Long Beach Marathon : McCracken Is Back From 10-Year Layoff

Running in general, and marathons in particular, have not been good to John McCracken.

The native of Lincoln, Neb., was good enough as a high school cross-country runner to be offered a track scholarship to the University of Colorado. Before he started classes there, he suffered a severe bout with mononucleosis. The extent of his illness forced doctors to advise McCracken to lay off running . . . for at least 10 years.

Coming back to the sport after 10 years was difficult for McCracken. In the first marathon in which he raced, the Los Angeles Marathon in March, he was forced to drop out at the halfway point with stomach cramps.

So his victory in Sunday’s Long Beach Marathon, in a slow 2 hours 19 minutes 15 seconds, was an affirmation to McCracken that he made the right decision.

“I just wanted to redeem myself in L.A.,” he said. “I felt great. I was just trying to break 2:20 (the Olympic Trials qualifying time in the men’s marathon). I didn’t expect to win. I looked at the entries before the race and saw all these guys with times faster than mine. I thought I’d get somewhere in the top 10.”

McCracken, 30, prevailed over a thin men’s field on a warm day that sapped most of the runners of strength and will. Still, the marathon had its largest field ever, with 3,659 registered.

Beth Milewski of Canoga Park won the women’s race in 2:53:37. McCracken and Milewski each won $3,000 for finishing first.

McCracken said he trained at noon in the unseasonble 90-degree heat of Lincoln to prepare himself for the conditions here. Sunday, he snaked his way to the lead pack at the halfway point and began to pull away from the rest of the field as either the heat or other ills began to claim the lead runners.

“I had to run the last 10 miles alone, which was hard,” McCracken said. “Around 13 miles, I was running with some other guys. I pulled away and started talking to them, telling them to come with me. They didn’t say anything.”

Runners often talk while competing. McCracken, however, was in a pack with Manuel Garcia of Mexico, who speaks Spanish, and Moacir Marconi of Brazil, who speaks Portuguese.

Marconi said he wasn’t aware McCracken was trying to make conversation. The Brazilian was busy tending to a pain behind his right knee. “I just used this as a training race,” Marconi, 26, said through an interpreter.

Garcia, 37, was second in 2:20:31 and Marconi was third in 2:22:30.

McCracken had nothing to do with running for the prescribed 10 years. He discovered it was something he could easily get used to.

“What did I do? I joined a frat and drank beer,” McCracken said.

In the three years he’s returned to running, he’s been striving to break 2:20 in the marathon. After Sunday’s race, finally, McCracken got a break.

The women’s race was led for 16 miles by Lori Veal of Phoenix, the race’s fastest qualifier. But Veal began a fast fade, and Milewski took the lead, barely.

“She began to fall apart, but so did I,” Milewski said. “It was hot. I’ve never drank so much water in all my life. I almost quit after 20 miles. After that, I just wanted to finish.”

Veal eventually dropped out.

Milewski, who works for an oral surgeon during the week and at a health club on weekends, said it was a tough race, but nothing compared to the pain she experienced a year ago.

Milewski had bilateral bunionectomy on both her feet and runs with screws in her feet.

“It sounds bad, but it hurt worse then,” she said.

Sharon Given of Los Altos was second in 2:54:27 and Alison Unterreiner of Palo Alto was third in 2:56:31.

Steve De Jong of Artesia won the men’s wheelchair race in 2:05:25. De Jong, 24, has been competing for about a year and, when asked why he started racing, said: “These chairs go faster than sitting in a regular one.”

The only woman wheelchair entrant, Mary Thompson of San Diego, finished in 2:56:40.

The wheelchair racers, usually the first finishers, were upstaged by a racer in an unusual--and non-existent--category, skateboarding.

Doug Boyd of Long Beach was legitimately entered and carried the number 1045. However, as he rolled along he said he was told by race officials numerous times to leave the course.

Boyd defiantly crossed the line first, with officials smiling. The 17-year-old apparently had no great political statement to make regarding his renegade run.

“I just did it, man,” Boyd said.