L.A. Street Party Celebrates the Marathon

More than 19,000 people ran, walked and wheeled themselves through the streets of Los Angeles on Sunday, turning the city’s ninth annual marathon into a gigantic street party for spectators, a traffic quagmire for motorists and a showcase for extraordinary willpower.

And the rabbit won.

Utah’s Paul Pilkington, who was hired as the event’s “rabbit” to pace the field of elite runners, instead crossed the finish line first with a time of 2 hours, 12 minutes and 13 seconds. Mexican-born Olga Appell, who became an American citizen last week, was the first woman across, with a time of 2:28:12.

Pilkington, 35, said he kept going after 15 miles because he felt good running in the cool, moist morning air that turned out to be perfect for a marathon, and not bad for a spectators’ bash either.

“They didn’t come with me,” Pilkington said of the top runners he assumed would eventually pass him. “Tactically they made a mistake by not keeping up. I didn’t decide to stay in until the 15th or 16th mile.”

But Italy’s Luca Barzaghi, who came in second, said he expected Pilkington to drop out after 20 miles and was upset to learn he did not. So sure was Barzaghi that he had won that he had already chosen the color of the Mercedes that the first-place finisher wins along with a $15,000 prize. Poland’s Andrzej Krzyscin finished third.

The day’s more compelling story, as always, was the thousands of other marathon participants who took to the streets of the city, setting off outside the Coliseum to the blasting refrains of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.”

Of the 19,000 participants, nearly 3,000 were from Orange County, according to a marathon official.

An estimated 1 million people lined the route, proffering refreshments, holding signs and balloons and yelling at runners to keep moving, it wasn’t much farther, and they were really lookin’ good!

Mayor Richard Riordan, accompanied by boxing legend Muhammad Ali, fired the starter’s gun. “Ali! Ali!” runners chanted as they strode by.

The runners came in all ages and in nearly every physical condition, in every get-up from slick running gear to bunny ears, midriff tops and what looked like an armadillo suit. Some pushed their children in aerodynamic strollers, while the wheelchair competitors pushed themselves.

In the wheelchair division, Frenchman Phillipe Couprie and Australia’s Paul Wiggins tied as winners. They came in first by hard work and together by choice--they held hands as they crossed the finish line side by side.

And for those few who thought that running 26.2 miles was not quite enough pain, Sol Wroclawsky, 40, was dragging a wheeled steel contraption called the “Riksha Runner” that he said adds six pounds of resistance. (There was no word on whether Wroclawsky, attempting his first marathon in 14 years, made it across the finish line.)

The marathon course looped and wound its way through 14 of the city’s neighborhoods--from Exposition Park, through Downtown, up Sunset Boulevard, to Hollywood, Koreatown, through the heart of the city’s Central American community and back to the Coliseum.

About 400 city streets were closed for the race, creating a maze of detours that clogged the streets with motorists desperately seeking a way around. Several freeway exits were blocked, turning the Harbor and later the quake-beleaguered Santa Monica Freeway into virtual parking lots.

“Any time we have this many closures, it screws up the entire city,” Los Angeles police Capt. Sandy Wasson said.

Most of Los Angeles appeared to feel that the chaos was worth it--at least for a day.

“This is good duty. You get to meet a lot of nice people,” said Officer Martha Lopez of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police. She does not run, “at least not on purpose.”

Just as the runners crested a hill on Wilshire Boulevard heading to Koreatown, Kim Eun Soo stood happily clapping her hands. “Jal han da!” she said, again and again. Her neighbor explained that in Korean it means, “Very good!”

Farther up the road, Jerry Johnson, who had been watching the marathon on TV when she realized it was close to her door, was out on the curb yelling, “Pump it up! All the way! Come on! Over the hill!”

In South-Central Los Angeles, Curtiss Copeland, 58, had staked out a corner at Mile 24 with a folding chair he had toted from home. “I love it. It’s amazing,” he said. “Especially the wheelchair guys. They come flying by with the power of their own. So at least there’s hope, right?”

Sitting nearby was Miss Pruiet, who preferred not to reveal her age or her first name. “This is exciting because people are up for it,” she said. “They are friendly. In Los Angeles, how many times do you find people talking to people they don’t know?”

More than midway through the course, runner Marlen Mertz was indeed talking a lot--with Ron Ribstein of Van Nuys.

“He met up with me along Mile 3,” Mertz said. “But we might get married.” (She later swore it was a joke.)

Continuing their seven-year tradition, one group of six women friends stayed overnight in a Los Angeles hotel and started the race at 6:15 a.m--more than two hours before the official 8:40 start--because they wanted to make sure that they crossed the finish line before the marathon closed down.

As is their custom, they were walking the entire way. Keeping up a brisk pace at the 17-mile mark, they were raving about the quality time the marathon lets them spend together, away from ringing phones or people asking them to do things.

“We get to talk to each other for 6 1/2 hours,” said Ellen Pearlman, a 45-year-old psychologist. “The greater the pain, the more interesting the story. We talk about guilt, our mothers. We finish stories that we started a long time ago and never got the chance to finish.”

Throughout the course, runners were serenaded by sidewalk gospel choirs, marimba musicians, Taiko drummers, salsa bands and almost every rhythm in between. Volunteers held Gatorade and water at arm’s length so that runners need not slow down to grab a cup.

“Sometimes, they yell at you if you’re not holding it the right way,” said volunteer Mary Page of the Junior League of Los Angeles. “Or they yell, ‘Too full!’ ”

At the starting line, Paul Rodriguez, a computer consultant from Paramount, said a friend gave him the idea of trying a marathon for the first time. “My main goal is to get to Hollywood,” he said. “Just like everybody else from out of town.”

Boxer George Jackson, 27, said when he left his house early Sunday morning he only had plans to pick up the newspaper.

Instead, he found the streets clogged with runners and the area around the Coliseum in high party gear. Vendors were selling everything from steamed fish and foot futons to “therapeutic magnetic jewelry.” You could sign up to join the Rainforest Action Network or get a free spinal screening.

Jackson said the spirit of the event just carried him along.

“I’m running free-lance,” he said, jogging in the T-shirt and shorts he had left home in. “I run every morning anyway. I figure I’ll call my wife after about eight miles to come and get me.”

Others, however, said they would never dream of giving up. This marathon was more than a race--it was a test.

“It’s going pretty bad. I’m in a lot of pain,” said Phillip Park, 33, as he stopped to massage a bad ankle just past the 17-mile mark. “I’m going to finish. I have to, to be complete, to be a man.”

Slowly passing Park was Terry Ghiselli, an 18-year-old college student from Sunland, who was wincing with pain, complaining of a bad knee. It was his third marathon and he was not about to drop out now. If it came to that, he said, he would walk the course.

And even those who could not go the distance vowed to return next year. First-timer Adolf Naranjo, 21, of San Fernando dropped out after getting leg cramps after 17 miles. He blamed it on long hours working since the January earthquake with the Federal Emergency Management Agency helping to process thousands of victims’ claims.

“It detracted from my chances of finishing here,” he said. “This was really important to me. For sure, I’m going to try next year.”

Police reported no major problems along the marathon route.

“It’s very exciting but very tame from a law enforcement standpoint,” the LAPD’s Wasson said. Police said the crowd was calm.

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