L.A. Marathon Rolls Out a Controversy

Nick Mitchell isn’t a long-distance runner, just a Hollywood hair stylist who has helped turn the otherwise dignified business of the Los Angeles Marathon into a spectacle that skeptics pooh-pooh as just, oh, soooooo L.A.

Thanks largely to Mitchell, this year’s 12th running of the marathon will break ranks with the stately pomp and time-tested, century-old traditions of sister events in East Coast cities such as New York and Boston.

Now, along with some of the nation’s most pedigreed marathon runners and cyclists competing for pride and big prize money, a decidedly fringe element will join the ranks: in-line skaters.

You know, those sleek, Walkman-wearing, knee-padded roller kings and queens, the street performers on wheels who slice through traffic jams and jostle sidewalk crowds like true owners of the urban road.

After three years of prompting, the 60-year-old Mitchell, who rolls 20 miles a week on his well-worn roller-blades, finally persuaded marathon president William A. Burke to add the now controversial event to the March 2 race.

“My barber made me do it,” Burke said of his decision to include in-line skaters. “I couldn’t get a haircut without him pounding away on me, assuring me that ‘We’re human beings too. We’re athletes. Why can’t we in-line skaters be included?’ I just always told him, ‘Nick, I don’t think we can do this.’ And then one day I stopped and thought, ‘Why not?’ ”

This year, the 30,000 runner- and cyclist-strong Los Angeles Marathon will become the first major event of its kind to feature in-line skating--a move that has brought shudders of disapproval from several corners of the running world: from purists preparing to compete in the event to Boston Marathon officials who say the sanctity of the race has been breached by the blades.

“It won’t ever happen in this town,” said Lesley Kurz, a spokesman for the 100-year-old Boston Marathon. “We have a rich tradition to uphold here, so I don’t think any in-line skaters are going to compete here any time soon. And that’s the way our runners like it.”

Allan Steinfield, race director of the New York Marathon, was more diplomatic: “I think it’s good to open the boundaries of the competition in marathons for things like this. After all, not everyone can run 26.2 miles. But New York is just too congested.”

Although the skaters will have their own competition apart from other athletes, some elite runners say a marathon is no place for the wheels to meet the heels.

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“It’s not a good idea,” said Marco Ochoa, who finished sixth in last year’s race. “These sideshows just turn the whole event into a circus and spoil it for the elite runner. It’s just another nail in the coffin that is going to steer runners away from this event.”

Added Orange County marathoner Kathy Smith: “The event is for runners, not skaters. I think their presence will dilute the competition. I mean, these are two totally different sports. They might as well just call it the Extreme Games.”

Much of the marathon’s tension between bladers and runners spills over from the streets, both sides acknowledge.

In traffic-jammed Los Angeles, runners, cyclists and skaters all compete for space along busy back streets and boulevards. The zig-zagging and pirouette showmanship of the in-line skaters, many runners say, puts the sport at odds with the more straightforward pursuit of long-distance running.

Cyclists and runners face less of a cultural clash, race promoters say. The marathon’s bicycling event--introduced in 1994--was marked by little fanfare, organizers say.

But for many of the same reasons that former Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley helped bring night games to baseball’s World Series, Burke said, an expansion to include such fringe sports is crucial to the health and longevity of the Los Angeles Marathon--attracting more fans, bringing in more money.

The event needed a way to offset administrative costs such as a $38,500 purse for runners and costly air fare and lodging bills for competitors. For example, Burke said, the marathon is footing a $15,000 travel bill for one Ethiopian runner and her coach alone.

And it may well be that registration fees generated by the bladers will support such high costs of luring elite runners to the race. With a $25 entry fee per skater, marathon officials hope the event will earn between $60,000 and $100,000.

“Like all other businesses, we’ve got to do more with less,” Burke said. “I don’t buy the argument from runners that ‘We don’t want them around.’ Because if we took that attitude, there are people in this city who would say, ‘We don’t want the runners around.’ ”

Anyway, he said, this year’s in-line event will only be a 10-kilometer exhibition “fun skate” open to the general public plus a second professional category. He stressed that skaters will perform in a separate event starting after the marathon and will not come in contact with any runners on the course.

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Still, Burke acknowledges that he was reluctant at first to deal with the logistic headaches of adding an in-line event to the West Coast’s premiere running race, already complicated by cycling and wheelchair competitions.

But Mitchell finally convinced him that in-line skating had become an integral fusing of the Los Angeles lifestyle and sports culture that could no longer be excluded.

“I gave him every reason I could think of,” Mitchell said. “That they can’t make in-line skates fast enough in Europe. That thousands of people would want to ride in this. That it would boost the event’s exposure. And, finally, he gave in.”

In-line skating has been the world’s fastest-growing sport over the last three years, boasting 1 million enthusiasts in Southern California and more than 23 million around the globe, according to Gravity Research of Santa Ana, a company that promotes events for Rollerblade Inc., the in-line skate manufacturer.

Created in Minnesota in the early 1980s to assist hockey players and skiers in their summer cross-training, in-line skating had become wildly popular by 1986 among the sun worshiping culture of Southern California. From beach boardwalks to Beverly Hills street corners, in-line skates have taken the place of skateboards as L.A.’s alternative mode of street transportation.

For its marathon debut, the Skate Tour will include a recreational skate division for both children and adults as well as an invitation-only professional competition that will draw from an elite field of skaters from the United States and Europe, organizers say.

The course for the runners in this year’s marathon snakes through numerous city neighborhoods such as Hancock Park, Koreatown, South-Central Los Angeles, Hollywood and downtown.

The Skate Tour, which will begin and end at the Los Angeles Convention Center, will travel along portions of the runner’s route, but will have a later starting time.

Cyclists will depart from Universal Studios at 6 a.m. Then the runners step out from 6th and Figueroa streets at 8:45 a.m. When the coast is clear shortly after 9:30 a.m., the skaters will be set loose on their own course.

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Local in-line skaters say marathon inclusion will bring legitimacy to their sport.

“People are psyched, I’m getting a lot of good reaction to the race,” said Michael Higginbotham, who runs a skate track in Long Beach. “We’re ready to roll.”

Race promoters expect as many as 3,000 to compete in the inaugural skate, adding to a colorful, fast-moving sea of more than 19,000 runners, 12,000 cyclists and wheelchair entrants.

“We’ll try it out one year and see how it goes, see how the public reacts,” Burke said of the skating event. “If we get 3,000 athletes, we’ll consider it a rip-roaring success. That would mean we’d have the biggest in-line skating event in the country by 300%.”

Burke says he himself is working to perfect his skills as an in-line skater.

“This sport is Los Angeles,” he said. “If you look at the movies, you don’t see them in-line skating in Minneapolis. It’s here. Venice Beach. Manhattan Beach. Hermosa Beach. The public image is that it’s an L.A. thing and I think we can capitalize on that.”

And perhaps best of all, Burke says, he now can get his hair cut in peace.

“It was like water torture,” he said. “Nick barely got me in the chair before he started in on the in-line skating thing. I wonder what his next project’s going to be.”

For now, Mitchell says, he’s happy.

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I can’t wait for the marathon so I can put on my red cape and my skates and hit the road. It’s gonna be a blast!”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Heels and Wheels

The Los Angeles Marathon will allow in-line skaters to participate on part of the route this year, irritating some runners.

Runners’ route

Skaters’ route

START TIMES:

Runners: 8:45 a.m.

Skaters: Shortly after 9:30 a.m.

Note: Cyclists begin their route from Universal Studios at 6 a.m.