Modesto city leaders:Open your eyes to the marathon

The city of Modesto continues to look for the next great sporting event that city leaders hope will put the town on the map.

There has been the Amgen Tour of California multi-stage bike race and this year, the SuperKarts USA races Aug. 1-3.

Wake up city leaders!

All you need to do is look right in your backyard at the city's largest sporting event that's been going on for five years now. Unlike Amgen, it's not fickle and won't leave town just because another town offers more money or race organizers want to go to more populace areas along the coast.

In case you haven't guessed it, the city's largest sporting event is the Modesto Marathon. This year it's planned for March 23.

Not only does the event involve more than 3,000 runners, but many of these runners are from out of town and stay overnight in a hotel. They also eat dinner, pumping more money into restaurants.

It was born here in Modesto and wasn't some idea from a national organization, such as Temecula-based SuperKarts USA.

In the case of the SuperKarts races, the city will have to fork out $268,000 to entice the event. And in their overly optimistic view, city leaders think they'll net $50,000 profits. But that's a big risk they're taking with taxpayers' money.

In the case of the Modesto Marathon, the event does not get any city subsidies.

Plus the marathon, the half-marathon and the 5K enhance the city's image as being out of shape, lethargic and the nation's most dismal place to live (as Forbes ranked Modesto). Modesto was rated as the nation's most unfit city in the nation in 2004 by Self magazine.

Someone needs to pour a bucket of cold water over city leaders to wake them up to the Modesto Marathon and what it brings to the city.

If you'd like to participate, either as a runner or a volunteer, visit www.modestomarathon.com.

Barbara Elia goes for 100th marathon

Modesto's Barbara Elia, who turned 68 in October, will be going for her 100th marathon Dec. 2 at the California International Marathon (CIM) in Sacramento.

Elia has been compared to the Energizer Bunny in that she just keeps going and going and going.

She can be seen logging miles on the roads around Modesto during the summer's heat or the winter's fog.

Elia is an accomplished ultra-marathoner, having completed three times the Badwater Ultra, a 145-mile run through Death Valley during the heat of summer.

She also is a veteran of several Western States 100-mile endurance runs as well as CIM.

Good luck Barbara.

Each to his or her own

There are some who say that you're not a "real" runner unless you've completed a marathon.

Most of the time, this opinion is expressed by someone who focuses on the longer distances and not the shorter ones.

And I beg to differ with them.

Each distance, whether it's a 5K, a 10K or beyond, takes a different type of training. And each carries with it a different type of pain and suffering.

If you blow away a 5K in 18 minutes, are you a better runner than someone who takes 6-plus hours to complete a marathon?

Are you less of a runner if you complete a marathon barely under the cutoff compared to someone who runs a sub-3-hour pace?

Each person tends to have a picture of what a runner is in his or her mind.

Don't burst their bubble.

It might be that the best runner of all—or at least the smartest—is the one who keeps his or her mouth shut if the subject comes up.