A New Course : Teen-Age Marathoners and Their ‘Chief’ Strive for Personal Best

Some will be running the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday because it is there, because it is supposed to be one of those only in L.A. happenings, because somebody told them they had to be kidding at their age, or because they could use a new Mercedes and $15,000 cash.

And somewhere in this bobbing sea of 19,000 running shorts will be Roy Wiseman, striding forward for a far more personal cause: Martin Campos and his brother, Salvador. The teen-age brothers, too, will be running as if their very lives depended upon it, which in a way, is true.

For them, this marathon is not just a footrace. It is a glorious new proving ground, one that, a few years ago, they never dreamed they would enter. That was before they met Roy, the guy they love to call “Chief.” He has shown them that ignorance corrupts, that barriers of race and class need not imprison hope.

Wiseman, who is black, is a successful engineer who remembers dining by candlelight as a child--because his parents couldn’t pay their electric bill. His father was a welder, his mother cleaned other people’s homes. He is the only one in his family to go to college, at Ohio’s Kent State.

The Campos brothers emigrated from El Salvador a decade ago. Now their father, a plumber, heads to a Pasadena street corner every day in search of odd jobs. Their mother put herself through beauty school with the money she earned cleaning offices at night. Today she cuts hair at the beauty salon of a department store.

So what are a few blisters among friends? These guys will be running the marathon because sometimes, physical pain is balm for the soul.

“One of my friends said, ‘You’re not going to make it, you’re going to go splat. You’re going to die,’ ” said Martin, a sixth-grader who is 13 years old. “Then I go, ‘Nah. I can make it. I already did 21 miles.’ ”

And that run was with Roy, of course. Wiseman, 40, pulled the same psychological tricks on Salvador two years ago when he was 14. The two set out at the start of the 1992 Los Angeles Marathon together, but after 18 miles, Wiseman shot ahead.

“He left me on Wilshire! But I went on because I wanted to catch him. When I finished, it was bad, it was fresh!” Salvador said with pride. “And when I was running, people would say, ‘Look at that little kid running!’ I felt good because I was doing something that other people can’t do.”

*

After pounding his way through more than a dozen Los Angeles neighborhoods, Salvador finished the 26.2-mile course in three hours and 42 minutes. It was the first time he had ever attempted such a monumental task.

The course record, set by Mexico’s Martin Mondragon in 1988, is two hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds, although a marathon spokeswoman said most people take four to five hours. Some literally take all day. The race starts at 8:40 a.m.

This year Salvador figures he and first-timer Martin should make it across the finish line outside the Coliseum in under four hours. “And my time next year is going to be three,” he said.

Running, however, is simply a metaphor that has echoed through Wiseman’s attempts to do some good for youngsters who seemed to be throwing away their chances for success. He recalls that the first time Salvador visited him--and was awed by the technical wizardry of his garage door opener--the boy begged never to be sent home.

The boys’ father says he was drinking heavily then. Their mother, Maria, says the constant tension in their home was taking its toll on everyone, including her. Her sons did not bother with their schoolwork. At home, peace meant watching TV.

Wiseman met Salvador after his employer, Allied Signal Technical Services--a contractor to Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory--”adopted” Wilson Junior High School, where Salvador was then in the sixth grade.

Wiseman offered to tutor youngsters whom the principal had singled out for special help, and Salvador was one of four boys that Wiseman was assigned. Every Tuesday he visited the school.

Back then, Salvador says, his short temper and stubbornness always entangled him in fights. There was always some issue he believed had to be settled with force. “I liked to intimidate people,” Salvador said. “That would make me feel good.”

This is the opposite of what Wiseman is about. Violence has no place in his world; he finds his drama in sports. He climbs rocks, dives under water and through the sky, pilots airplanes and pedals bikes. Marathons, for him, are no big deal. His quiet and deliberate manner strongly suggests to his young friends that machismo does not make a man.

In the classroom, Wiseman talked to the youngsters as their friend, and he listened to them even more. A single man, he has no children of his own.

*

Then at the end of the school year, Wiseman suggested that his group take a celebratory camping trip. But only Salvador’s parents showed up for the informational meeting that Wiseman had planned. So instead, Wiseman took Salvador and some of his friends to Disneyland.

It was the first of many outings, including one to Washington, Virginia and Ohio, where Salvador was accepted by members of Wiseman’s family as just folks.

“They didn’t see a little Hispanic kid,” Salvador said. “They saw Sal. That’s why I felt good.”

The Campos family, in turn, has accepted Wiseman as a blessing from God. He has helped them move from a Pasadena neighborhood that is rife with gangs and drugs and crime. The boys are in new schools.

Now their family rents a two-bedroom home that Wiseman owns in a quiet city neighborhood about two miles from where he lives in Pasadena. Their rent, however, does not cover Wiseman’s mortgage.

And the boys’ father, inspired by the changes his sons have undergone, has been sober for more than a year. At the age of 44, he is studying toward a high school diploma. Now the whole family goes to church.

Salvador, in the meantime, has his career all figured it out. He will be a doctor when he grows up. And Martin? A professional soccer player, or maybe even a runner, who knows?

*

The wrong question to ask Wiseman is why he is doing all these things for people who were strangers not long ago.

“It’s a why not,” he said. “It’s a part of who I am. When you see people in need, you try to help. You can always find reasons not to be involved. . . .

“Salvador was having great difficulties growing up. This little boy was really at risk. I had the opportunity to show him he was special. I had to give him confidence to know that he could change his environment. I’m really proud of him. He’s come a long way. And, like all of us, he’s got a long way to go.”

Maria, the boys’ mother, said the one thing her family had wished for Wiseman was for him to find a wife. She said she thanks God that her prayers have come true.

Wiseman’s marriage to Patty Hart is scheduled for July. He is building a steel-frame house in Sierra Madre where the couple will live with Hart’s 13-year-old daughter, and there will be room for more children.

“And I’m going to be the best man in the wedding!” Salvador said.

This was news to Wiseman. But now that it has been proclaimed, Wiseman said he considers it done. After all, it was Salvador who got a peek at the engagement ring, even before Hart did.

And for the record, Wiseman’s future wife said that she, too, plans to run her own marathon one day.

A Rainy Race?

For today’s Los Angeles Marathon, forecasters say a coastal low-pressure system will bring cool temperatures, brisk winds and a 40% likelihood of showers, possibly thunderstorms. High temperatures are expected in the low to mid-60s, with westerly winds of 15 m.p.h. to 20 m.p.h. under cloudy skies.

Although showers may keep spectators away, light precipitation and accompanying cool weather can make for fast times, said William A. Burke, the marathon’s president and founder. Precipitation does have its practical drawbacks. Wet socks can cause blisters, and cool, wet weather may chill some runners.

It has only rained once in the marathon’s nine-year history, a light early morning mist that dampened runners for an hour or so during the 1989 race.

Marathon to Close Streets

The Los Angeles Marathon, which starts at 8:40 a.m. today, will force many street closures in central Los Angeles. Because of the added congestion, motorists are asked to avoid the I-10 between the 110 and 405 freeways from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Motorists are also asked to avoid unnecessary travel in the La Brea Avenue / Crenshaw Boulevard corridor. Off-ramps will be closed on the I-10 at Crenshaw, the 101 at Vine, Gower and Hollywood and the 110 at 6th.