On April 7, long-time runner and coach of the San Quentin 1,000 Mile Club, Frank Ruona, clocked in a time of 3:47:18 in the annual Paris Marathon. At age 67, he finished 23rd for his age category.
“Corrals are established by qualifying times and age group,” said Ruona. “I competed in the 3:03 corral, which is a 65 to 69 age group.”
While running pass some famous French landmarks like The Bastil, Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris and the Tour Eiffel, Ruona maintained a steady pace throughout the race.
Of the 40,000 runners, Ruona finished ahead of more than 36,000 other marathoners.
In Ruona’s corral, Claude Besnard, 60 came in first place with a time of 3:15:05.
Ruona said running marathons takes practice. “I train long-distance pacing runs to get comfortable with an eight minute per mile pace for 26.2 miles.”
Ruona credits his performance to his experiences he learned while coaching San Quentin’s 1,000 Mile Club.
“If you qualify for Boston, you qualify for New York, Berlin, Austria and most other marathon races,” said Ruona. “Running is a good way to meet people,” adding “Many international runners were amazed with me advising men to run marathons inside San Quentin.”
Crossing the finish line first at Porte Dauphine near the Arc De Triomphe was a fast Kenyon runner Peter Some with a time of 2:05:38. Second place went to Ethiopian, Tadese Tola in a time of 2:06:33. Third was Kenyon, Eric Ndiema at 2:06:34.
