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Henry Didden and Laura Osman Repeat as 10K Champions in 47th Annual Palisades Will Rogers Run

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Upon winning the Palisades Will Rogers 10K last July 4, both Henry Didden and Laura Osman expressed a desire to return this year and defend their titles. That mission was accomplished last Thursday as they not only prevailed again but vastly improved their times—proof that familiarity makes a difference on one of the most difficult courses in California.

“It was harder, but I hammered up the hills to try to distance myself from whoever was behind me,” the 20-year-old Didden said shortly after crossing the finish line in 32:46 to win by 19 seconds. The Woodland Hills resident took first in his age group in 2019 and 2022 and clocked 34:04 to win the 6.2-mile race to Will Rogers State park and back for the first time last summer when he won it by 55 seconds. The Viewpoint High graduate just completed his sophomore track season at Bucknell University, placing eighth  in the 5000 meters in 14:32.15 at the IC4A/ECAC Outdoor Championships in Fairfax, Virginia in May.

Osman, a 43-year-old mother of three from Encino, was the leading lady and 16th overall in 38:36—a 23-second improvement from 2023.

“My training has been better and I know the course, having run it once before,” Osman said. “I was in the lead by the one-mile mark and there were no other women around me.  I wanted to give my best with a mile left but I thought ‘don’t try to push on the switchbacks knowing I have to come back up the hill on Sunset.”

Didden became the first male to repeat since Tonny Okello won the last of his record five straight 10Ks in 2018 while Osman was the first female to go back-to-back since hometown girl Kara Barnard won three in a row from 2010 to 2012

The only other time in the event’s 47-year history that the men’s and women’s 10K champions both repeated in the same year was back in 1981 when Charles Gray and Teresa Haro defended their titles. Both 10K records were set in 1983—by New Zealander Russell Edmonds (29:46) and Palisades High graduate Katie Dunsmuir (35:09).

David Olds, the 10K winner in 1993 in 32:13, turned back the clock to take first place in the 60-64 age division with a 41:29 effort this year.

Placing third in his age division in 41:59 was 53-year-old Darren Wald and right behind him was 48-year-old Sean Whiteley, who was fourth in the 45-49 age group in 42:02. Two years ago, the friends finished side by side in the 100-mile Stagecoach Ultra Run from Flagstaff, Arizona to the Grand Canyon.

Having just wrapped up a stellar freshman track season at Brentwood School, 15-year-old Alphabet Streets resident Amelia Sarkisian topped her age division in 46:22, a little more than five minutes behind older brother and NYU grad  Wyatt.    

Fresh off being named valedictorian at Harvard-Westlake High, El Medio Bluffs resident Leo Craig was third in the 16-18 age category in 38:15. He was third overall in the 10K last year and won the Palisades Lutheran Church 5K in October.   

While the other boys his age were warming up for  the half-mile Kids’ Fun Run later that morning, 7-year-old Philip Devkar was showing age is only a number. The youngest 10K   competitor, he finished the race in 1:02:46 while his 9-year-old sister Vivienne won her age group  in 1:09:03. Max Wagner, 11, won the male 10-12 division in 1:01:05.          

The misty 76-degree morning was ideal for running, perhaps one  reason this year’s edition attracted 2,470 runners (1,828 in the 5K and 642 in the 10K)—the biggest field since the race resumed in 2022 following a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Announcers Sam Lagana and Jimmy Dunne kept the crowd entertained  before actor and 37-year resident Steve Guttenberg, with Bib No. 1304 pinned to his t-shirt, stated: “If you’re rich you live in Beverly Hills. If you’re famous you live in Malibu. If you’re lucky you live in Pacific Palisades!”

While runners packed the starting line on Alma Real Drive just before 8:15 a.m., Lagana handed the microphone to Mia Ruhman, a 21-year-old classical singer and composer who is studying music composition at UCLA. The lifelong Palisadian confidently delivered a beautiful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner—drawing  thunderous applause from the fast- growing gathering at the Palisades Recreation Center parking lot.

The runners were sent on their way through Huntington streets and 16 minutres later, 22-year-old Gus Marshall rounded the last turn on Toyopa. He sprinted under the banner in 15:40—the fastest 5K time since the course was  lengthened by approximately one-tenth of a mile to gain USATF certification in 2015. A cross country and track runner at UC Santa Barbara, Marshall is no stranger to the Palisades race. His family  lives in Brentwood and he had run the 5K prevously on five or six occasions though not nearly as swiftly as he did this time.

“I like the course, the atmosphere is amazing” said the Loyola High alum and Economics major whose father Douglas played football at Pali High before joining the UCLA rugby team. “There’s a challenging downhill at the beginning, then an uphill stretch and that first mile can really make it or ruin it for you.”     

In second place, 14 seconds behind the winner, was Pali High’s Blake Sigworth, who was also runner-up to teammate Max Fields  in the City 3200-meter finals May 17.    

It marked the third straight year that a Palisades runner placed second in the 5K (Fields was second in 2022 and 2023).     

Incredibly, 10 of the next 18 5K runners represented Loyola, which retained the Dick Lemen Trophy awarded to the high school team based on aggregate score of each progam’s top three runners. Pacing the Cubs’ contingent were Aaron Pavon (16:02) and Ernesto Jalomo (16:11), who finished third and fourth, respectively, for the second consecuitve year.          

Coming in seventh and topping the 45-49 division in 16:55 was Brian Duff, who won the Will Rogers 5K in 16:49 in 2008, took second in 2019 in 17:05, was seventh two years ago in 17:20 and won the inaugural Palisades Lutheran Church 5K in 2021.   

The ever-smiling Okello, who turned 40 the day after Christmas, finished in the exact position (20th) in the exact time (18:39) as he did last year when he tried the 5K for the first time. This year he was also first in his age group.

The first female and 25th overall in 19:13 was Santa Monica High distance runner Phoebe Benun, who beat runner-up Caitlin Chrisman (the 10K winner in 2019 and runner-up in 2018) by 29 seconds.     

Having just wrapped up her junior track season at Samo, the 17-year-old chose to give up soccer about a  year ago to concentrate on running and is happy with her decision.

“I’ve run this a few times before and I got second two years ago,” she said. “I like how the whole community comes out and cheers. I’d like to come back next year and see if I can win again.”     

Both 5K records are safe for yet another year. Peter Gilmore, a 1995 Pali High graduate, won it a record eight times, setting the standard of 14:10 in 2003 on the slightly shorter route while Annetta Luevano’s 16:29 clocking in 1995 remains the   time to chase for the women.   

Pali High swimming alum Darby Green (Class of 2020), who won the 5K two years ago in 19:46 and was third among women last summer, took first in the female 19-29 age group this year in 19:55.

Maya Hively, who just graduated from Paul Revere Middle School,  won the girls’ 13-15 division for the second straight year in 20:49; Savannah Moore ran the 3.1 miles in 20:58 to top the 10-12 age group; 11-year-old Ally Humby (24:13) was a split second ahead of 13-year-old sister Mila (13) while their dad, retired kickboxing champion and proud Palisadian Baxter Humby, was 28th in the male 50-54 division in 30:23.

Former Harvard-Westlake, Gene’s Team and Yale volleyball standout Jessica Kronstadt was first in the  40-44 age group and 20th overall  among females in 25 minutes flat.     

Several local males also led their divisions in the 5K. Recent Revere grads Micah Martin-Price (17:22) and Theo Mayeda (17:23) were the top two placers in the 13-15 category; Jace Hansen, a member of the Pali Co-Rec Minor Basketball team that won the West Region title in March,  clocked 25:11 to win the 9-and-under division. 

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