Students go the distance in marathon

Students go the distance in marathon

By Rachel Kelley

Daily Bruin Contributor

UCLA students Erin Louie and Mike Kirchner rolled out of their
beds at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, at a time when other students
were just getting to sleep.

By the time they arrived in downtown L.A., they said their
adrenaline was flowing.

Louie and Kirchner were among the 19,000 runners waiting
anxiously for the gun that would signal the start of the 11th
annual L.A. Marathon Sunday morning. With Mayor Richard Riordan and
Muhammad Ali presiding at the starting line, the runners took off
at 8:00 a.m.

The marathon, spanning 26.2 miles of Los Angeles pavement, drew
athletes from all over the world. But Louie and Kirchner proved
that you don’t have to be famous, foreign or even a diehard runner,
to successfully put your strength and stamina to the test.

Kirchner, a fifth-year electrical engineering student, first
considered running the race when he got involved in the Air Force
Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. Having never run a
marathon before, both Louie and Kirchner tried to keep their
expectations in perspective.

"I just want to finish before they close the thing down,"
Kirchner said.

Louie, a third-year physiological science student, said she set
out to challenge herself and do something she always wanted to
do.

"My goal is to do the whole thing without walking," Louie said
before the race.

Both students, who participated in endurance sports in high
school, said they engaged in rigorous training in preparation for
the marathon.

After the starting gun was fired, it was "at least another
minute" before she actually started to jog due to the sheer volume
of people ahead of her, Louie said.

Kirchner found the new course "hillier" than he expected, and
tried to focus on sightseeing to take his mind of his decreasing
energy level.

"The first 15 miles were great," said Kirchner, "I didn’t know
that my body wouldn’t work after 17 miles. I thought ‘how hard
could it be?’ It’s a mental thing."

Despite having to walk during the last few miles, Kirchner said
he was "just happy to finish without being attended to by the
paramedics, like some people."

He finished in 51Ž2 hours, "just before they opened the
streets, which is really what I wanted to do."

Louie, on the other hand, finished the race in four hours and
six minutes, with her friend, running every step of the way.

"I still have a high from it," Louie said, describing that she
used self-talk as a strategy to keep herself running.

"I told myself to stay relaxed and keep a good pace. I told
myself often that I was doing a really good job."

Louie said that seeing people from all backgrounds come together
in support of the runners was one of the most rewarding aspects of
running in the marathon.

"Everyone from 5-year-olds to the elderly came out of their
houses to give us fruit and cheer us on," Louie said.

Neither the male nor female winners were American. Costa Rican
Jose Luis Molina won in two hours, 13 minutes and 23 seconds,
beating his country’s best time by one minute, 10 seconds. The
female winner was Ukranian Lyubov Klochko, who won in 2:30:30.

… You don’t have to be … a diehard runner, to … put your
strength and stamina to the test.

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