Organizers Gear Up for a Marathon Day

Ancient Greece it’s not. After runners stream past Anaheim Stadium at the start of the Orange County Marathon on Sunday, they’ll pass under palm trees instead of olive trees, streak by blimp hangars instead of the Acropolis. And in the most telling sign of the times, winners will take home gleaming BMWs instead of laurel wreaths.

More than 5,000 runners, skaters and wheelchair athletes are expected to participate in Orange County’s version of a centuries-old competition, while thousands of others are expected to line the 26.2-mile route to witness the spectacle.

All told, the event will close some streets for several hours, disrupt traffic and disturb at least one church service as contestants work their way through the streets from Anaheim to Irvine all morning long.

The day’s events get under way with the wheelchair marathon at 7 a.m., quickly followed by a pack of skaters. At 8 a.m. about 4,000 runners will stream out from the shadow of Anaheim Stadium, head north on State College Boulevard and make their way through Orange, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and Tustin before finishing in Irvine near the UC Irvine campus.

For contestants, the race represents a chance to vie for prize money, set a world record or just prove they can run a marathon.

For organizers, it represents something equally significant: agreement among six different cities and a number of different law enforcement agencies over how to coordinate and police the day’s events.

Matt Lagman, a marathon organizer, likened the effort to whipping a chorus into shape.

“When you incorporate all the different municipalities and they are all singing different tunes . . . you have to get them to sing together and sound good,” he said.

Anaheim Police Lt. Jack Parra, who for the past year has helped plan for Sunday’s run, agrees. “This is an event that required coordination incorporating a number of different agencies: the stadium, traffic engineers, the police department traffic bureau, Caltrans.”

Lagman said organizers wanted a route to pass through several cities so it could be touted as a countywide event. Along the way, participants will pass a number of county landmarks: the Big A, the Civic Center in Santa Ana, the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, blimp hangars at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station and UC Irvine.

The route winds through both commercial and residential areas, so marathon organizers had their hands full sending out letters to hundreds of residents and calling businesses that line the route.

To some the news was not welcome.

Daniel Tamara is the pastor of Templo Sinai on Flower Street and St. Andrew Place in Santa Ana, along the marathon route. He said the race will mean a minor headache Sunday because the street will be closed to traffic and hundreds of runners are expected to stream past the church’s main entrance as a 9:30 a.m. Mass gets under way.

Tamara said the race does not bother him, “but the community is bothered,” he said in Spanish. “It is possible that people will not be able to hear Mass,” he said.

Meanwhile, drivers be forewarned: police will block off the entire route at 7 a.m. Sunday, which includes major streets such as Anaheim’s Orangewood Avenue and Santa Ana’s Broadway. As the packs of racers thin out, police will allow traffic to pass.

Drivers should look for alternate routes between 7 a.m. and noon Sunday, police advised.

The only street that will be closed for an extended period is Campus Drive between Berkeley Avenue and University Drive in Irvine, which will be the finishing line. It will be closed from midnight Saturday until about 4 p.m. Sunday.

Parking will be scarce along the route for much of the weekend. Marathon organizers said signs will go up on lampposts and trees along the route advising people that no parking is allowed between 8 a.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.

Police predicted that Sunday morning traffic and spectators will not cause any major disruptions. A sellout crowd will be attending a Los Angeles Rams-New Orleans Saints game Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, but most of the marathon traffic will be gone before the 1 p.m. kickoff.

The marathon is not the only event of the day. A 5-kilometer Fun Run and Walk, 3-kilometer Walk and 1-kilometer Kids’ Walk will start Sunday at 7:15 a.m. in Irvine.

A Health Food and Fitness Expo, featuring fitness and injury prevention booths, runs today until Sunday at the UC Irvine Bren Events Center.

For those more inclined to eat and dance than run and sweat, a food expo featuring dishes from all over the county and a music festival begin at 9 a.m. at the Marketplace in Irvine.

The Race The Orange County Marathon covers 26.2 miles from Anaheim to Irvine, passing by several local landmarks. Streets will be closed, meaning drivers should look for alternate routes. Local police will begin posting “No Parking” signs along the race route Saturday at 8 a.m. Nearly all streets should be back to normal by noon Sunday.

The marathon begins at 7 a.m. with a wheelchair race, followed minutes later by the in-line skating competition. The runners begin at 8 a.m. Below are the times that lead contestants in all three races should reach various points along the route.

Wheelchair athletes and skaters

7 a.m.: Anaheim stadium

Runners:

8 a.m.: Anaheim stadium

Wheelchair athletes and skaters

7:20 a.m.: Civic Center Plaza

Runners:

8:45 a.m.: Civic Center Plaza

Wheelchair athletes and skaters

7:45 a.m.: Performing Arts Center

Runners:

9:05 a.m.: Performing Arts Center

Wheelchair athletes and skaters

8:10 a.m.: Tustin U.S. Marine Corps blimp hangars

Runners:

9:30 a.m.: Marine Corps blimp hangars

Wheelchair athletes and skaters

8:30 a.m.: UCI Bren Events Center

Runners:

10:10 a.m.: UCI