She Faces Her First Marathon --at 60

When Annelore Stolzenburg shows up Sunday at Boston Market, the restaurant may regret its policy of giving free soft drinks to senior citizens. The 60-year-old Huntington Beach resident is going to be thirsty after running the Los Angeles Marathon.

Stolzenburg said she and her family are going to celebrate with chicken and stuffing after the race--her first marathon and, she said, her last.

She decided she wanted to run a marathon after turning 60 in May. “All of a sudden, it seemed the right time to do it,” she said.

“I don’t have that much time left,” Stolzenburg joked. “I’m going down fighting.”

But her 17-year-old daughter, Kristina, has other ideas about Stolzenburg’s fitness.

“My mom’s got a lot of energy. Everyone thinks she’s 40,” she said. “I’m proud of her.”

As an added incentive, Stolzenburg is taking pledges for the Parent-Teacher-Student Assn. at Ocean View High School, where Kristina is a junior.

“I’m doing this for me, but I’m raising the money for our school,” Stolzenburg said. The proceeds will go into a fund for scholarships, student awards and dances. So far she’s raised about $400 and hopes to reach $750.

Some people have been hesitant to make a pledge until she mentions the two 23-mile training runs she’s already done. “Then they whip out the checkbook,” she said.

She has been running three times a week with about 200 others from the Snail’s Pace Marathon Training Group of Fountain Valley, said Rich Scott, the group’s training director. They started with a 4-mile run and walk in September and have been increasing mileage since.

“Marathoning is really on the increase, and a lot of people are coming into it later in life,” said Scott, who ran his first marathon six years ago at 45. “We have a lot of people coming in and doing our marathon for a lot of different reasons. It really does change people’s lives.”

It’s training, not youth, that will make the difference for runners like Stolzenburg.

“The numbers don’t mean much--she may be running as fast or faster than some 30-year-olds,” he said.

Stolzenburg said she has always kept fit and used to jog “before it was fashionable.” But the long runs preparing for Sunday’s 26.2-mile race left her spent, with an aching right ankle. She broke it skateboarding, back when she was 40.

“My husband doesn’t want me to do anything too dangerous. He thinks I’m crazy,” she said. “I tell him, ‘Hey, I was born in Southern California.’ ”

Loretta Walker, Ocean View High’s community resource coordinator, said a group from the school will be lining the streets Sunday to cheer for Stolzenburg.

“She’ll make it. I don’t have any doubt that she’ll do it,” Walker said. “She doesn’t take on a lot of jobs and do them part-way. She’s quite an inspiration to all of us.”