Pozdnyakova Knows She’s Running Late

Time might catch up with Tatyana Pozdnyakova before her rivals in Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon.

Pozdnyakova, who turns 50 today, will try to become the first three-time winner. Although she said she doesn’t think about age and that “my body and mind are very young because I try to do things with young people,” she has taken to heart a recent comment from her 18-year-old son Eugene.

“He told me, ‘Mom, enough. Find a new job,’ ” she said Thursday. “Maybe I would like to be an agent. I have a couple of runners I work with. It’s not about the money, just to help them ... I’m not sure how long I will run, maybe a couple of races this summer.”

A native of Ukraine who has lived and trained in Gainesville, Fla., since 1996, Pozdnyakova set the world marathon record for women ages 45 to 49, 2 hours 29 minutes, in 2002. The record for women 50 to 54 is 2:44:12, set by Australian Bev Lucas in 1997.

Pozdnyakova said she didn’t know the age-group record and, in any case, is focused on winning. The men’s and women’s winners Sunday, the 20th running of the L.A. Marathon, will each get $25,000 and a car. The first runner across the finish line also will receive a $75,000 bonus, up from the $50,000 Pozdnyakova won last year for completing the course in 2:30:17.

However, the head start for female runners this year will be cut to 15 minutes 50 seconds, down from last year’s 20 minutes 30 seconds. Basil Honikman, the L.A. Marathon’s competition commissioner, said the time was calculated by averaging the difference between the times of the top male and female finishers at 40 marathons with fields that were similar to Sunday’s.

For Pozdnyakova, the shorter head start might result in a smaller payday. The first man to cross the finish line last year was David Kirui of Kenya, who was 3 minutes 54 seconds behind her. Kirui won’t defend his title Sunday.

“Last year, the men were right behind me,” Pozdnyakova said. “And this year there is a very strong field of women who can run 2:25 or 2:26, and the men like to run 2:10 or 2:09. It is possible this will be a very good challenge.”

Among her likely challengers is Tatiana Titova of Russia, her training partner in Gainesville. Kerryn McCann of Australia, who has a personal-best time of 2:25:59, and 2002 L.A. Marathon winner Lyubov Denisova of Russia, who has a personal best of 2:25:18, are also contenders in a field that lacks the depth of other major marathons such as Boston, Chicago, New York and London. Despite the lack of big names, Pozdnyakova said she always enjoys running in Los Angeles.

“For me, this is a happy city, a great city,” she said. “I love it.”

Also seeking a third straight victory is women’s wheelchair champion Cheri Blauwet, a second-year medical student at Stanford. Blauwet, who lost the use of her legs in a farm accident while a toddler in her native Iowa, has won the New York Marathon twice in a row and finished second and first at Boston the last two years.

Juggling so much “is a fine balance,” she said, but sentimental reasons played into her decision to compete Sunday.

“It’s a great way for me to hit a marathon early in the season that shows me my preparedness, while not traveling the world,” she said.

“When I started doing the marathon distance in 2003, this was the first one that I’d come and won.”

She has a customized wheelchair for marathons, supplied by a sponsor, Invacare. It’s light but sturdy, more suited for road bumps than her everyday chair. “It’s like your sneakers versus your high-end running shoes,” said Blauwet, who began competing while in high school and continued as an undergraduate at Arizona.

To Blauwet, who hopes to cut four minutes off her 2004 time of 1:54:02, being in a wheelchair is merely one facet of her life.

“Having a disability or using a wheelchair doesn’t define you. You’re still the same person, regardless of how you get around,” she said.

“To me, because I’ve used a chair my whole life, it’s really no different than if you say I have blond hair and blue eyes. It’s just another characteristic.

“We have a long way to come in realizing that just because you use a wheelchair doesn’t mean that you aren’t mobile or capable of living an active life. That’s another reason why I think the marathon is so powerful, because it reaches a lot of people and sends that message to a broad spectrum of people.... It’s a fabulously exciting way to break down stereotypes.”