Palisadians Cut Ribbons at Will Rogers Run

The 34th annual Palisades-Will Rogers Run on Fourth of July morning produced two first-time winners and two repeat winners, yet everyone who participated in one of Pacific Palisades' proudest traditions was worthy of a medal on a hot but patriotic day.

Claire Nordstrom, who attended Village School and is entering ninth grade at Harvard-Westlake High, delivered a stirring rendition of the national anthem. Then a community prayer was offered by Monsignor Liam Kidney, pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church, right across the street from the finish line at the Palisades Recreation Center.

Then, it was new Honorary Mayor Sugar Ray Leonard's turn to step to the podium.

"God bless to everyone," said the retired Hall-of-Fame boxer, who had run the 5K the previous couple of years. "Let's have a great time. This is the best neighborhood in the world."

Moments later, Leonard fired the starting gun and the runners packed like sardines at the entrance to the Rec Center began to make their way east on Alma Real Drive, with the theme song from Rocky, "Gonna Fly Now," blaring over the loudspeaker.

First through the chute was lifelong Palisadian Andrew Bland, a senior-to-be at Loyola High School, who ran the 5K in 15:52, a personal-best by two seconds. Bland finished second overall and first in the 16-18 division in 16:40 last year and won the 13-15 division in 17:34 as a ninth-grader in 2009. 

"I've only had about one week of training for this, so I'm glad I was able to do it," said the 17-year-old Palisades Highlands resident, who ran with third-place finisher Jared Jones, a teammate on Loyola's track team. "We've had practice [at school] everyday, so I don't run around here too much during the season, but I've done this course before so I'm familiar with it."

Few know the route better than fellow Palisadian Kara Barnard, who won the women's 10K for the fifth time in 37:12. Now a resident of Durango, Colorado, she had arrived back home two days earlier to celebrate her father's birthday and didn't decide to run until Sunday night.

"I try to convince myself I'm not going to do it, but how can I resist?" said Barnard, a key contributor on Palisades High's City championship cross country team in 1994 who went on to run both track and cross country at UCLA. "It's fun, everyone is so encouraging and I run into so many people that I know."

Barnard, who turns 33 on Thursday, has won her hometown race a record 10 times--moving her two victories ahead of fellow Pali High graduate Peter Gilmore, who won the 5K eight times from 1995-06. Barnard now has five wins at each of the two distances and Monday's clocking was her third-fastest on the local course.

Her best 10K effort was in 2004 when she covered the 6.2 miles through Will Rogers State Historic Park in 35:24--the fourth-fastest by a female in race history. Her best 5K time was 16:50 in 2000.

Barnard needs one more 10K victory to equal the record of six set by Katie Dunsmuir over a 14-year period from 1982-95. Barnard ran the Los Angeles Marathon in 2:58:58 on March 20, finishing 21st out of 7,839 women.

Therese Fricke is also getting accustomed to winning. She was the first woman to break the tape on Monday, completing the 3.1-mile trek through Huntington Palisades streets in 18:24 for her third 5K victory. The 38-year-old Santa Monica Track Club runner also won it in 2005 and 2009.

"This is my best time here so I guess I'm getting faster as I get older," Fricke joked. "I wanted to get under 18 [minutes] but I felt the heat in the middle of the race. I was running with all the Fluffy Bunny [Track Club] guys when a girl suddenly passed me, but soon I realized she was running the 10K."

The men's 10K winner was Ironman triathlete Jim Lubinski, who ran a 5:15 minutes-per-mile pace to win in 32:35. Lubinski last ran the race in 2005, shortly after moving to Los Angeles from Chicago.

"I trained right into this race," said Lubinski, 32, who ran a half marathon in one hour, 10 minutes last month in San Diego. "This is a good test of my speed and fitness. This is a tough course and I tried to push on the downhills to make up for the time lost going up the switchbacks."

Bland's younger brother Matthew, going into eighth grade at Corpus Christi School, also ran the 5K and finished ninth in the 13-15 age group in 24 minutes flat.

Palisades High senior-to-be Grant Stromberg won his age group and finished third overall in the 10K in 34:21 and teammate Austin Gelber was third in the 16-18 division in 40:55. Two other Dolphins runners--sophomore Matthew Kato and brother Kevin, an incoming freshman, finished first and third in the 13-15 division.

"I beat my time [35:34] and place [fifth] from last year, so I'm happy about that," said Stromberg, who finished second in the 3,200 meters at the City Section Track & Field Championships in May. "My goals for cross country are to finish first in City, for our team to win City and for me to place in the top 10 in the state meet."

Kevin Purcell, who ran with Fluffy Bunnies teammates and two-time winners Tyson Sacco and David Olds, came in second in the 10K in 33:17 after having won it for the second time last year in 33:39.

"He got most of his lead in the first mile," Purcell said of Lubinski. "I tried to reel him in late but he's strong. I've done well over the years. I won last time, got second or third the year before and won the year before that, so I'm on a good run."

There were 2,471 runners in this year's race, 1,490 in the 5K and 981 in the 10K. The field included 1,142 Palisadians.

A Kids' Fun Run followed the 5/10K races, a half-mile course starting and ending at the Rec Center.

Click here for complete results, broken down by age group, city, gender, and bib number.

Click here for more images of Monday's Palisades-Will Rogers 5/10K Run.