12-Hour Run Tests Threshold of Physical and Mental Endurance

Rob McNair wants to break the record.

David Warady wants to beat McNair.

And everybody wants to beat Jim Pellon.

That’s the skinny on the Orange 12 & 24-Hour Run, starting at 6 tonight at Fred Kelly Stadium in Orange.

While most entrants take a low-key approach to this event--one that consists of running continuous laps around a 440-yard dirt track--McNair, Warady and Pellon plan to race.

That’s not so tough when the distance is 5 or 10 kilometers. But for 12 hours? That’s a different matter.

McNair, of Huntington Beach, wants to break the 12-hour record of 77 miles 333 feet set last year by Earl Towner of Laguna Beach. Warady, who lives down the street from McNair, has a friendly bet with his neighbor--to the winner, goes dinner.

Pellon, a mild-mannered structural engineer from Malibu, is the favorite. Even though this is only his second ultra on the track, he hopes to run 90 miles.

“Actually,” he says half-jokingly, “I’m trying to forget about the whole thing.”

Like many ultra runners, Pellon, 41, doesn’t get too excited about running around a track for any length of time, much less 12 hours (or 720 minutes or 43,200 seconds or any way you want to break it down).

And so the fiercest competitor is not necessarily another runner, but the runner’s own mind.

“That’s the main thing, you’ve got to get yourself ready psychologically,” says Pellon, a 12-time finisher and three-time runner-up of the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-miler through the Sierra Nevada mountains.

“At Western States, you run through that wilderness. It’s beautiful and it’s an adventure,” he says. “But this . . . this is just grinding it out in circles.”

Warady isn’t much of a track runner either, but he says you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. Two weeks ago, that meant doing a simulation run on the track at Ocean View High School.

With his wife, Kelly Babiak, holding the stopwatch and water bottles, Warady ran 20 miles non-stop at a 6-minute-57-second-per-mile pace.

“The whole thing is,” Warady says, “once you commit to run the race, you know you’re going to do it, your mind takes over, and then . . . it’s simple.”

Clarification: Jack Rohde-Moe of Yorba Linda says he is aiming for an American age-group record tonight, not a world record as was stated in a story about the Orange 24-Hour Run in last Thursday’s editions.

Rohde-Moe, 62, hopes to surpass the American record for men ages 60-64, 125 miles 1,044 yards, held by Carlton Mendell. The world record for that age, held by Max Courtillon of France, is 149 miles 91 feet.

Even if he doesn’t surpass Mendell’s mark, Rohde-Moe probably sets a record every time he runs.

That would be the record for 62-year-olds who smoke two to three packs of cigarettes a day, as Rohde-Moe has done for many years.

Shoe On The Other Foot: When he was a race director with Elite Racing, an event promotions firm in Costa Mesa, George Guibert spent much of his time and energy trying to hustle sponsors for local road races.

Now, as a promotion and marketing specialist for ASICS Tiger Corp., Guibert knows what it’s like to be standing in the sponsor’s shoes.

Guibert, a 40-year-old Costa Mesa resident, has worked for the Fountain Valley-based company for just five months, but already he has dealt with nearly as many elite athletes as he did in six years with Elite Racing.

ASICS Tiger sponsors many world-class runners, including marathoners Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway and Rosa Mota of Portugal and American milers Steve Scott, Joe Falcon and Jim Spivey. Part of Guibert’s duties include deciding which athletes his company will sponsor.

In addition, Guibert deals with race directors, setting up possible sponsorship packages. On the local road racing scene, Herb Massinger of Race Pace Promotions in Dana Point used to be Guibert’s biggest rival. Now Massinger is calling on Guibert to see if ASICS would help sponsor Race Pace events.

“Our rivalry was always a friendly one anyway,” Guibert says. “So it’s nice that we can deal with each other on a good basis these days.”

Guibert’s current job includes some pretty nice perks--especially when compared to his former position. As an ASICS representative, he will travel to Tokyo this month for the World Track and Field Championships, and to Barcelona next summer for the 1992 Olympic Games.

“Yeah,” Guibert says. “I’ve gone from dealing with the Victorville Mall High Desert Classic 10K to dealing with the World Championships and the Olympics. Not a bad trade.”

Steve Martin, a 31-year-old runner from Trabuco Canyon, says it’s not uncommon to see wildlife--coyote, fox, bobcat, deer, even mountain lion--along the trails near his home, one that backs up to the Cleveland National Forest.

But the buffalo took him by surprise.

Martin, a computer software salesman, went for a run Sunday, meeting a small herd of buffalo on the street near his home. As Martin ran by the buffalo, Times photographer Don Tormey captured the moment on film. The shot appeared in Monday’s editions.

The buffalo--five in all--broke out of their corral in Holy Jim Canyon on Wednesday after being spooked by a mountain lion. On Sunday, the herd was rounded up and returned to their pen, but not before Martin’s close encounter.

“I started running and the buffalo started running too, in my direction,” Martin said. “I was going, ‘Oh no! I’m going to get gored like in Barcelona, Spain!’ ”

Barcelona? Sorry Steve, if you’re thinking of the running of the bulls, that’s Pamplona, Spain.

Did anyone ask Jeanne Dixon? A July 15 press release from Runner’s World offers these predictions on world-record breakthroughs:

* In 1993, Nourred Morceli of Algeria will be the first to run under 3:45 for the mile.

* In 1992, New Zealand mile great John Walker will become the first masters runner (40 and older) to break four minutes in the mile.

* This year, Thomas Osano of Kenya will become the first to run under 27 minutes in the 10,000.

* In 1993, Elana Meyer of South Africa will become the first female to break 30 minutes in the 10,000.

* In 1992, Ethiopian Addis Abebe will run the first sub-2:06 marathon.

* In 1993, Delillah Asiago of Kenya will be the first woman to break 2:20 in the marathon.

Race Notes

Daniel Reed, 30, won the Cypress 10K Saturday in 30:08. He was followed by Steve Bishop, 31, of Los Alamitos (30:38) and Eric Polonski, 20, (30:40). Kathleen Smith of Costa Mesa was the women’s winner in 34:24. Smith was followed by Torie Pleasant (35:58) and Anita Johnson (39:01). . . . The 5K was dominated by the Reyes family of Lakewood. Terrel Reyes, 17, won the men’s division in 14:51. Lucinda Reyes, 18, won the women’s division (17:44) and 16-year-old Sara Reyes was third in 18:51. . . . Newport Harbor High School will hold a three-mile alumni run Saturday, Aug. 10, at 9 a.m. at Bonita Creek Park, adjacent to the intersection of University Drive and La Vida, Newport Beach. For information, call Bim Barry 548-2351. All proceeds from the run--a $10 fee is required--will help fund the Newport Harbor boys’ and girls’ cross-country program.

Race Schedule

Friday: Orange 12 & 24-Hour Run. El Modena High School, Orange. Starts 6 p.m., runs continuously until 6 p.m. Saturday. Information: 538-8338.

Saturday: Run Through The Pines 5K & 10K. Lake Gregory Regional Park, 8 a.m. Information: 387-2594.

Sunday: Coors Light Biathlon. 5K run, 30K bike, 5K run. 7:15 a.m. El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Information: 680-5869.

Readers with information on Orange County runners or running events may write Barbie Ludovise at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, 92626, or call 966-5847.