It was a cloudless Friday morning, perfect for running, as Lorenzo Hopson ran the 26.2 miles San Quentin Marathon in 3:34:59, three minutes off his record time a year ago.
“I feel good, the body is good,” said Hopson, age 59. “I’ve run 215.4 miles in these Adidas as of today. It’s the first time I’ve run this distance in these shoes,” he said smiling.
The 1,000 Mile Club began at San Quentin in 2005. “I was asked by Laura Bowman to help out, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” said Frank Ruona, coach of the team.
Kevin Rumon set a brisk pace for faster runners, while Laura Richard, a Prison University Project tutor, set a nine- minute pace for average runners. Don Lindsey and Jill Freeman, a former distance runner herself, kept track of runner’s times and handed out fluids. “You have to be able to handle rejection when it comes to passing out fluids,” she said as some of the runners passed on drinking early. “They’ll feel it later on because they didn’t hydrate early.”
Runners were dropping salt pills and drinking fluids after about an hour of running in the Nov. 15 event. Bill Sullivan, 59, pulled out of the race due to a previous muscle tear in his calf. “I needed more time to heal,” he said. “When you get a little older, the muscles take more time to heal.”
Larry Ford, 57, who trained for a year for the run, pulled a tendon in his right leg in mile 5, and dropped out of the race in mile 7. Ford stayed around to help encourage other runners.
When it came to race day’s marathon, no one could compete with Hopson. “At his age, he is doing excellent,” said Coach Ruona.