LOS ANGELES MARATHON / DAILY REPORT : Aftershocks Could Spur Runners On

In virtually every other major sporting event, the rumbling of the earth beneath the competitors’ feet would be cause for alarm.

Only in Los Angeles, only now, would it be cause for an award.

Seven weeks after the Jan. 17 earthquake, organizers of Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon will honor the first male and female to finish after an aftershock registering 3.0 or more on the Richter Scale.

The honor is called--what else?--”the Rock ‘n Roll Award.”

The winners will receive free airline tickets to Memphis, Tenn., where Elvis Presley died.

“This award says that this is L.A., this is Hollywood, and we can survive anything,” said Bill Burke, marathon president.

The ninth annual marathon, which will begin at 8:40 a.m. in front of the Coliseum, has gained importance since the temblor, organizers claim.

“A lot of people across the world think Los Angeles is still in rubble,” Burke said. “This is a chance to show everybody that we’re still standing.”

Burke was in Mexico on the morning of the earthquake. He returned home that afternoon, as previously scheduled.

Then he made an unscheduled drive around the 26.2-mile course.

“I had to see for myself if anything was still left,” he said. “I was surprised. Somehow, the earthquake missed our course. I don’t know how that happened, but it did.”

No sooner did he return home than he announced that the race would take place.

It was an announcement that was repeated hundreds of times to worried callers during the next week.

Marathon officials say runners have responded with more than 16,000 entries.

Officials expect to receive the maximum number of entries, 19,000, by Friday.

“All the response we received from around town let me know how important our race is,” Burke said. “It was like people needed to see that we were still open. Like they wanted to know that not everything in their world had been turned upside down.”

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Once again, foreign runners will be favored to win both the men’s and women’s competition.

Salvador Garcia of Mexico, winner of the New York City Marathon in 1991, and Ahmed Salah of Djibouti, who has run the second-fastest marathon in history, are expected to lead the men’s field.

Jose Santana of Brazil, who finished second here last year and fourth here in 1992, also is expected to compete.

Ed Eyestone of Utah, a longtime standout competing in his first Los Angeles Marathon, is the top American male contender.

Olga Appell of Mexico, who finished second in the New York City Marathon last year, leads the women’s field. She is hoping to become an American citizen by race day.

Only once in the previous eight years has an American man won the marathon. Ric Sayre won the first one in 1986. South Africa’s Mark Plaatjes won in 1991, two years before he became a U.S. citizen.

American women have won four of the eight races. Nancy Ditz won in 1986 and 1987, Julie Isphording in 1990 and Cathy O’Brien in 1991.

Of the 19 fastest times by a man in marathon history, Americans have only three. American women have four of the 20 fastest times in their division.