Ali’s Daughter Will Run for a Cause

May May Ali, eldest daughter of boxing great Muhammad Ali, has set a modest goal for herself at this year’s Los Angeles Marathon.

“I want to finish before they let the traffic back out on the streets,” said Ali, a writer who performs stand-up comedy and does social work. “I don’t want to be running next to cars and taxis.”

The elite women are scheduled to start at 7:57 a.m. on March 6, about 15 minutes ahead of the elite men and the rest of the pack, and the closed-off streets along the 26-mile, 385-yard course will reopen at 2:30. That should leave enough time for Ali to meet her self-imposed deadline of 6 1/2 hours in her fourth marathon.

But for Ali, like many others, the focus of the 20th Los Angeles Marathon won’t be milestones or medals.

Ali will run with Team Parkinson, a nonprofit, volunteer-staffed organization that raises money to fund research of the disease that afflicts her father. The group will include John Ball of Whittier, who ran his first marathon 13 years after learning that he had the disease and will run his 10th L.A. Marathon. His wife, Edna, the group’s co-chair, said Wednesday that Team Parkinson has donated $400,000 to research through its efforts at the last five L.A. Marathons.

That’s why Ali, who bears a startling resemblance to her famous father, will put her running shoes on for the race.

“It seems like it’s about something symbolic, about different struggles and tribulations, maybe families,” said Ali, who added that her father hoped to attend if he felt strong enough. “I haven’t had experience running any of the big marathons back East, but it seems less about the athletics here and more about the purpose.”

Other race-day events include a 22-mile bike tour, a wheelchair marathon race, a 5K run/walk, a corporate competition and a law enforcement/fire department competition.

Among elite runners, Ukraine native Tatyana Pozdnyakova, who will turn 50 two days before the race, will try to become the first three-time Los Angeles Marathon women’s winner. Last year’s elite men’s winner, David Kirui of Kenya, withdrew for undisclosed reasons, organizers said. Simon Bor of Kenya, who set the course record of 2 hours 9 minutes 25 seconds in 1999, will return this year.