Former Sailor paces club

Amber Moore is the Pied Piper of Thursday nights.

The former star runner at Newport Harbor High, the University of Arizona and UC Irvine — then known as Amber Steen — recently began coordinating weekly training runs as a manager at the Nike Women store at Fashion Island.

What began as a few dozen participants has blossomed into nearly 100 weekly road warriors, who seek to lessen the potential drudgery of training with a fun, social setting that can still be competitive.

It’s all in a day’s work for Moore, who competes professionally under the Nike banner and has set her sights on running in the 2012 Olympics Games in either the 1,500 meters or the 5,000.

“I’m still to figure out my race,” said Moore, who won the Big West Conference women’s cross country championship in 2005 after an injury-riddled tenure in Tucson. She did, however, meet her husband, Ryan Moore, a former thrower on the Wildcats track and field team, while at Arizona.

The most decorated female runner ever to come out of Newport Harbor, she was the Newport-Mesa Female Athlete of the Year in 2000-01, after posting unparalleled credentials in cross country and track and field.

She won three CIF Southern Section Division II titles in track and captured two CIF Southern Section Masters Meet crowns, as well.

She was twice the CIF Southern Section Division II individual cross country champion and longtime Newport Harbor Coach Eric Tweit has often called her the most competitive runner he ever coached.

These days, the Newport Beach resident is working and running for Nike, while trying to regain the fitness level virtually eradicated when she fractured her left navicular bone at Arizona. She said she tries to run between 50 and 70 miles per week.

“My health has been good and I’m getting back into shape,” said Moore, who has competed and won a handful of local 5K road races and plans to compete for Team Nike LA at the national cross country championships in November. “But I think it would be too soon to try to make a run at the 2008 Olympics.”

Finding training partners who can push her has become a challenge, which makes Thursday nights all the more enjoyable, she said.

Moore said the makeup of those who gather weekly for runs of three, five and eight miles, is almost even in terms of men and women.

“And we have all different age groups, too,” she said. “Our youngest is 13 and we’ve had an 87-year-old come out.”

Moore has worked hard to increase the number of participants, who can be winners in weekly giveaways provided by the store. She said the Thursday session could also soon include seminars on nutrition and training.

Moore said she is happy to answer questions about training and technique and she is grateful to have a collection of subjects with whom she can share her passion for running.

“Running is a tough sport, in general,” she said. “You have to find people to work out with who can help it be an enjoyable experience. You have to love it and enjoy it to keep doing it.”

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].