Henry Didden and Kayla Clayton Celebrate the Fourth of July by Winning the Will Rogers 5K in Venice
By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
I n his 2002 novel “ I Am the Messenger” Australian author Markus Zusak famously wrote: “It’s not the place, I think. It’s the people.”
Last Friday, the annual Palisades Will Rogers Run did not take place at its usual location but that did not deter more than one thousand runners from waking up early, hopping in their cars and driving seven miles to Venice Beach to keep a proud 48-year holiday tradition alive.
When the Palisades Fire laid waste to much of the Huntington and Riviera neighborhoods in January, race organizers Thomas Hathaway, James Klein and their talented team did not give up hope of hosting the town’s annual Fourth of July race. It got canceled for two years during COVID and rather than deprive the community of its biggest celebration of the year again they explored the feasibility of staging the event at an alternate site and using the proceeds to rebuild the Palisades Recreation Center (where the race starts and ends) and the Village. They mapped out a comparable course, applied for permits and proved the adage “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Longtime Palisadians Jimmy Dunne and Sam Lagana reprised their roles as race announcers and spouted race history and trivia. “You’d better be fast if you’re doing two laps,” Lagana joked, reminding participants that there was only a 5K.
While runners congregated at the starting line on Ocean Front Walk, City Councilwoman Traci Park had a message for her constituents. “I know things feel a little different,” she said. “But continue sticking together and we’ll fully recover.”
A moment of silence was observed for first responders and those who losy their lives in the Fire, then four members of the Blue Eagles Honor Guard presented the colors and Mia Ruhman, back by popular demand, sang a flawless rendition of the national anthem in her soprano voice. The 22-year-old, who just graduated from UCLA, grew up on Muskingum Avenue and attended Pali Elementary and Palisades High. She wrote and stars in a pop opera titled “Nannerl” about the life of Mozart’s older sister, which premiered June 5 in Santa Monica. Ruhman sang the Star-Spangled Banner at last year’s Will Rogers Run but her encore performance was even better.
Then, the field of 1,094 registered runners was sent on its way. Fifteen and a half minutes later, Henry Didden made the final turn onto Windward Avenue from Pacific and sprinted the last 50 yards to the finish.
It was the third Will Rogers win in a row for the 21-year-old from Woodland Hills, who won the 10K the previous two years.
This victory, though, was extra special. He dedicated the race to his grandfather who just passed away and his grandmother just moved back into her home in the Highlands.
“I registered at the last minute… I run this every year to support the Palisades,” Didden said. “My uncle and my dad hosed eveyrthing down and saved the house. All of their neighbors’ houses burned.”
Didden is used to the grueling Will Rogers Park switchbacks and found the flat street course in Venice much easier. The route was 3.2 miles (one-tenth of a mile longer than a 5K, yet even with the added distance he clocked 15:39—the fastest winning time since 2009 when Ravi Amarawansa clocked 15:13. The 5K standard of 14:10 was set in 2003 by Peter Gilmore, a 1995 Pali High graduate who went on to star at UC Berkeley and won his hometown race a record eight times.
“I didn’t miss the hill up to the polo field, that’s tough,” Didden confessed. “I’m just happy to be out here. I’m training at altitude in Mammoth Lakes.”
Didden will be entering his senior year at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, where he ran a personal-best 29:34 for the 10K at a home meet in April. He won the Palisades Will Rogers 10K in 34:04 in 2023 and repeated in 32:46 last July. He was first in his age group in 2019 and 2022.
Coming in second, 11 seconds behind Didden, was 30-year-old Michael Mrgudic of Modesto and Loyola High junior Ernesto Jalomo was third in 16:03.
Mitchell Majors, who was third overall in the Will Rogers 10K last year (36:07)shortly after graduating from Paul Revere Middle School, took sixth last Friday in 16:33, good enough to win his age group. The 15-year-old just finished his freshman year at Viewpoint, where he PR’d in 15:30.8 for three miles in November at the Gold Coast League cross country finals.
Thanks to Zach Cohen (fourth in 16:11), Andrew Razo seventh in 16:41) and Owen Lewicky (eighth in 16:47), Pali High won the Dick Lemen Perpetual Trophy, awarded to the school with the lowest team score. Two more Dolphins, Theo Mayeda and Ethan Funk rounded out the top 10 (both in 16:55) and 48-year-old Brian Duff, who won the Palisades Will Rogers 5K in 2008 and the inaugural Palisades Lutheran 5K in 2021, was 13th overall and first in the men’s 45-49 category in 17:10.
