The Mother of All Challenges

Vanessa Tull lay in a hospital bed in her living room, five months pregnant with quadruplets.

With two children also to care for, Tull was a jangle of emotions.

Earlier in her pregnancy, doctors had advised her to reduce the number of fetuses she was carrying to ensure her health and the delivery of healthy children.

But Tull and her husband would not consider it.

One afternoon, as she dealt with the physical discomfort, she said had an epiphany.

“I thought if I can lay in bed day after day and deal with the pain of a quadruple pregnancy, than I certainly can run a marathon,” Tull said.

It took Tull two years to reach the starting line, but the Thousand Oaks resident will be among the more than 20,000 runners in Sunday’s 21st Los Angeles Marathon.

Defending champions Mark Saina of Kenya and Lyubov Denisova of Russia are part of the elite men’s and women’s fields, which will compete for portions of more than $400,000 in prize money.

But the L.A. Marathon, perhaps more than any other major marathon in the United States, has long been a race for the everyman, an all-comers event for those looking to prove something to themselves or others.

Unlike the Boston Marathon, which requires a qualifying time for entry, or the New York Marathon, which is done by lottery, anyone with desire can take on the 26.2-mile test through streets of Los Angeles.

“It’s about people,” said William Burke, co-founder and president of the L.A. Marathon.

For Tull, running the marathon is about more than conquering a physical challenge.

“This is no weight-loss endeavor or physical-fitness endeavor,” she said. “It’s bigger than that.”

Tull, 38, participated in sports while attending high school in the San Fernando Valley and remained active as a participant and coach throughout her adult years and the births of her first two children.

She had never really enjoyed running, let alone competed in a marathon, but said she felt an overwhelming need to do just that while pregnant with the quadruplets.

Tull said she had taken fertility medication and conceived six babies. She said she anguished over the loss of two within eight weeks of conception and was determined to carry the remaining four to term, despite doctors’ strong recommendations to “selectively reduce” the number.

“They said the babies either would die before I would deliver or they would be delivered too early and die from premature birth,” Tull said. “They said it was easier to have two than none at all because either you’ll lose all four or give birth to children with disabilities. And I could die in the process trying.

“The chance of everything coming out OK was slim to none.”

Tull, though, refused to acquiesce, and said focusing on the marathon strengthened her resolve.

“It just felt like what God wanted me to do it, like I was called to do this,” she said.

After the healthy births of daughters Hannah, Katherine, Samantha and son Daniel in February 2004, Tull said her reasons for taking on the marathon evolved into “a message to the medical community.”

“I made it through the pregnancy alive, which I was told I might not,” she said. “The babies” “made it through the pregnancy totally healthy and now they’re running around driving everyone bananas.”

Tull had hoped to train for the 2005 L.A. Marathon, but caring for 7-month-old quadruplets precluded her from doing so.

Last August, however, while doing laundry late one night, Tull went to her computer and found the L.A. Marathon’s website she had bookmarked when pregnant. She saw a link to scholarships available for a marathon-training program and filled out an application.

A few weeks later, she was announced as a winner and for the last seven months has trained with the Ventura Roadrunners, an offshoot of the Los Angeles Roadrunners program.

“I showed up for the first day of training and I didn’t know whether to join the walkers or runners,” Tull said. “I went through the workout with the runners and I was ready to die. I was thinking, ‘What the heck was I thinking, I can’t do this.’ ”

A group leader, however, assured her that she could walk and jog.

“He said, ‘If you can have quadruplets you can run a marathon. And if you can run a marathon, you can do anything,’ ” Tull said.

Ed Cohen, a founder of the Ventura Roadrunners, said about 40% of first-time marathon aspirants drop out of training because of injuries or other causes.

“There were a couple times when she was getting kind of achy but I don’t think she ever lost sight of this was something she wanted to do,” Cohen said. “You have to be pretty damn strong to keep going, and she is.”

During the week, Tull completes training runs with the help of a baby-sitter who watches over the napping quadruplets. On weekends, her husband Jon, and sons, Nathan, 12, and Adrian, 7, help out.

Jon said the babies’ usual sunny disposition makes for a busy and fun Saturday or Sunday. Occasionally though ...

“When the babies are having a hard day it’s taxing, like I’ve run a marathon too,” he said. “But it’s part of the deal. We’re tuned to that reality and I’m comfortable taking care of all the kids. It’s a lot, but we’re both used to it.”

With only a few days before she begins the marathon, Tull said she was nervous but excited about standing at the starting line.

She will pace herself, walking and jogging with one goal: to cross the finish line.

“I told my husband, ‘My pregnancy was 32 weeks long and training for the marathon was 32 weeks long,’ ” she said, laughing. “That was the length of time it took to grow all those babies and now they’re running around causing havoc.”

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Fast facts

Sunday’s L.A. Marathon is 26.2 miles long.

HE’S BACK: Mark Saina will return to defend his title.

* Start times: Wheelchair, 7:50 a.m.; elite women, 7:57 a.m.; hand-crank wheelchairs, 8:05 a.m.; elite men and full field, 8:17 a.m.

* Race information: (310) 444-5544.

* Race website: www.lamarathon.com.

* Time limits to complete marathon: none. Streets will reopen at approximately 13 minutes per-mile pace.

SO’S SHE: Lyubov Denisova was the top woman last year.

* Average race temperature: 59 degrees.

* Course description: Race starts at 6th and Figueroa and finishes on Flower and 5th. The first nine miles of the course are mostly downhill.

* Defending champions (men, women): Mark Saina (Kenya), 2:09:35; Lyubov Denisova (Russia), 2:26:11

lamarathon.com