NEWPORT BEACH : Hope House’s ‘Bach Bay’ Races Provide Classic Experience

J.S. Bach had to put his wig in his shorts on Sunday.

“It was getting in my eyes and I was having a hard time seeing,” said Bach, a.k.a. Wes Ashford, a 33-year-old runner from Alta Loma. “The wig was hot, so I took it off at the mile mark and stuffed it into my shorts.”

The stuffed hairpiece didn’t keep Ashford from winning his race, however.

And so ended the fourth annual “Bach Bay 8K and 1/2 Marathon,” one of Southern California’s more colorful road races.

In addition to featuring the “mystery runner” posing as the 18th-Century composer, the race--winding for 13 miles through Newport’s Back Bay Estuary and Wildlife Preserve--featured four string quartets playing Bach along the route, the La Quinta High School Choir and a grand pianist serenading runners at the start and finish, as well as a slew of prizes, including classical CDs and tickets to a performance by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra.

“We wanted the runners to have a serene experience,” said Marc Carradini, executive director of Hope House, the Anaheim residential substance abuse treatment center that benefits from the race. “We want them to feel exhilarated.”

This year’s event, consisting of both a 4.9-mile and a 13-mile race, attracted more than 2,000 runners and was expected to net about $15,000, Carradini said.

Not all the participants, however, were thinking of the classics.

“To tell you the truth,” admitted Ashford, who won the 8K race, “I didn’t really hear the music. I’m not much of a fan.”

Some of the musicians also noticed a certain air of distraction among runners. While many of them applauded as they passed her quartet, violinist Adrienne Biggs said afterward, others appeared to be lost in the private sounds emanating from their own Walkman radios.

“We can only hope they were listening to Bach,” she said.