A pair of familiar faces at the finish line belonged to Larry Meyer and Tonny Okello.
Meyer has run the event every year but one since it debuted in 1978, and he always wears the t-shirt from the inaugural race. He finished in 56:41 this time.
“My wife knows to hand wash as it only comes out once a year,” said the 78-year-old from Glendale, who ran the 10K for the first 40 years before switching to the 5K. “In fact, this shirt is 14 days older than my daughter Serena, who ran the Great Wall of China Marathon with me 20 years ago.”
Okello decided to run three days earlier and why not? The 41-year old Ugandan now lives in Mar Vista and runs to Venice and back all the time. He won the Palisades Will Rogers 10K a record five times in a row from 2014-18.
“[Santa Monica Track Club coach] Joe Douglas told me about it and I thought why not?” Okello said. “I still run but not competitively. In fact, the last race I ran was the Palisades 5K last July 4. I wanted to break 20 minutes today and I did.”
Okello finished 28th overall and second in his age group in 18:58 after coming in 20th in 18:39 on the Palisades 5K course in both 2023 and 2024.
The temperature was ideal (73 degrees) and despite the different location and the absence of the 10K (one of the most popular in California), the race was well attended. Last year it drew 2,470 runners (1,828 in the 5K and 642 in the 10K)—the biggest field since the event resumed in 2022 following a two-year hiatus.
Winning the women’s race and placing 24th overall in 18:43 was Kayla Clayton, a 25-year-old from Salinas who ran alongside her boyfriend Asher Low.
“We met right after the fires,” said Clayton, a former track and cross country runner at Southern Oregon. “I’m in graduate school in Monterey and we made the trip down last night. I mostly run marathons. We were just trying to run under 19 [minutes].”
Low grew up in the Alphabet Streets and went to Pali Elementary, Paul Revere and spent one year at Pali High before graduating from Harvard-Westlake. He went to the University of Wisconsin, then grad school at Pepperdine, where he was the public address announcer.
“I took Sam [Lagana’s] job,” he joked. “If the Rams position opens up tell him to give me a call.”
Low was set to transfer up north when tragedy struck in January, but the twist of fate had a happy ending.
“I was in Santa Monica and was set to relocate in February but my lease was up in December, so I moved back in with my parents temporarily and that’s when the fire came,” he recalled. “We lost our home on Fiske that my dad bought in 1992. When I was born I was brought home from the hospital to that house. Had it happened a few weeks earlier or a few weeks later I wouldn’t have lost any of my stuff.”
Low, a project manager in hotel management, followed through on his plan anyway.
“I met Kayla at a Monday night running club the second week I moved there,” he said. “Now we’re dating.”
Right behind Clayton was Phoebe Benun, last year’s 5K champion, who graduated from Santa Monica High last month and will continue her track career at Yale.
“I miss the hills in the Palisades, they make the the course more interesting but I liked being by the ocean and starting early,” said Benun, who promptly left to watch the Santa Monica Parade and then the fireworks show at the LA Galaxy game. “I was just running for fun and trying to keep up with her Clayton) and watching out for people crossing the street ahead. This is one of my favorite races and I plan to come again next year.”
Nine-year-old Greyson Mallen won the Kids’ Fun Run, which was 0.65 miles, slightly longer than the half-mile loop in the Palisades. He was so far ahead that he ran the last 50 yards backwards, stumbled and fell, but got up in plenty of time to cross the finish line first.
He has grown up running the race and also enjoys basketball, soccer, skateboarding and boogie boarding. Joining him in the Fun Run was his sister Saydee (7) while his parents Blake and Karis ran the 5K. They lost their Highlands home in the fire and are now renting in Venice.

—— Click on any photo below to view slide show ——
by himself at the finish line of the Kids’ Fun Run
last Friday morning in Venice.
begin the 27th annual Kids’ Fun Run on a slightly longer course than the one in the Palisades.
the relocated 5K in 18:58.
18:54 after winning last year.
from Modesto, came in second.
the first Will Rogers race in 1978.