Edison High graduate feels fortunate to compete in Surf City Marathon

Cael Studebaker may be nonverbal, but the body language of the Huntington Beach 19-year-old easily shows his charisma.

Cael was born with cerebral palsy, his mother, Mai, said. He uses American Sign Language and walks with the help of a walker.

Rain or shine, mother and son are both looking forward to Sunday’s 28th annual Surf City Marathon in downtown Huntington Beach. They are both competing in the half-marathon.

“We’ll just go straight through it,” said Cael, not worried about the wet stuff, through his interpreter Kaycee Quinn. “It will be cool.”

Cael will be in a specialized chair being pushed by a triathlete friend, Todd Corley, as part of the Ainsley’s Angels program that pairs special needs riders with runners to compete in endurance races.

He’ll be wearing his Superman shirt, appropriate considering his nickname is “Super Cael.” He graduated from Edison High last year and is currently in the LINC adult transition program at Edison.

Cael Studebaker and his mother, Mai, will each compete in the Surf City Half-Marathon on Sunday morning.

(Matt Szabo)

This will be Cael’s second race with Ainsley’s Angels. He’s part of 20 total teams that the nonprofit has at Surf City Marathon, Southern California director Tricia Benton said. Thirteen of those teams are in the half-marathon like Cael, who also competed in the Long Beach half-marathon last year.

Mai Studebaker, who was a runner at USC in the 1990s, will participate on foot. She said her son’s goal this year is to get out of the chair for the last few feet and run across the finish line.

“With the surgeries he’s had the last couple of years, he thinks he may be strong enough to run the last couple of feet, maybe the last 10 feet,” she said. “I’m going to try to catch up so that we finish together at the end.”

Ainsley’s Angels will have people working the beer garden at the Surf City Marathon on both Saturday and Sunday, Benton said, and receive 100% of the profits. Those will largely go toward purchasing new chairs for the special needs riders to race in — costs range from $1,500 to close to $6,000.

Cael Studebaker celebrates at the Edison High graduation ceremony last spring.

(James Carbone)

Ainsley’s Angels are easy to spot on the course, with the colors of hot pink and black. Those colors drew Mai Studebaker’s eye as she ran the Huntington Beach 10-miler last September, and she reached out to the organization.

Now Cael is having fun — and he’s got company. An Edison Special Abilities Cluster teacher, Melody Ungureanu, also signed up to be part of a team this weekend.

“I’m so happy about [racing],” Cael said through his interpreter. “We’ll be fast. My mom is going to catch up to us, just like last year. We’re going to be first place.”

The Surf City Marathon is expected to draw a total of 18,000 runners to the beach, officials said. Road closures in the area begin at 1 a.m. Sunday.

Race start times are 6:25 a.m. for the marathon, 7 a.m. for the 5K race and 7:45 a.m. for the half-marathon. Pacific Coast Highway will fully reopen at 2 p.m.

As of Thursday afternoon, rain was in the forecast for Huntington Beach on Sunday morning. Organizers have added additional tents to the festival area, but the event will take place rain or shine.