Rain Fails to Dampen Spirits at L.A. Marathon : Race: First daylong downpour in the event’s 10-year history thins out spectators but doesn’t slow contestants.

Neither slippery streets nor soggy sneakers deterred the runners, bicyclists and wheelchair racers in Sunday’s 10th annual Los Angeles Marathon, although the unrelenting rainstorm cut back on traditional crowds of sidewalk fans and party animals.

The weather--the first daylong rain in L.A. Marathon history--contributed to a handful of nasty spills among the more than 10,000 bicyclists who took up the marathon’s first-ever offer to ride the 26.2-mile route of auto-free boulevards.

The rain, and the mid-50s temperature, slowed down some of the estimated 16,500 runners, but not the speeds of the fastest, who welcomed a break from the dehydrating heat of past years.

“It feels great; it’s perfect weather for running,” said David Brittan, one of 543 runners honored Sunday for completing all 10 Los Angeles marathons.

The winning male runner, Rolando Vera, 29, a two-time Olympian from Ecuador, finished in two hours, 11 minutes and 39 seconds, the third-best winning time in the marathon’s history. For the first 22 miles Vera used competitors as human shields against the wet weather, including second-place finisher Bob Kempainen of Minnesota.

Nadia Prasad, a 27-year-old who was born in France but now lives in Boulder, Colo., took the women’s title with a time of two hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds. Three years ago, she ran in the Los Angeles event not knowing she was pregnant.

Vera and Prasad each won $15,000 and a luxury car. They were crowned with wreaths of olive branches picked from trees in Marathon, Greece, site of a 490 B.C. battle. A messenger ran 26.2 miles from the battlefield to report that the Athenian army had defeated the invading Persians. (After blurting out his message, the exhausted runner collapsed and died.)

Sunday saw no repeat of last year’s “rabbit” controversy, prompted when the usually non-competitive pacesetter stunned many competitors by staying in the race and winning. Paul Pilkington of Utah was back as rabbit on Sunday. He led for the first three miles but then dropped out after stumbling into a hole and suffering a slight injury.

While dense crowds and loud cheers greeted the lead marathoners crossing the finish line near the Coliseum, patches of puddly sidewalks were empty at other route-side viewing spots through Downtown, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Koreatown and the Crenshaw district.

“It’s Woodstock ‘95: slip, slop and good music,” joked marathon volunteer Lauren Schlau, executive director of the Mid-City Chamber of Commerce, as she stood in her group’s tent at Crenshaw and Pico boulevards. The rain discouraged some volunteers who were supposed to help her at one of the 10 “entertainment centers” on the route but didn’t show up, she said.

“People aren’t encouraged to come out and cheer the runners on. We’re in L.A.; we think we’ll melt in the rain,” Schlau added, laughing.

Nearby hot dog vendor Neil Nahan agreed. “It would be better if it wasn’t raining,” he remarked. “I’m giving away more hot dogs than I’m selling.”

Nonetheless, marathon officials estimate that 500,000 onlookers showed up, although some police thought the numbers were much smaller. In past years, police had reported the crowds to be about 1 million, a figure organizers had hoped to duplicate Sunday. The main fashion statements among spectators Sunday were umbrellas, bright ponchos and plastic garbage bags converted into ad hoc raincoats.

L.A. Marathon President Bill Burke lamented the steady downpour, the first time it has rained throughout a marathon day. “I would have liked to have a California Chamber of Commerce day of weather for (the event’s) 10th anniversary, but you’ve got to take what you get,” he said.

Yet if both the cheering sections and running packs were smaller than expected, participants insisted that the mood was as buoyant as ever.

“We were all one today. I felt there were no boundaries. The rich, the poor, we were all out there,” explained Lia Watters of Newport Beach. She finished the non-competitive bicycle tour in fine spirits even though she suffered several bloody gashes on her knees and shins when another cyclist rear-ended her at the 20-mile point.

The day’s jaunty tone was set at 6:30 a.m., two hours before the runners lined up. The bike tour, led by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a cycling enthusiast, kicked off with the crack of a starter’s pistol under two bridges of rainbow-colored balloons at Adams Boulevard and Figueroa Street. With unintended irony, a loudspeaker blasted Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.”--the anthem to another cloudless, perfect day in the Southland.

All sorts of odd cycles were at the starting line: many tandem bikes, one bike built for a family of five cycling in perfect descending order of height, and several bicycles towing baby chariots. Onlookers loved a reproduction of an 1880s bicycle, built and ridden by David Moore of Rosemead; the front wheel measures 56 inches high, the rear only 18 inches.

