He Has a Long-Running Love for Coronado

Jerry Marsh’s approach to the Coronado Independence Day Half-Marathon has changed a bit over the years. So have his results.

When he ran his first 13.1-mile race 13 years ago at the age of 12, Marsh was just hoping to finish--he barely did, in two hours four minutes.

“I was not in any shape,” Marsh said. “I stopped a few times along the route.”

Marsh was a sixth grader and had never run competitively other than a couple times around the track in gym class.

“My older brother was running it, so I figured I’d do it too,” Marsh said. “I really don’t know why I was stupid enough to do it.”

Marsh has continued to test his intelligence and endurance every July 4 since 1976. Although he’s not much bigger physically these days--just 5-feet-8 and 115 pounds--Marsh’s stature as a long-distance runner has definitely grown.

Marsh, now the assistant women’s track coach and head women’s cross-country coach at the University of Southern California, will casually run up to 22 miles a day three times a week. And he now runs races all the way through without stopping.

In 1986, he won the Mission Bay Marathon and in ’87 won his first Coronado Half-Marathon 1:04--bettering his ’76 time by an hour. Marsh finished third in both 1985 and ’86.

Last year, he dropped to fifth. “I was not in good shape, but I figured I’d run it just because it was the half-marathon. It was my first race, and it was always a big one to me.”

This year’s race, the 16th, begins at 6:30 a.m. in front of Coronado High School. Kathy Loper, the event’s director, said she expects about 1,500 participants. There will be a two-mile fun run after the main event.

The flat, winding half-marathon course runs through the Coronado residential area, golf course, yacht club and naval base before returning to the high school for the finish.

Marsh said the key for those hoping to win is to stay close to the leader.

“For a marathon, you can let him get away from you, but in a half-marathon, you can’t let him go away,” he said. “Here with all the turns, (the leader) can get out ahead and out of site.”

Which is how Marsh won the race in ’87.

“I pulled away at the three-mile mark, and I doubt the second-place guy ever saw me again,” he said.

Henry Chio, last year’s runner-up to Gilberto Alvarizo of Tijuana, said running the turns correctly can be the difference in winning or losing a close race.

“You can run an extra 200 to 400 yards if you don’t cut the turns,” said Chio, a resident of Escondido.

Chio finished in 1:07.41 but was nipped at the finish by Alvarizo.

“I still had some left, but I didn’t even see him coming, and by the time I did, it was too late,” said Chio of his only half-marathon.

There is no prize money for first-place finishers in seven age categories (for both men and women)--sweat shirts are given out to each winner. Chio, who probably will not compete this year because he is not in top shape, said the event might eventually grow into a bigger spectacle with a more enticing rewards.

“It’s a bridesmaid type of event,” Chio said. “They just need some prize money. That really helps to motivate a runner.”

Though he acknowledges the race is a bit unique because of its distance, Marsh said it will continue to attract a large contingent of quality runners simply because it’s run over a holiday weekend and on the island of Coronado.

“It’s a bizarre distance,” said Marsh, who attended La Jolla Country Day School. “People always ask me, ‘Why aren’t you going all the way (for the full marathon)?’ But people come because its the Fourth of July and Coronado has a lot lot to offer. I think there’s a lot of people who just feel it’s the thing to do. Get up at 6:30 on the Fourth and run 13 miles. Then you’ve got the rest of the day to do whatever.”