Pyciors Find Their Road to Happiness . . . and It’s a Long Run

Don Pycior, boys’ cross-country coach at Canyon High School, will turn 50 in December. His wife, Kathy, will turn 40 in November.

Don has been looking for a creative way to commemorate those occasions. He thinks he has found it.

“It’s called the Lewis and Clark Trail Run,” Don said. “It’s a 480-mile race across the state of Washington. You get to follow the same route that Lewis and Clark did. You’re supposed to try to finish in under eight days . . . “

When it comes to birthdays--or any other days--the Pyciors are not your ordinary cake-and-ice cream couple.

They’re ultra-runners, that unique breed of athlete who finds happiness in the very long run.

Don, who averages 70 miles a week in training, is veteran of 45 marathons, 15 50-mile races, and has finished the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run three times. As race director of the Orange 24-hour run in July, Don also has covered 100 miles or more four times in that event.

Kathy, an escrow officer who trains 50 miles a week, has run “countless marathons,” and three 50-mile races. Though she has yet to run in a 100-mile race, she says: “Don thinks I’m capable, he’s trying to talk me into it, but I don’t know.”

To most runners, that hesitation is understandable. To many non-runners, any way you look at it, it’s nuts. But though Kathy said, “I don’t know too many other (couples) like us,” the Pyciors, who live in Santa Ana, seem perfectly content with the path they’ve followed, be it on road, track or trail.

Consistency has been their key, as well as their keepsake. The Pyciors--who met at a 10K and whose first date was a four-mile run--have a streak that might be unmatched.

Don hasn’t missed a day of running (he considers three miles the minimum distance) since Sept. 17, 1977, almost 11 years. Kathy has a seven-year streak going, dating to May 17, 1981.

“I just decided long ago that, for me, a streak would be a challenge and a good way to keep myself running when I feel like slacking off,” Don said.

Their runs, both morning and night, are recorded in monthly charts Don designed years ago for his runners at Canyon. Each date has a space to record where, when and the number of miles run, and how the runner felt.

“When I first met Don, he gave me a blank chart,” Kathy said. “He told me when I miss a day of running, I had to draw a big sad face in that space. That (avoidance of sad faces) is what got me going and kept me going all these years.”

The charts, snapped into three-ring binders, fill a bookcase in the Pyciors’ study. Leafing through some of the older binders is a nostalgic trip, Don said. He offered their wedding date--June 19, 1982--as an example:

A.M.: Got up, ran Fairhaven Rd. to Tustin Ave. to 17th St. to Yorba to top of Fairhaven bridge. Five miles.

P . M . : Wedding, Don and Kathy.

Not a lengthy description, but understandable considering that after the wedding (where many of their friends wore sport coats and running shorts), the Pyciors had to rush off to Squaw Valley for their honeymoon.

A romantic weekend? Well . . .

“The reason we went to Squaw Valley is that’s where the Western States (100-mile race) starts,” Kathy said. “Don ran it, but I just rode along in the support van.

“I know some people were saying, ‘You’re crazy! Spending your honeymoon doing that? ‘ But, hey, we had a really nice week.”

Of course, that was just the beginning. In their six years of marriage, the Pyciors have spent vacations running in different parts of the nation. Today, they’ll leave for Bishop to run the Mule Run 50K, a 30.1-mile race over dirt trails beginning Saturday at 7 a.m.

Last year, the Pyciors joined a group running from Lone Pine to the top of Mt. Whitney.

A race? “No,” Don said. “Just a fun run. We left at 5 (a.m.) and got to the top at noon. “It was a pretty tough climb, we had to walk in spots, but it was just beautiful along the way.”

Barry Hawley, a San Clemente ultra-distance runner, said he fell asleep while running a race last weekend.

Was Hawley bored? Well, not exactly.

Hawley had just passed the 87-mile mark of the Leadville 100, a grueling 100-mile trek through the Rocky Mountains. Race elevations average 10,000 feet and peak at 12,600.

