Boeing Gets Leg Up in the Long Run

Boeing Co. paid about $3.2 billion to acquire the aerospace business of Rockwell International Corp. last year. Kie SooHoo likes to think the price might have been a little higher if Boeing had known it was also getting a championship running team.

SooHoo and about 29 other Rockwell/Boeing employees recently took first place in the corporate competition of the Los Angeles Marathon. It is their sixth first-place trophy in the event in the last 11 years.

The team was led by four runners who placed first in their age categories in the corporate bracket. SooHoo took first in the 40-to-44 age bracket with a time of two hours and 59 minutes. Another top finisher was Ann Tack, who completed the 26-mile course in three hours and 56 minutes to take first in the female, 50 and over category among corporate entrants.

Rockwell’s top rival in recent years has been the Dianetics team fielded by the Church of Scientology. But SooHoo said this year he was particularly concerned about the Honda Motors team. “They flew in a whole team from Ohio and paid their expenses,” SooHoo said, adding that his team doesn’t even get corporate help to pay for jerseys. Honda, it turns out, placed fifth.

If there is any chink in the Rockwell/Boeing armor, SooHoo said, it is that the team is aging, with few young runners joining the ranks.

“The best strategy is to enter at least one person in every category,” said SooHoo, an optical systems analyst in the company’s Anaheim division. “But we don’t have anybody under 30 because we’ve laid off so many young people in recent years.”