It’s Not Just Hero Worship

Mark Saina’s first trip to the United States proved profitable.

The Kenyan earned $110,000 and a new car last year when he won the Los Angeles Marathon.

Afterward, Saina said he would use his winnings to help his family and others near his farm in Kenya.

“We have so many people that are less fortunate,” he said at the time. “I feel happy that I will be able to help in that way.”

Saina, a maize and wheat farmer, realized a dream by building a church with part of the prize money. About 200 people from the area near his home north of Eldoret in western Kenya use the church for religious, social and educational gatherings.

“It’s one way of giving people a social kind of life, to have unity,” Saina, 35, said by phone last week. “They love to have somewhere to worship together and they love to be together.”

Saina, who is married and has two children, said congregants and villagers would be rooting for him from afar when he returns to the starting line Sunday to defend his title in the 21st L.A. Marathon.

The first runner, male or female, to cross the finish line will receive a $100,000 “challenge” bonus, an increase from last year’s $75,000. The men’s and women’s winners also will receive $35,000 and a new car.

Last year, Saina won “The Challenge” by passing women’s winner Lyubov Denisova of Russia in the 26th mile, overcoming a 15-minute 50-second head start by the women. Saina finished in 2 hours 9 minutes 35 seconds.

Denisova had nearly withdrawn a few days before the race when organizers announced the differential, which was 4 minutes 40 seconds less than in 2004.

“It’s like you go to Las Vegas and sit at a card table and you think you’re playing poker and you put down your money, and then they tell you the rules are something else,” her manager, Andrey Baranov, said after the race.

This year’s time differential will be announced today.

Saina said he was not concerned about the time.

“My major aim, what I’m really looking for, is that I hope to run my personal best time,” said Saina, who clocked 2:09:00 at a marathon in Turin, Italy, in 2000. “I know if I run well, I may beat all the conditions, all the challenges.”

Saina will attempt to join Art Boileau of Canada and Stephen Ndungu of Kenya as the only men to win the L.A. Marathon three times.

Saina’s time last year was 10 seconds off the L.A. Marathon record set by Kenya’s Simon Bor in 1999. But it was enough for a 10-second victory over countryman Ben Maiyo.

Maiyo is not in the field this year, but Saina’s top challengers are expected to be Kenyans, including Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, who ran a personal-best 2:08:13 in the 2003 Amsterdam Marathon and finished third in the Prague International Marathon last May.

Laban Kipkemboi, who finished third in the L.A. Marathon last year, and Benson Cherono are also among the contenders.

Last year, Maiyo ran most of the race at or near the front of the pack and appeared to be on his way to victory in his first marathon.

Saina, who had won the Athens Marathon in Greece in 2002, ran patiently behind the 26-year-old Maiyo, waiting for an opportunity.

It came in the final half-mile when Maiyo’s 4:48 splits slowed to 5:03. As Maiyo turned a corner and ran toward the homestretch, Saina closed the gap. With two-tenths of a mile remaining, Saina moved alongside Maiyo and then sprinted away for the victory.

“I expect almost the same kind of race,” Saina said. “This time around I have something in my mind, some preparation that I didn’t have last year.”

Saina said churchgoers back home have been praying that he continues to do well in this year’s race.

“Obviously, they know if I get a good finish they will also benefit,” he said. “It’s really not giving me any pressure but it seems like they ... feel a sense of ownership, that I’m part of them. They contribute by giving me encouragement.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

L.A. Marathon

* Start times for Sunday’s races: 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.

* Information: (310) 444-5544.

* Website: www.lamarathon.com.

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

* Course description: Race starts at 6th and Figueroa and finishes at 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