All kinds of interesting people -- and things -- readying for Sunday's race
LOS ANGELES -- March 17, 2010 -- The impact of the Honda LA Marathon presented by K-Swiss on those who run it and those who support those runners is undeniable. Here's just a sampling of the stories from the capacity field of 25,000 who will run in Sunday's 25th anniversary race:
From Al-Taji to L.A.:
The organizer of the remarkable"shadow marathon" held at Camp Taji in Iraq last year, 1st Lt. Jeremy Arnett of the 56th Stryker Brigade of the Army National Guard, will run in this year's race as a guest of LA MARATHON LLC, with the assistance of Marathon sponsor Don Francisco's Coffee.
In 2009, Arnett asked the Marathon for support to create a"shadow" race to raise funds for the family of a fallen member of the Brigade. Marathon organizers responded immediately with race bibs and T-shirts for all of the participants, finisher medals, Clif Bars and Clif Bloks electrolyte replacement cubes and a finish banner. At Camp Taji, located about 20 miles north of Baghdad, more than 500 soldiers participated in the Camp Taji Memorial Day Marathon and Half-Marathon, starting at 5 a.m. to beat the heat and finishing about 10 a.m. with the final runners making their way to the finish line in 99-degree temperatures.
Arnett is looking forward to cooler temperatures in Los Angeles on March 21.
Allison Iraheta -- an American Idol returns:
The Students Run L.A. program has helped to change the lives of its participants and Glendale's Allison Iraheta is living proof. She ran the marathon in 2007, finishing in 7:14:57 at age 14 and has gone on to national acclaim for her fourth-place finish in the eighth season of"American Idol" in 2009. Now 17, her first CD, Just Like You was released last December and she will sing the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium before the start of the 2010 Marathon.
Blessing of the Shoes:
For those who want to make sure that their equipment is as prepared as they are for the Stadium to the Sea course, a special service for the"blessing of the shoes" will take place at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles on March 20 at 10 a.m. Reverend Francis Mendoza will officiate, with choral support from the Harmonies Girls Choir.
Comrades for Vision:
Team World Vision, a participating charity of the Marathon, is training a team of 56 runners who will run the Comrades, a 56-mile ultra-marathon that will be held in South Africa this May, to raise money to support 1,500 African children in extreme poverty. Three members of the team -- Andy Baldwin, Martin Fajardo and Tim Nelson -- will be running in the 2010 Honda LA Marathon as a training exercise.
Baldwin, a physician who is also a Lt. Commander in the United States Navy, is the best-known of the three, having starred in the 10th season of the television series "The Bachelor" in 2007. In addition to his efforts on behalf of Team World Vision, he is also the founder of The Got Your Back Network, which supports the children of fallen soldiers.
Eat, drink and run 26 miles:
Jimmy Dean Freeman of Coyote Running ran the course on December 2 (just weeks after it was announced), stopping along the way at Burrito King (mile 6), Carney's Express Limited (mile 13), Sprinkle's Cupcakes (mile 16) and at the Bad News Bears Park for an In & Out Burger and a Coke at mile 20. He ran 26.2 miles and ingested 4,237 calories along the way! He plans on eating more lightly before and during Sunday's race.
It's on YouTube!
Happy Birthday!
Among the birthday celebrants on March 21 will be a first-time marathoner, Darryl Scroggins of San Bernardino. His wife Kathy noted,"He has been running and training for a little over a year. We are really excited for him!" Darryl will wear bib no. 13172.
L A 2 5:
One of the visual signatures of the Honda LA Marathon are the giant letters spelling out"LA" and the number of the race visible at the starting line.
The idea was conceived for the first race in 1986 not by the organizers, but by Elaine Herfert and her family from La Verne, California to make sure that Elaine's ill husband could pick them out on the television broadcast of the race! She and her family continued to run the race and made the sign, creating a new set of Roman numerals for each year through 2006, when the then-74-year-old Herfert did not finish. There was no sign in 2007, but the Legacy Runners picked up the slack in 2008 with an"LA XXIII" sign. With a new logo unveiled for the race in 2009, the Legacy Runners, led by Denny Smith and Lou Briones, updated the look to use Arabic numerals for an"LA 24" sign. The Legacy Runners will have a new, 48-inch-high"LA 25" set ready on raceday.
