Thousands compete in marathon

Published October 10, 2016

Their reasons for running are as varied as their fields of study. Graduate student Emily Colville runs because she can after being limited early in life because of childhood asthma. Music professor John Barcellona uses running to ward off the same fate as his father and uncle, both of whom died of heart disease.

And Sunook Park first laced up a pair of running shoes after a bout of digestive problems sent him to the doctors, who advised diet and exercise. The College of Design professor has dropped 25 pounds since taking up long-distance running.

While their motivation might differ, the three Cal State Long Beach faculty and staff members had the same goal in Sunday’s Jet Blue Long Beach Marathon races – to cross the finish line. They were among the estimated 35,000 runners that ran through the city streets and the CSULB campus.

As student volunteers and spectators cheered them on, all three succeeded in finishing. Colville ran a time of two hours, eight minutes in the half-marathon, while Barcellona finished the full 26.2-mile race in 6:12 and Park in 4:12.

Leaving past behind

Colville, a graduate student in business administration, ran her first Long Beach Marathon in 1999, testing her stamina in the longer distances. Today, she has run more than 20 marathons, an impressive accomplishment for someone who used to have to be excused from recess.

“I was born with asthma, so for me I couldn’t do any activity,” said Colville, who is the executive assistant to the Dean in the College of The Arts. “That happened until I was 12. Then I realized when I was in middle school that I was able to run without gasping for air.

“Now, I do it to remind myself that I can do it. I think it’s also the fact I can push myself. Knowing I could finish a marathon or half-marathon is a pretty good achievement.”

Colville counts the Long Beach marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon and the Boston Marathon among her greatest running achievements.

Heart for running

You could line a marathon course with Barcellona’s long running resume. Talk about achievements. He has run 74 marathons, including the Long Beach Marathon, the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach numerous times, and the inaugural Los Angeles Marathon in 1986. 

Yet his introduction into running was more about not dying than winning medals.

“My father passed away of a heart attack at 56 and his brother at 43, so I saw the hand writing on the wall,” Barcellona said. “I saw a news report shortly after my father died that said they had done a study of the finishers of the Boston Marathon (in the late 70s) and they said that there were almost no cases of death by heart disease by the finishers. So I said that one day I’m going to get around to running a marathon.”

Barcellona, 69, hasn’t stopped running, especially after discovering an additional benefit to logging dozens of miles each week. As his physical fitness improved, so did his flute playing because of his increased lung capacity.

“It brought it to another level, so I kept it up,” he said.

For years, Barcellona used the Long Beach Marathon to raise money for the woodwinds department. He switched his fund-raising efforts to the Surf Marathon when the Long Beach race was temporarily canceled. Over the past 30 years, Barcellona has raised more than $100,000 for the music program.

Healthy start

By comparison, Park is a relative newbie to marathon running. He only started running five years ago and participated in 14 marathons.

“I wasn’t into it very heavily at first,” he said.

Yet the more he ran, Park began to realize the health benefits and a noticeable drop in both his weight and race times. He was hooked.

“I would encourage running to everybody,” Park said. “Marathon running is such an accomplishment. It’s really not that hard. I think I’m just making it really difficult for me because I’m greedy. I want to beat my neighbor and everyone like that.”

He had not run much in a month after traveling to Korea to take care of his sick mother, who later died.

“Running is good for stress, because whatever stress you (have) gets blown away,” he said.