A Sunday Runner Beats a Sunday Driver Any Day

What disturbs me most about Melvin Durslag’s column (Feb. 17) is that it utterly misses the whole point of the L. A. Marathon. In a spectator-oriented country where too many people are soft, unfit and unhappy with their physical conditioning, it’s a wonderful thing to see 20,000 ordinary citizens get out on a Sunday morning to meet the challenge of a marathon.

In a city that has become habitually self-flagellating about all the things that are wrong, why attack one of the few trends that counter these ills and make people feel good about themselves and their community?

ED AYRES, Valencia