L.A.'s Legacy runners:
A total of 233"Legacy" competitors -- those who have completed each and every Los Angeles Marathon -- will toe the starting line on March 21. Taken together, their 24 years of racing have covered 146,510.4 miles, equivalent to 5.88 times around the circumference of the Earth (24,902 miles)! Highlights of this unique group include:
*Of the 233 Legacy competitors, 206 are men and 27 are women.
*Of the 233 Legacy competitors, 217 come from California and 16 from Arizona (2), Idaho (2), Illinois (1), Massachusetts (1), Nevada (4), New Mexico (2), North Carolina (1), Texas (1), Washington, D.C. (1) and one from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
*The oldest Legacy male is Albert Pugliese (Sun City West, Arizona) at 86.
*The oldest Legacy female is Patricia DeVita (Granada Hills, California) at 76.
*The youngest Legacy male is Art Gonzalez Jr. (North Hollywood, California) at 43.
*The youngest Legacy female is Aimee Wyatt (Cambria, California) at 40, meaning she started running the Marathon at age 16!
*There are two married couples who are both Legacy runners:
=> Charles Cutting (racewalker) and Jane Cutting (runner) of Hayden, Idaho.
=> Ricardo and Laura Castenada, both runners, of South Gate, California. *Of the 233 Legacy competitors, 229 are runners, two are racewalkers and two are wheelchair competitors.
One competitor, Leonard Carlson -- a dentist from Burbank, California -- has competed in two divisions of the race. He ran the Marathon for the first 22 years then switched to the Handcrank Wheelchair division due to an ankle injury.
The Legacy competitors can be identified by their bib numbers, from 10001-10291.
One is not enough:
Running a single marathon is quite a feat. But two without stopping?
Ravi Rajan, a 36-year-old programmer at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, will run two marathons back-to-back on March 21. He'll start at the finish line in Santa Monica at about 1 a.m. and then run through the night to the start line at Dodger Stadium, turn around and take part in the Honda LA Marathon starting at about 7:20 a.m.
“I started running in October 2001," he wrote in an e-mail message."And after about four years found myself doing my first marathon. This will be my 18th marathon; I have also done four 50-mile races." Rajan is running to raise money for Empower Tech, a non-profit that helps blind and other disabled individuals to acquire productive skills in computer technology, on behalf of his father, who is blind and attends the program.
A push in the right direction:
Seven-year-old Caleb Barba of Claremont has cerebral palsy and cannot speak. But with the help of Erick Vasquez and Jenny Valadez of the AbilityFirst Claremont Center, he'll be in the thick of the 2010 Honda LA Marathon.
“Caleb is a non-verbal child who desperately seeks to connect with the people and environment around him," write Vasquez."He claps, smiles and rocks back and forth when he is happy. He can wave hello and goodbye. Caleb loves the attention of other people. He recently obtained a new wheelchair and is learning to self-propel. Because Caleb enjoys being actively engaged, gross motor activities, and exploring his environment, we figured that the Los Angeles Marathon would be a great adventure for him to participate in." And so he will, with Vasquez and Valadez pushing Caleb and his new wheelchair over the 26.2-mile route.
The Ultramarathoner:
Ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes will appear at the Marathon's expo on Saturday, March 20, then get ready for Sunday's race, which is really just a fun run for him.
Karnazes, 47, grew up in Inglewood and ran approximately 100 miles from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles last year on Saturday and Sunday prior to the 2009 Marathon and was greeted with wild cheers from attendees at the Expo as he ran into the Los Angeles Convention Center to give a report on his run. He ran the Marathon in 4:04:39 the next day for a three-day total of more than 125 miles!
This year?"I'm riding 500-miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles to run the new LA Marathon. I'll conclude the riding segment at the 5K run on Saturday and then speak at the Expo at noon. After my talk, I'll lead a"fun run" for a couple loops around Dodger Stadium to loosen up for the marathon.
“Being born and raised in LA, I couldn't think of a better way to honor this new and improved course than to come to the start under human power."
About LA MARATHON LLC:
We inspire athletes and connect communities. With thousands of volunteers, tens of thousands of participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators, the Honda Los Angeles Marathon presented by K-Swiss is one of the largest organized road races in the country. For more information, visit LAMarathon.com.
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