Sheremeta Wins La Jolla Half Marathon

It wasn’t the steep hills or nagging side cramps that slowed James Sheremeta.

It was the direction Sheremeta almost took at one point Sunday during the La Jolla Half Marathon.

San Diego’s Sheremeta won the race, which began at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and ended at La Jolla Cove, in 1:11.43. John Butler of Long Beach finished second with a time of 1:12:14, and Encinitas’ Gordy Haskett was third, coming in at 1:13:13.

Laura Stuart of Del Mar was the first woman to finish, recording a time of 1:22:14. Leslie Howland, also of Del Mar, was second with a time of 1:23:25.

Just as Sheremeta, 27, was making his break from Butler and Haskett, he became confused. The course turned down a street too narrow for the pace car so the car continued driving straight. Sheremeta was unable to see the cyclists who were directing the runners. When the pace car went straight, so did Sheremeta.

Another cyclist close to the pace car and also directing runners, rode past the turn then turned around just as Sheremeta yelled, “Which way do I go?”

“I literally had to stop,” Sheremeta said. “I thought I was going to have problems (after that happened). If you let (that sort of thing) get to you, you’ll have problems. I just tried to relax. I felt like I was starting (the race) all over. If it had been later on there could have been problems.”

But the time Sheremeta lost in the confusion he made up on the two-mile hill through Torrey Pines State Park. Sheremeta started the climb with a 50-foot lead on Butler and came out of the park with a gain of 42 seconds and 200 yards.

“My strategy was to establish the lead once I got to the hill,” Sheremeta said. “I knew if I could hold it together I could win it. Had it been flat the (result) would have been different.”

Like Sheremeta, hills are the forte of Stuart, 26. The Del Mar runner said she started the race “way too fast” and at the fourth mile was began slowing as Howland was catching up.

“I pulled ahead on the hill and when it flattened out I tried to pick up and make a clean break,” Stuart said. “She definitely gave me a good race.”