Student finishes 39th in Los Angeles Marathon

By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Staff

Fourth-year UCLA political science and communication studies
student Matthew Wise finished 39th out of 22,000 runners Sunday at
the Los Angeles Marathon.

Wise set his target time low, but even he was surprised by his
2:45:48 time.

“I was shooting for a sub-2:50 time, but then I started to
think about the new course changes that made the course a lot
faster,” Wise said. “But I didn’t start to shoot
for 2:45 until a couple of days before the marathon.”

The 26.2 mile scamper around the greater Los Angeles area was a
memorable one for Wise, who ran cross country and track at
Moraga’s Campolindo High School.

Well, at least the first 24 miles or so were memorable.

“I fell off in the last six miles after a sub-six minute
mile pace, but I’m not really sure what happened after
that,” he said. “I blacked out and don’t remember
the last two miles or so.”

Luckily for Wise, his family made the trek down from the Bay
Area for support ““ literally.

“My little sister was running on the sideline alongside me
for the last mile or mile and a half,” Wise said. “At
one point I stumbled and felt unstable, but she ran out and
stabilized me.

“She probably wasn’t supposed to do that because
she’s not a race official, but it was the sweetest
gesture.”

Stephen Ndugu of Kenya won the race for the second consecutive
year with a time of 2:10:27. Kenyans took the top five men’s
spots.

Wise would like to run in the Boston Marathon, which is
considered the United States’ most prestigious marathon.

To do it, he’ll once again have to subject himself to a
taxing training regimen. For the L.A. Marathon, Wise trained for 10
weeks, beginning at 40 and eventually working his way up to 60
miles per week. As of Monday morning, he was still recovering, but
in far better shape than hours after the race, when he we hooked up
to an IV and couldn’t keep food down.

Wise will also have to start thinking about where to attend law
school. He’s been admitted to Columbia and to
Berkeley’s Boalt Law School, with letters from UCLA and
Harvard due soon.

But that’s all secondary for Wise to the sight of friends
and family coming out in support of his stellar finish.

“My prevalent feeling after this was that I was amazed at
the support I got from everyone,” Wise said. “It was
really inspirational.”