L.A. Victory Is Doubly Special : Women’s race: Isphording overcomes severe back injury--and erases painful memory of 1984 Olympics.

Julie Isphording flashed a wide smile as she crossed the finish line as the top female finisher in the fifth Los Angeles Marathon Sunday.

Isphording had every reason to smile.

Doctors told Isphording that she might never walk again, let alone run, after she underwent back surgery to repair a ruptured disc in April of 1987.

“I really don’t know how it (the ruptured disc) happened,” she said. “It wasn’t like I was taking out the trash and I felt it go. It paralyzed me. I had no feeling in my right leg.

“I had a lot of doubts whether I’d be able to run again. Basically, I went into surgery hoping I’d be able to walk without pain. I was willing to sacrifice my running just to walk again normally.”

But she didn’t have to make the sacrifice.

After a four-month layoff, Isphording began running. She returned to marathon running the next year, finishing ninth in the trials for the 1988 Olympic Marathon.

Isphording, who dreaded the drudgery of workouts, found a new appreciation for running after she recovered and began training again.

“Surgery made me just appreciate running more,” she said. “When something’s taken away from you, you learn not to take it for granted.”

Isphording has overcome her back injury to win three marathons, including the Columbus, Ohio, Marathon twice.

Wearing laurels on her head at a news conference, Isphording was holding the key to a new Mercedes Benz that she earned for winning the Los Angeles race.

After speaking to reporters, she rushed off to call her mother, Sally, in Cincinnati.

“Mom, I can’t believe it,” Isphording said. “I wish you could have been here. It was so intense.”

Isphording ran a patient race, trailing for all but four miles of the 26.2 miles.

Sylvia Mosqueda set a fast pace, running the first 10 miles in 56:39 before Sirje Eichelmann of the Soviet Union passed her in the 11th mile.

Eichelmann led for the next 11.5 miles before Isphording passed her at 22.5 miles.

“I passed her coming down a hill and I never looked back,” Isphording said. “I heard someone scream out (that she had a 35-second lead) after mile 24, so I began to just race the clock.”

Isphording beat the clock and Eichelmann.

“I figured I couldn’t win after Isphording passed me,” Eichelmann said. “I was trying to run my own race so I could finish in the top three.”

Isphording built a 30-second lead over Eichelmann at the 24-mile mark and finished in 2 hours 32 minutes 25 seconds, a pace of 5:48.7 minutes per mile. Eichelmann was second in 2:33.26.

Was Isphording concerned when Eichelmann took the lead?

“I really never thought about it,” she said. “I went out to run my own race and at mile 20 I was going to try to kick it in with whatever I had left and it just so happened that they were beginning to die. I was lucky.”

Running the Los Angeles Marathon evoked bad memories for Isphording, who failed to complete the first women’s Olympic marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Isphording dropped out in the 11th mile because of a torn tendon in her right foot, which paralyzed the right side of her body.

“The ambulance picked me up and I was actually leading the race at one point in the ambulance. They brought me back to the Coliseum and I pulled up a TV, packed my body in ice and watched Joan Benoit win the race.”

When Isphording made the last turn heading for the finish of Sunday’s race, she saw a mural of Benoit.

“It was neat to see that mural because Joan Benoit’s done a lot for women’s running,” Isphording said. “It was neat to come down Exposition Blvd. and relive the Olympics. It’s very fortunate that I did get my second chance out here. Winning this race means a lot to me.”

After failing to finish the 1984 Olympics and not making the 1988 Olympic team, Isphording, 28, hopes to compete in the 1992 Olympics.

“I still have a shot at hanging out till 1992,” Isphording said.