every day I feel guilty about it,” Crabb said. “It’s just not a complete day. Some days I’m really into it, and other days it’s hard. But like anything you do, it’s not always going to be a feast of giggles.”
Perhaps. But if she snags a Pac-10 title and earns All-American status at the NCAA Championships in Durham, N.C., on May 31-June 3, she’ll be laughing in celebration.