Rivas Wins Marathon in Runaway : Mexican Standout Grabs the Early Lead and Doesn’t Let Up

At first, there were hundreds of runners lined up behind the starting line in Balboa Park for Sunday’s San Diego International Marathon. Some talked quietly, some shifted back and forth nervously and some just stood, looking straight ahead.

Then, nearly an hour after the start, as the sun inched above the tops of downtown buildings, there were four runners--Carlos Rivas, Sam Sitonik, Walter Sergent and Joel Hernandez--who were quickly slipping away from the crowd. Sergent took the early lead at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and held it as the runners passed the Naval Supply Center Pier at about the 5-mile mark.

Minutes later, Rivas jumped in front. Then it was Sitonik. Then Rivas again.

And finally, there was one.

Rivas, from Mexico City, left his competition behind to talk about him as he pulled away at the 10-mile mark and, soon after, wasn’t seen by other runners again. Dressed in shamrock green, Rivas looked as if he could take a second jaunt around the 26.2-mile course when he crossed the finish line at Fourth and B streets with a personal best of 2 hours 12 minutes 8 seconds. Malcolm East, from Butler, Pa., came from far back to finish second in 2:18:21. Sitonik (2:19:04) was third, and Sergent (2:20:01) was fourth.

As Rivas pulled ahead, Sitonik and Sergent speculated on how long he would last.

“Sitonik said ‘He’ll slow down,’ ” said Sergent, laughing. “And he didn’t. People were shouting out how far behind we were and I turned to him and said, ‘He’s not fading very fast.’ ”

He never faded. Never even came close. Sitonik and East expressed disappointment in their strategy. If done over, both would have shifted into a higher gear earlier in the race.

“As a competitor, I don’t like to make a mistake,” said Sitonik, who is originally from Kenya and now lives in Albuquerque, N.M. “I realized I’d made a mistake by letting him go.”

“I ran a dumb race,” East said. “I stayed back a little bit too long. I guess it was around the 18th and 19th miles that I decided I’d better start running.”

By then, it was too late. Rivas was already striding down Nimitz Boulevard, receiving applause from runners who were going by in the other direction. Minutes after, he stood with a medal around his neck, signing autographs and smiling. How did he feel?

“Muy contenta,” he said.

Rivas, who finished second in his last marathon in San Francisco, picks his races carefully because of a small budget. He works 8 hours a day in a grocery warehouse in Mexico City and trains in his spare time. Rivas will pick up $3,000 for his victory.

With his coach Jaime Martinez interpreting, Rivas, 26, told reporters he felt so good at the 10-mile mark that he decided to push the pace. He said he felt strong the entire race, even when breaking the tape at the finish line. And it’s no wonder. Rivas trains in a town called Desierto de Leones, 11,000 feet above sea level. So he was effective in San Diego’s low-altitude conditions, and his competition figured out early that he wasn’t to be beaten on this day.

“There was no way I was going to catch him,” East said.

That’s probably the same way runners in the women’s division felt about Chantal Best. Best, 26, glided away from her competition after 10 miles and held on to win the women’s race in 2:42:22, her personal best and first marathon victory.

Suzi Morris of Leucadia finished second in 2:43:37; Maricarmen Cardenas was third in 2:44:29.

Best, from Ann Arbor, Mich., was far too strong through the hilly part of the race to be topped. Her biggest struggle was with her own self-doubts.

“At 10 miles (I thought) ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got 16 more to hold on,’ ” said Best, who won $3,000. “You’re constantly thinking the whole way ‘Am I going to die?’ ”

Best, who finished eighth in this race last year, has run just 4 marathons and has been a competitive runner for only a year and half. She said she gained valuable experience by competing in the Olympic Trials this summer, finishing 97th out of 250 runners.