AT 36, RUNNER REGINA JACOBS PROVES SHE'S NOT TOO OLD TO BE ... GOING THE DISTANCE.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

SACRAMENTO - Four minutes is a barrier. Forty years is not a barrier. Regina Jacobs ought to know; she is gaining on both with nary a sign of slowing.

The 36-year-old came within 1.01 seconds of her first sub-four minute run as she won the 1,500-meter final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials on Sunday. Twenty-four hours later, Jacobs was back on Cal State Sacramento's Hornet Stadium track for the heats of the 5,000 meters.

That's not a schedule, that's hard time. Call it Jacobs' sentence for pleading guilty to being a legitimate Olympic gold-medal contender in the 1,500 meters and the reigning American record holder in the 5,000.

Without a doubt, Jacobs' feet move more frenetically than the fingers of a generation of kids captivated by their hand-held computer games. The truth is, Jacobs, a product of North Hollywood's Campbell Hall High, is not wired for the sedentary lifestyle so in vogue today.

It's not in her genes.

Jacobs laughs out loud when people ask - some a lot less politely than others - if she isn't getting a little long in the tooth to be competing at such distances. Jacobs doesn't have to look far for a rejoinder. Her 60-year-old aunt, with whom she is close, recently set a world age-group record in the metric mile.

Yvette LaVigne wasn't even running at Jacobs' age. The Los Angeles resident took up the sport after turning 40. She has been shattering age- group records and age-old misconceptions ever since.

``What Yvette is doing is really inspiring,'' Jacobs said. ``All these people ask me, `How long are you going to keep competing?' And I tell them, `Long enough to break my aunt's record.' ''

The first time LaVigne raced 1,500 meters, earlier this year, she was timed in 6 minutes, 9 seconds, impressing everybody but herself. She was a little disappointed, having fully expected to break the six-minute barrier.

Like aunt, like niece. Jacobs won't rest until she challenges Mary Decker Slaney's American record in the 1,500 meters. The mark of 3:57.12 has stubbornly withstood the test of time. It is 17 years old now - well past its prime, in Jacobs' opinion.

She doesn't want to go until the record does.

``I've only seen two races in the last four years that come close to putting someone in a position to break that record,'' she said.

Jacobs had a faraway gleam in her eye that made us wonder whether a third such race isn't on the horizon.

She has nothing much left to prove in the 5,000 meters. The four-time Olympian set the American record of 14:52.49 on the Fourth of July in 1998. The only way she's likely to surpass the world mark of 14:28.09, set in 1997 by Jiang Bo of China, is to skip a lap. Or, if the whispers are to be believed, employ the same pharmacist.

From 800 meters to the 5K, Jacobs' range is as impressive as Whitney Houston's. Her speed was evident on Sunday, when she shifted into another gear in the stretch and pulled away from second-place finisher Suzy Hamilton.

That kind of kick is cause for optimism at the Olympics, which historically have not been kind to U.S. female middle distance runners. No American has medaled in the 800 since Kim Gallagher won the bronze in 1988.

The next U.S. runner to medal in the 1,500 will be the first.

How big is the pothole Jacobs will be trying to step around in Sydney? No U.S. runner has placed higher than eighth in an Olympic 1,500: Jan Merrill filled that spot in 1976, Ruth Wysocki in 1984 and Slaney in 1988.

Jacobs, who finished 10th in the event in the 1996 Games, said, ``I'll get mad when our flag is not up there, when our anthem is not being played. I'm going to Sydney to bring a gold medal home for the United States.''

Our computer culture is partly to blame for this country's middle-distance malaise. Chasing monsters on a video screen is not exactly good training for catching the Chinese and the Algerians and the Russians on the track.

Jacobs sees it somewhat differently. She doesn't believe this country's youth is necessarily too sedentary, just too soccer-mad. During her daily workouts on a high school track near her Oklahoma home, Jacobs sees many a young girl who looks born to run. Invariably, they turn out to be soccer players.

``What do you do in soccer but run and run and run,'' Jacobs said. ``It's popular and kids like to do what's popular.''

Jacobs has made it her mandate to spread the popularity of track. Over time, she has become an enthusiastic ambassador for the sport.

``In 1988 and 1992, I was so nervous as a competitor, I was so absorbed with making the Olympic team, I couldn't do anything else,'' Jacobs said. ``I wouldn't make myself available to kids and the public. Now I can afford to give a piece of me.''

The best way to keep youth from being wasted on the young, Jacobs has found, is to hang in the race long enough to draft off experience.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Regina Jabobs

(2) Regina Jacobs, who attended North Hollywood's Campbell Hall High, won the 1,500 meters on Sunday.

Doug Mills/Associated Press