The Finish Was Definitely Finnish : Favorites Kahkola, Keskitalo Set the Pace in Orange County Marathon

The first Orange County Marathon took on a Scandinavian flavor Sunday morning, with the men’s and women’s winners coming from Finland.

Versa Kahkola, the favorite, covered the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours, 18 minutes, 45 seconds to win the men’s race. Sinikka Keskitalo, also from Finland, outdistanced her closest challenger by more than five minutes to win in 2:35:52. The winners received $2,500.

Kahkola, the Finnish national champion, had been running shoulder-to-shoulder with Paul Pilkington, 27, from Roy, Utah, for almost five miles after the pair moved into the lead near the 17-mile mark. But as the runners turned the corner off Irvine Center Drive and onto Culver Drive, Kahkola took the lead and extended it to almost 100 feet before Pilkington dropped out after 23 miles.

“I just started to cramp,” said Pilkington, who was running in his second marathon. “I just didn’t feel like it was worth it to finish because they don’t spread the money out past first place.”

Also not finishing was Pat Ewing of Los Angeles, who led from near the three-mile mark until he was finally passed at the 17.2-mile mark by Kahkola and Pilkington on Barranca Road. By then, the runners had finished the gradual 404-foot rise from Laguna’s Main Beach to the canyon top.

Ewing’s failure to hold the lead after the canyon fulfilled the prediction made by Scottish runner Lawrie Spence Thursday night at a press conference.

“Whoever has the lead after 17 miles will not win the race,” Spence said. “The strain of the canyon will have just taken too much out of him.”

Said El Segundo’s Ewing: “I’ve run the hill before. I just got a stomach cramp and then started to cramp up after that. I didn’t finish so I can come back stronger in the next race I run.”

Although Ewing led from early on, when the runners were coming down Pacific Coast Highway through Corona del Mar and into Laguna Beach, he could never break from the trailing pack that consisted of Kahkola, Spence, Pilkington, Josef Machlec and second-place finisher Monte Brothwell, of Bellevue, Idaho.

Brothwell, 30, passed Ewing and Pilkington after they stopped but never challenged for the lead, finishing at 2:20:45, two minutes behind Kahkola. He entered the race last week after missing the Sacramento Marathon because of the flu.

Kahkola, a bank officer in Finland, overcame a shin splint injury in his right leg to win.

“It was like a hidden uphill in Laguna Canyon,” he said through interpreter Rick Santala. “About the 15th mile, I realized the leader was slowing and if I could overcome the injury I felt like I could win the race.”

Kahkola did not appear to be bothered by the injury as he coasted to the finish waving to the crowd.

Kahkola, who ran a 5:17-mile pace, was one of 13 foreign runners who race organizers solicited to add a world-class dimension to the marathon. More than 85% of the 815 runners were from Orange County.

Machlec, of Sweden, finished third at 2:21:25, and Spence was fourth at 2:22:48. Australia’s Alan Thrulow was fifth at 2:25:11. Muya Wachira, of Canada, was sixth at 2:27:26.

The first county runner among the 690 who finished was Steve Cubillas, 24, of La Habra, who finished in seventh place at 2:29:09.

In the women’s division, there was really no competition for Keskitalo, 35, who placed 15th in the 1984 Olympic marathon. She took the lead early after the start from Newport Center and traveled most of the course alone to finish 16th overall.

“Because there was no other female runner near me, I felt odd,” she said through Santala. “But I’m an uphill runner so the tough part of the course was to my liking.”

Michelle Aubuchon, of Van Nuys, was second in 2:41:40. Sue Petersen, 41, of Laguna Beach, finished third in 2:54: 09.