No Losers in a Hearty Competition : Charity: Thousands run, ride and walk across Irvine and Newport Beach in Heart & Sole Classic. Their ultimate goal, besides the finish line, was to raise a quarter-million dollars.

OK, so Earl Swoap and his pal Sam Praytor didn’t look like serious runners--not even walkers if truth be known. Their Florsheim shoes were the first hint.

But they huffed and puffed and finished the 5-kilometer walk Saturday in the Heart & Sole Classic anyway. And for both men--cardiopulmonary patients--that itself was progress.

“My goal next year is to run in this,” said Swoap, 53, who raised $200 in pledges for the American Heart Assn.’s biggest fund-raiser in Orange County.

About 6,000 people ran, cycled or walked across the finish line during the morning event, sponsored by The Times Orange County Edition and aimed at raising at least $250,000 for education and research into heart disease, the leading cause of death in America.

“I don’t see how it could get any more successful than this,” said high-jumper Dwight Stones, a two-time Olympic silver medalist and four-time celebrity chairman of the event. His 5-year-old daughter, Jessica, has a congenital heart defect.

“All we can do now,” he added with a grin, “is hold this at a bigger place.”

Participants began arriving at 6:30 a.m. at a staging area near the Hyatt Regency hotel in Irvine for a 10-kilometer run, a 25-kilometer bicycle ride and a 5-kilometer walk/run. The courses weaved through Irvine and Newport Beach.

In sleek fitness wear or polyester leisure suits, toting designer bottled water and Gatorade, pushing strollers and pulling wagons, thousands streamed over the finish line by 10 a.m. to the cheers of emcee Ed Arnold, a television sportscaster, and several Olympic athletes. One entrant led a dozen Shelties by leash.

Sports figures included Stones; Chris Marlow, captain of the 1984 Olympic volleyball team; Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic decathlon champion, and swimmer John Naber, a 1976 Olympic gold medalist.

Nearly 200 Orange County businesses sponsored entrants, or operated booths with free food and drinks.

Jeff Matsumoto, 19, took first place in the 5K event, running it in 15:17. The Huntington Beach resident ran with his former math teacher at Mater Dei High School, Sean Lieblang, 31, who won the 10K run by finishing in 33 minutes.

“It’s the first time I ever won anything,” said Lieblang, also of Huntington Beach. “We’re here because we just like to run.”

Saturday’s 5K was Beth Ward’s first in California. She and her husband moved to Laguna Niguel two months ago from Houston, where they have run in many heart association fund-raisers like the classic.

“It’s kind of my way to contribute to charity,” Ward said. “Besides, it gets you up and out in the morning.”

There was no entry fee, but organizers suggested a $25 donation to traverse the course and get a T-shirt. Many runners collected per-kilometer pledges.

Last year’s Classic netted $230,000 from 4,500 athletes, said Wayne J. Plizga, volunteer chairman of the event. About 200 volunteers staffed this year’s fund-raiser, and Plizga said organizers “feel very, very confident we will raise in excess of $250,000 this year. I’m really hoping we do $275,000.”

The actual figure, however, won’t be tallied until Nov. 14, the deadline for donations.

The Rams cheerleaders performed, as did a band. But people like Swoap and Praytor came for the walk.

Swoap, who is a security guard at Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton, and Praytor, a 68-year-old retiree, were pleased simply to have finished his first walk-a-thon in decades.

They covered the course with Scottie Perkins, their cardiopulmonary nurse at Martin Luther Hospital in Anaheim and one of 19 hospital employees who participated.

“I wanted to keep a certain pace and I pretty much did,” Swoap said. “These Florsheims are great for walking!”