L.A. MARATHON / DAILY REPORT : He Hopes Again to Be Able to Rise to Occasion

There is nothing like a long, steep hill in the middle of a marathon for Jim Knaub, winner of the Los Angeles Marathon wheelchair division in 1989, 1991 and ’92.

Last year, Knaub pulled away from the pack at the seventh mile, climbing one of the course’s tallest hills.

“You know when you were a kid and you didn’t like vegetables?” Knaub asked. “Well, when I was a kid, I didn’t like Brussels sprouts, but I knew that they are good for you. So, I forced myself to eat them so much that I really like them now. Well, when I started racing, I wasn’t a good climber and I actually decided to make it one of the things that I do well.”

Knaub also is a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon, where he set a world-best time of 1 hour 26 minutes 26 seconds in 1992.

Knaub, who lives in Long Beach, competed in the pole vault in the 1976 United States Olympic trials before being injured in a motorcycle accident in 1978.

This year, the L.A. Marathon is expected to be a showdown between Knaub, 37, and Heinz Frei, 35, of Switzerland. Frei won the wheelchair marathon gold medal at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona.

Sunday’s race will be the sixth marathon for Sharlene Wills, who is blind.

Wills, 45, will race with the help of a guide runner. She and the guide hold ends of a six-inch piece of rope to stay together.

There probably will be several blind runners Sunday, but Wills is expected to be the only blind woman.

She says she hopes to finish in a personal-best time of 4 1/2 hours.