Among the first cyclists to finish was Los Angeles city Firefighter Matt Johnson, who clocked his own time at one hour and three minutes. There were no prizes in the bike tour, but the trip was a personal triumph for the 35-year-old Calabasas resident because he underwent a hip replacement operation two years ago and thought he would never ride again.

“It’s real pretty to see the city when it’s quiet,” Johnson recalled near the reception zone at a USC parking lot on Vermont Avenue. “You normally see it at its worst, when it’s real crowded and there’s a lot of havoc going on. It’s nice to go when there’s nobody around, so you can enjoy it.”

Of the 12,100 or so who signed up in advance for the bicycle race, some may have dropped out because of the downpour, but many others showed up on the spur of the moment and rode along, said bike tour director Chris Kostman.

On a dry day, a good time would have been about an hour and a quarter. Recorded informally, the fastest bicyclist was Mike Holuza of Fullerton, who clocked in at about an hour and one minute, Kostman said.

Although a record 19,300 registered for the foot race, marathon officials estimated that the rain kept away about 20% of the field.

Rain clouds did not block the view of a sunny future for at least two couples who decided that as long as they were knotting up the laces of their running shoes, they would tie the nuptial knot as well, as have other couples in previous marathons.

Rosa Lia, who took David Descargar as her lawfully wedded husband shortly before the race, was running her first marathon Sunday. Descargar, a veteran of several marathons, said he would slow down to keep pace with her.

“It will be one of many sacrifices that I will have to make,” he joked.

Their ceremony was staged under umbrellas outside the Sports Arena. Later, at the 10-mile mark, runners Jill Hickey and Gary Brigandi were married in running gear.

The main event began at 8:30 a.m. and soon developed into a battle between Vera of Ecuador and Kempainen from Minnetonka, Minn. Vera made his move after the 22nd mile and won by 20 seconds. He pumped his right fist into the air as he ran down the final straightaway and raised his arms in jubilation as he crossed the finish line.

“I felt very proud,” Vera said through an interpreter. “I can’t find the words. . . . I think everybody is happy in Ecuador.”

Kempainen said of his second-place finish: “When you’re in a position to win it and you get second, there’s always going to be a little bit of disappointment. But in retrospect I don’t know if I would have done anything too much different than I did. By pushing the pace like I did, I thought I’d be able to drop everyone, but Rolando hung really tough.”

Kempainen, who was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic track team, finished in 2:11.59, followed by Martin Pitayo of Mexico (2:12.49). Arturo Barrios of Boulder, Colo., a member of the 1988 and 1992 Mexican Olympic teams, was fourth with 2:14.47. Mark Plaatjes of Boulder, Colo., the reigning world champion, finished fifth in 2:15.41.

The women’s champion, Prasad, took control of the race in the sixth mile when she passed the defending champion, Ukrainian Lyobov Klochko. Klochko finished third in 2:33.31, behind runner-up Anna Rybicka of Poland (2:32.59).

“At the end it was getting very cold,” said Prasad. “The rain wasn’t bothering me very much, but it was the wind. It makes it cold.”

Raised on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, Prasad has, to say the least, an interesting history with the Los Angeles Marathon. In the 1992 edition, she felt unusually weak after running half of it as part of her training. What she did not know at the time was that she was pregnant with her second daughter.

(The marathon’s record of two hours, 10 minutes and nine seconds was set in 1988 by Martin Mondragon of Mexico.)

The rain hampered the wheelchair races, according to Paul Wiggins of Tasmania, who won the men’s wheelchair race in 1:36.06. “Wheeling in the rain is really hard,” said Wiggins, the 1994 L.A. Marathon co-champion. “It got considerably wetter in the middle of the race, and it slowed us down.”

Jean Driscoll of Champaign, Ill., won the women’s wheelchair race in 1:52.51.

The marathon was supposed to be accompanied by an elaborate schedule of entertainment and cultural events. Clearly, the rain caused some cancellations and winnowed down the audiences.

For example, at Crenshaw and Rodeo Road, the L.A. City Kidz chorus--a group dedicated to nonviolence--stood on an unsheltered platform and sang their hearts out into microphones covered in rain-resistant plastic. The 30 children on stage faced about 15 people in the audience, mostly their parents.

Ernest Arceneaux, senior field deputy to state Sen. Diane E. Watson, helped to arrange the performances, and glumly said the turnout was the worst in 10 years. “But,” he added, “we will be back next year.”

Times staff writer Frank B. Williams contributed to this story.

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