By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Thanks to effort and ingenuity on the part of many dedicated Palisadians, this year’s Fourth of July celebration will begin the way it has for more than four decades: with a hometown race. Perhaps the community’s most patriotic holiday tradition was canceled the previous two summers because of the coronavirus pandemic, however the popular Palisades Will Rogers 5 & 10K Run returns Monday morning and up to several thousand participants are expected to be registered by the time the starting gun is fired at 8:15 a.m. at the entrance to the Palisades Recreation Center.
Long regarded as one of the most challenging road courses in California, the 10K race was founded by Brian Shea, Chris Carlson and Bill Klein, members of a local early-morning jogging group called the Ridge Runners. Shea (who served as event director until this year) and Carlson came up with the idea of the race while eating lunch on the grass along San Vicente after running the Brentwood 10K on Memorial Day in 1977. The two mapped out a course, cut through red tape to obtain the necessary city and state permits and in 1978 the Palisades Will Rogers 10K was run for the first time, with a law student from Virginia by the name of Drew Mearns winning the inaugural route through the grueling switchbacks of Will Rogers State Historic Park. The 5K through Huntington streets became part of the race in 1986 and a half-mile Kids’ Fun Run was added 10 years after that.
The last time this race took place in 2019, over 3,300 runners signed up—one of the largest fields in the event’s annals. Thomas Hathaway has taken the reins and he and his tireless team are hoping to see a similar turnout for the 43rd running of a race locals have grown to love.
There will be no pace car to lead the runners this year, but the familiar voice of longime PPBA Commissioner Bob Benton and Buddy Jacobs will announce the race, Harvard-Westlake High senior Kate Hassett will sing the national anthem and Providence Saint John’s Health Center CEO Michael Ricks will be the race’s official starter. Hathaway and his wife Dalena are avid runners themselves and have been heavily involved in the race for over a decade now.
Leading up to the local race’s 35th anniverary in 2012 the 10K course was re-measured, lengthened some 427 feet and received USATF Certification. As of 2015 the 5K route is also certified.
As the saying goes it takes a village and an army of local volunteers have assisted with various aspects of Monday’s event, including the Kids’ Fun Run at 9:30 a.m., a half-mile route that starts and finishes on Alma Real.
Runners of all ages and abilities are eager to test themselves on one of the hardest 6.2-mile races in California. As usual, the start and finish lines and splits for miles one, two and three are in the same locations as always, and the break-off between the 5K and 10K courses still occurs on northbound Toyopa (5K runners keep left, 10K runners keep right), just before making a right turn onto Drummond. Once at Sunset, 5K runners turn left and hug the eastbound curb as 10K runners turn right to continue down the hill to Will Rogers and back. At Carey, 5K runners turn left and proceed to Toyopa, where they turn left and make a U-turn prior to Drummond and return on the opposite side of Toyopa to the finish line. Traffic cones will divide the courses.
In 1983, Russell Edmonds of New Zealand set the still-standing men’s 10K race record of 29:46 and no one has broken 30 minutes since. That same year, Katie Dunsmuir, who had just graduated from Palisades High, set the women’s record of 35:09. A cross country and track star for the Dolphins, she first won it in 1982 and would go on to win four straight times from 1992-95 for a total of six, including four of the top 10 fastest times ever among females.
Peter Gilmore, who grew up on Via De La Paz, set the men’s 5K record of 14:10 in 2003 and the closest any man has come to breaking it was Gilmore himself the next year when he clocked 14:12. In fact, only five people have gone under 15 minutes and only Gilmore (who did it seven times) has done so more than once. Annetta Luevano set the women’s 5K record of 16:29 in 1995. The second-fastest time was two years prior by Santa Monica High track coach Tania Fischer, who won the Palisades Turkey Trot 5K from 2014-18.
In 2013, Gilmore was back in the Palisades visiting his parents, Ed and Rita, and decided to give the 10K a try. He finished sixth overall and second in the 35-39 age group in 35:56. At the age of 40, he returned for the 40th edition in 2017 and took first place in his age group and eighth overall in the 5K.
While Gilmore is the undisputed 5K king, no one has more overall victories (11) than fellow Palisadian Kara Barnard. A 1996 Pali High graduate, she helped the Dolphins claim the City Section girls cross country championship in 1994 and went on to run cross country and track at UCLA. She won the 5K five times (with three of the 10 best women’s times) and the 10K six times to establish herself as the all-time queen.
In 2018, Santa Monica Track Club member Tonny Okello, a native of Lira, Uganda, became the first five-time 10K men’s champion and the only runner—male or female— to win it five straight times.
The last 10K in 2019 was won by Fluffy Bunny Track Club’s Cosmo Brossy while triathlete Caitlin Crisman was the leading lady.Palisadian Natalie Gigg won the women’s 5K.
Pre-registered runners can pick up their packets at the Rec Center tent from 10-4 on Saturday and Sunday. Register online at palisades10k.com. The fee is $65 through July 3 and $70 on race day. Cost for the Fun Run is $30. Race day registration is from 6:30-8 a.m.
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