“I was just running along and I remember feeling myself falling asleep,” said Hawley, a 46-year-old tool design engineer. “I had just started to dream, and all of a sudden, I started to fall. If a tree hadn’t been there, I would’ve fallen at least 100 feet (over the side of the mountain). Lucky for that tree . . . “

Hawley finished the race--which starts and finishes at Leadville, Colo., an old mining town about 110 miles west of Denver--in 27 hours 48 minutes, good enough for 68th place. (About 270 started the race; 135 finished).

Steve Harvey, a 44-year-old Laguna Niguel resident, placed 73rd.

Hawley, race director of Orange County’s San Juan 50-miler on Nov. 12, will run the Mule Run in Bishop Saturday despite less than a week of rest. Not only that, he’s planning to run the Angeles Crest 100-Miler--from Wrightwood to the Rose Bowl--Oct. 1.

“Isn’t that stupid?” Hawley said, laughing. “There’s not much time to rest.”

And not nearly enough time to sleep.

Kathleen Smith of Orange finished an impressive fifth in a strong women’s field at the America’s Finest City Half Marathon Sunday at San Diego.

Smith, 22, finished the 13.1-mile race in 1:16.12. Sylvia Mosqueda of Santa Monica, the 1988 NCAA 10,000-meter champion from Cal State Los Angeles, won the race in 1:11.31. Cathy Schiro-O’Brien of Boston, the third qualifier for the U.S. Olympic marathon team, was second in 1:13.10.

“That’s the time I wanted to run,” said Smith, a former standout at Stanford now training at UC Irvine. “It’s good to be in that type of field again, and having to work hard.” Smith, one of the top women’s road racers in the county this summer, will meet Mosqueda again Sunday at the Marina Hills 8K at Laguna Niguel.

Olympic marathoner Carlos Retiz of Mexico won the event in 1:03.40.

Top Orange County finishers were Derrick May, a resident of Balboa and a native of South Africa (10th in 1:06.50); Andy Gerken of Newport Beach (13th, 1:07.24); Alfredo Vigueras of Santa Ana (15th, 1:08.02), and former UC Irvine standout Ralph Garibaldi (16th).

In the women’s division, Michelle Conlay of Fountain Valley won the 18-and-under division (1:36.04) and three-time masters champion Harolene Walters of Mission Viejo won the 40-49 division (1:30.12).

UC Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle is sounding pretty cheerful these days, and it’s no wonder. O’Boyle, who took over the Anteater cross-country and track programs in 1982, has attracted many of the nation’s top athletes.

The latest is Dawn Arrigoni of Chardon, Ohio. Arrigoni will join the Irvine squad Sept. 1. She was attending Arizona State last season, but left the school when the NCAA put its track team on a two-year probation June 28 for 11 rule violations.

“I didn’t like what was going on at Arizona State, so I just started calling schools, looking for good running programs,” Arrigoni said. “I’d heard a lot of good things about (Irvine’s) distance program, and I really wanted to be coached by Vince.”

Arrigoni, 20, will redshirt the 1988-89 season at Irvine.

Said O’Boyle: “The future of the women’s program is really looking great.”

This week’s schedule:

Saturday: First Seal Beach Splash ‘N’ Dash (1K swim and 8K run). San Gabriel River Jetty, Seal Beach, 8 a.m. Call (213) 433-4557 for information.

Eighth Norwalk 8K Challenge. Norwalk City Hall, 8 a.m. Race walking, fitness walking and wheelchair divisions offered. Call (213) 929-2677 for information.

Sunday: Marina Hills 8K. Laguna Niguel, 8 a.m. Point-to-point race beginning at Marina Hills Drive and Niguel Road, finishing on the beach near the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Call 661-6062 or 493-1090 for information.

Thursday: Sunset in the Park 2.8- and 4.8-mile cross-country race. Central Park, Huntington Beach, 5:30 p.m. Call 841-5417 for information.