Challenge accepted

Paul Katami is not one to back away from a challenge. Quite the contrary. He and his partner, Jeff Zarrillo, are a Burbank couple who make up two of the four plaintiffs involved in the Proposition 8 case, which is expected to be decided next week by the U.S. Supreme Court and will determine the legality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

But when he’s not fighting for marriage equality in high-stakes court battles that will affect the lives of millions of gay people, Katami enjoys challenges of a more physical (and fun) nature. He makes a living as a fitness instructor here in Los Angeles, and he’s looking forward to blowing off some steam at this year’s second annual Concrete Hero event, which takes place in downtown L.A. on Sunday, July 14.

“Concrete Hero, to me, is the perfect representation of challenge and overcoming challenge and having a really good time doing it,” Katami says.

The event is a fundraiser whose proceeds benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles, and it takes teams of participants on a wild 5K run up and down the streets of downtown and through a series of crawling, climbing and swinging urban obstacles in Los Angeles State Historic Park. Concrete Hero is a race, but the point is to band together and have a good time rather than run yourself ragged trying to beat your competitors.

And you don’t even have to be a fitness buff to get involved — everyone’s welcome. “Concrete Hero is as competitive as you want it to be or as fun and friendly as you want it to be,” says APLA Executive Director Craig Thompson. “There’s no problem in walking around an obstacle. That doesn’t disqualify you.”

Fun is key. Katami laughs as he recalls last year’s event. “It feels like Concrete Hero is kind of one team moving together,” he says. “It’s this mass group of people running, climbing, diving under things, swimming underwater and getting hit by dodgeballs.”

With the Supreme Court decision potentially just days away, though, Katami is looking forward to this year’s event with a deeper sense of meaning. If the court rules in his favor and strikes down Prop 8,things will be different for gay people in California on July 14, the day of Concrete Hero.

“This year, I hope we’ll be running knowing that if you meet someone you want to marry at the beginning of the race, you can marry them at the end,” Katami says. “You never know who you might meet while you’re crawling over a bus or who might help you up from diving under a traffic barrier.”

So at this year’s Concrete Hero, he’s hoping everybody wins.

To learn more, get involved or donate, visit www.concretehero.org.

—Alex Weber, Brand Publishing Writer