The Long Beach community joined together yesterday to cheer on the expected 25,000 participants of the Long Beach International City Bank Marathon.
The event consisted of three possible routes for runners as well as a 26-mile route for cyclists.
John Parks, executive vice president of marketing for Run Racing – who helped orchestrate the run – said that three years ago, marathon organizers worked in conjunction with Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander to change the route of the run, ultimately incorporating the CSULB campus into miles 17, 18 and19.
Parks said he finds that the marathon participants normally hit exhaustion around mile 20, but the energy that the CSULB students bring makes a huge difference.
“The feedback we receive from runners going through CSULB is amazing,” Parks said.
Alvin Van, a senior business accounting major and president of the Information Systems Student Association, was along the route doing jumping jacks, fists pumps and leg kicks to motivate the passing runners.
Van said he chose to come out and support the runners because he gets a thrill from watching the marathon.
Nicolaus Coleman, a sophomore bio-physiology major, said he participated in the marathon for the mental and physical challenges it presents. This was Coleman’s second marathon.
“You’re running through a three hour event … you have a lot of time to think about things,” Coleman said.
Associated Students, Inc. President John Haberstroh, who also took part in the marathon, said it took him 16 weeks, running 35 to 50 miles each week, to train for the marathon. He said his body kept cramping up for the last three miles of the run.
“I was just trying to get to the finish line,” Haberstroh said.
Along the route, numerous CSULB students, including members of the President’s Ambassadors Program, dressed up as superheroes and lined University Drive, South Campus Drive and Merriam Way to cheer on runners as they passed by.
“You trained for this longer than Kim Kardasian was married,” read a sign held by junior communications studies major Dakota Sandras and senior liberal studies major Jessica Palacils.
This year marked Long Beach’s 28th marathon, according to Parks.
“It’s amazing to watch people as they cross the finish line,” Parks said. “Some are stumbling as they make it in and start crying immediately. It’s just amazing to watch.”