Intrepid Couple Married to Adventure

Skip and Stefani Deal have been married for 16 years and they love to have fun together. Their idea of fun, however, differs vastly from that of most couples their age.

The Deals, grandparents who are both 47 years old, like to climb 14,000-foot mountains, cross grueling, 23-mile canyons and run in marathons in their spare time.

“Our kids think we’re nuts,” said Stefani, a Reseda High graduate. “They won’t do anything with us anymore.”

On Sunday at 6 a.m. the Deals will ride a tandem bike 26.2 miles in the L.A. Marathon. Then, at 8:45 a.m., they will begin running the same course.

They did it last year without even training. The extent of their preparation included Stefani jogging an average of six miles a week on a treadmill and Skip playing racquetball three times a week.

Regular, treacherous mountain hikes helped their endurance, but they learned that running is the only way to train for such a race.

The Deals finished the bike ride in two hours and the run in 6 hours 35 minutes.

An official with the L.A. Marathon said about 10 people signed up to cycle and run last year, but there is no way to know how many completed both races because charts are kept on only runners.

Skip and Stefani initially planned to participate in only the bike ride, but two days before the event they decided to run too.

“Stefani said, ‘Since we’re already out there why don’t we try it?’ ” recalled Skip, a former Monroe High football player. “I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea.

“After the bike ride we were pooped. It was raining and freezing. The first 10 miles of the run were fine, then the wheels started falling off the wagon.”

Over the years Skip has pushed Stefani to join him in physically challenging endeavors, so she wanted to come up with one of her own.

“I felt like anybody could do a ride,” Stefani said. “I wanted to do something to push ourselves. He was really trying to talk me out of it.”

But Stefani has never managed to talk Skip out of going on risky wilderness adventures, so he figured it was a lost cause.

Skip is actually looking forward to running on Sunday because he has trained for it. Skip and Stefani, who live in Woodland Hills, run 25-30 miles a week at Balboa Park in Encino.

Their goal is to finish the bike ride in less than two hours so they have more time to prepare for the run, which they hope to complete in five hours.

The Deals work at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. Skip transfers film into videotape and Stefani schedules screening rooms for producers and film editors. They car-pool to work and meet for lunch every day.

And, of course, they train together in the evening.

Skip still plays racquetball three times a week--he was the age-division state and world champion at 45--and the couple often go on their rugged, power getaways.

“My parents have a lot more energy than my sister and I together,” said Krista Schell, the Deals’ 24-year-old daughter.

Three times the Deals have hiked up and down Mt. Whitney, elevation 14,500 feet, in 12 hours.

They finished the tough, 50-mile Rosarito to Ensenada bike ride and Skip has climbed 20,000-foot volcanoes in Mexico and Ecuador.

For his birthday last year Skip dragged Stefani four miles up a glacier in Canada.

“I didn’t do any of this before I met him,” Stefani said. “I used to just exercise so that my clothes could fit me. Now I go along with all his ideas and it’s actually therapeutic for us. Though there have been times when I’ve thought, ‘I’m gonna die!’ ”

Skip says Stefani has been great about trying new things. She used to take more time to contemplate his ideas, but now she doesn’t give it as much thought.

“I just tell her it’s a fun day out,” he said. “The next day I get her a hamburger and a quart of ice cream and she’s all right.”

So is there anything Stefani won’t do with her adventurous husband?

“I drew the line with bungee jumping and sky diving,” she said. “Anything on the ground I’ll consider.”

The Deals’ upcoming projects include climbing an 11,000-foot mountain near Big Bear, walking at least 100 miles of the 3,000-mile Great Wall of China and hiking parts of the 2,638-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which extends from Mexico to Canada.

Where does this guy get all these ideas?

“I read magazines and articles,” Skip said. “I want to do things that intrigue me and I really like to be out in nature.”

Stefani says she would miss her husband if she didn’t go along with him. After all, they work in separate buildings and he’s occupied with competitive racquetball a great part of the week.

But not to worry. It sounds like the Deals are going to spend lots of time together.

“I’ll do this forever,” Skip said. “There will always be a physical challenge for us at any age.”

Stefani smiled and nodded. She plans to join him.

“I’m just along for the ride,” she said. “What a ride!”